For the record, I knew Kenneth Frampton in the early 1960s. He was of Brethren extraction and was a great grandson of Edward Petter (1832-1910) the acquisition of whose letters by the CBA was reported in an article by Clive Frampton, (one of KPF's several sons) in the Brethren Historical Review xii (2016). KPF and his wife Pauline founded the Deo Gloria Trust and supported many evangelistic efforts like 'Christians in Sport" and "You Need Christ". He died in 1988 and his son Clive (who was, many years ago, a close friend of mine) died in 2017. A less sectarian family I cannot imagine! Timothy Stunt
I have noticed the letters briefly before, and I copied a few extracts from them here; https://www.brethrenarchive.org/site/forums/letters-of-edward-petter/, but yeah I think there is probably lot of interesting stuff in them.
Here are the extracts from the pages Roger referenced;
The invitation was from property developer Kenneth Frampton whose Deo Gloria Trust helped set up the group, now calling itself the Jesus Family, in a large four storey house in Norwood, NE London. (I think this was the same property developer who owner the squatted houses on Bishops Ave featured my previous post.) Frampton, a Christian Philanthropist and member of the Plymouth Brethren, had previously been instrumental in welcoming another American evangelical Christian group to England. In July 1971 he had offered a large factory building that he owned in Sherman Road, Bromley rent free to the Children of God who used it as the base for their activities in Europe.
Here is what Willem J. Ouweneel (then a KLC Brother) wrote about Frampton in his Dutch history of the Brethren (Het verhaal van de Broeders, vol. 2, 1978, pp. 366–368, quickly translated by DeepL):
Among those who wanted to push through a quick reunification [between KLC and Glanton Brethren] was mainly K.P.F., himself a former Taylor and Glanton Brother, who was provoking more and more resistance among the KL Brethren, questioning the correctness of the Raven separation and raising fears among various people that he would cause a division. In early 1962, K.P.F. was excluded from the KL assembly in Croydon (London), after which he again began to break bread with the Glantons! [...] K.P.F.'s efforts at reunification were contagious even in Australia. [...] During the same brothers' meeting [Hammersmith, 29 June 1963], the unprincipled and unsettling actions of K.P.F. were also discussed, including the distribution of pamphlets in which he trivialized the Raven question. This led to an indignant circular written by Brother Ch. Hendricks of Illinois (19 July 1963), which in turn was criticized by various brothers: KL Brother E.T. Wood (October), K.P.F. (1 November) and Glanton Brother W.R. Dronsfield (12 November). The correspondence of the latter with Brother Hendricks continued for several years. Brother Dronsfield spoke out emphatically against Bethesda and against Raven and also against K.P.F. In my opinion, his letters are a highlight in the whole history because of their scriptural, prudent and sympathetic statements.
I've got a collection of about 20 letters concerning the excommunication of K.P.F. and a brother named E.J. Pipe from the KLC assembly at South Croydon in 1962 – but only in a (somewhat clumsy) German translation! It shows that the excommunications weren't accepted by all KLC Brethren; on 11 May 1962 forty-two brethren from Greater London, headed by H.W. Moss, T.E. Noall and T.L. Thurlow, sent a circular to all KLC assemblies in the UK protesting against the actions of South Croydon. Unfortunately this is the last letter in my (translated) collection – it would be interesting to see how things went on!
