Brethren assemblies (as their gatherings are most often called) are divided into the Open Brethren and the Exclusive Brethren, following a schism that took place in 1848. Both of these main branches are themselves divided into several smaller branches, with varying degrees of communication and overlap among them. (The general category "Exclusive Brethren" has been confused in the media with a much smaller group known as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC) or the Raven-Taylor-Hales Brethren, numbering only around 40,000 worldwide.)