Congregational Christian Churches
Encyclopedia
The Congregational Christian Churches were a Protestant Christian
denomination that operated in the U.S.
from 1931 through 1957. On the latter date, most of its churches joined the Evangelical and Reformed Church
in a merger to become the United Church of Christ
. Others created the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches. During the forementioned period, its churches were organized nationally into a General Council, with parallel state conferences, sectional associations, and missionary instrumentalities. Congregations, however, retained their local autonomy and these groups were legally separate from the congregations.
The body came into being in Seattle, Washington in 1931 by the merger of two American bodies that practiced congregational church governance, the General Council of Congregational Churches and the General Convention of the Christian Church. Initially using the word "and" between the words "Congregational" and "Christian," the new denomination decided to combine the predecessor churches' identities into one nationally, while its constituent churches remained free to either retain their original names or adopt the new usage.
fleeing religious persecution in their native England
, the Congregational churches were identified with the Puritan
theological and political perspective within Anglo-Saxon
Protestantism
during the 17th century. Many American historians have viewed their semi-democratic practices as laying the foundation for the representative nature of the U.S. political tradition. Although they were originally strongly Calvinist
in the 18th century, eventually, by the 19th century, Congregationalists had accepted their peculiar vocation in U.S. religious life, maintaining a broadly orthodox faith while cultivating a passion for freedom, equality, and justice.
These ethical convictions would propel the Congregational churches into the forefront of social reform movements during the next 150 years or so. Most notable of these was strong support for the abolition of slavery
among African-Americans in the Southern U.S. In the aftermath of the American Civil War
, numerous pastors and female schoolteacher missionaries, working under the auspices of the American Missionary Association
, established academies, colleges, and churches for the freedpeople; six of the colleges are still in existence. Yet later generations became involved in causes such as temperance
, women's suffrage
, and the Social Gospel
.
In the midst of all the political involvement, Congregationalists held firmly to the notion that each local church was ruled directly by Jesus Christ, as testified to in the Bible
and preached to those convicted by the Holy Spirit
, and thus constituted a spiritual republic unto itself, needing no authorization from outside ecclesiastical forces.
On the homefront, Congregationalism became primarily a grouping found among townspeople and affluent urban residents of New England, New York state, the Great Lakes
region, portions of the Great Plains
, and the Pacific Coast
; roughly speaking, the Northern United States
. By the turn of the 20th century, the churches had begun to attract worshipers from outside their original base constituency of English-speaking Anglo-Americans
. Immigrant groups that formed Congregational churches included Volga German
s, Swedes, Puerto Ricans, Chinese
, Japanese
, and Hawaiians
. The Congregational churches also acquired two smaller church bodies: several Congregational Methodist churches in Alabama
and Georgia
, during the 1890s, and the Evangelical Protestant Churches, a German
-immigrant group located primarily in and around Pittsburgh
and Cincinnati
, in 1925.
Theologically, the Congregationalists spent much of the 19th century moving from orthodox Reformed concepts and teachings (e.g., total depravity
, limited atonement
) toward a decidedly more liberal orientation, facilitated by a group of Yale University
-educated pastors in and around the time of the Civil War. Led by the likes of Horace Bushnell
and Nathaniel Taylor
, the New Divinity
men broke, some would say irrevocably, with the older pessimistic views of human nature espoused by classical Congregationalist divines such as Cotton Mather
and Jonathan Edwards, declaring instead a more sanguine view of possibilities for the individual and society. Even as this grand shift may have attracted individuals weary of overbearing, harsh harangues from generations of revivalist preachers, numerous others deplored what they felt was an abandonment of the true faith; these conservatives increasingly sought refuge in more doctrinally more rigid churches such as the Baptists and the Presbyterians, especially outside New England.
The losses to Presbyterianism increased greatly in the decades in which the Plan of Union, designed by Connecticut Congregationalists and the Presbyterian General Assembly to avoid duplication of effort in evangelizing the frontier regions, held sway, as numerous Congregational-founded parishes were annexed to presbyteries, usually through the pastor's affiliation and often without the local church's assent. The need to dissolve that failed attempt at interdenominationalism, which had already taken place among the Presbyterians, prompted the first national gathering of Congregationalists since the 1648 synod that produced the Cambridge Platform, a confession of faith similar to the Presbyterians' Westminster Confession, at Boston in 1865. It was not until 1870, though, that a sufficient number of Congregationalists responded to a call to organize nationally.
This was not the first time American Congregationalism had been shaken to its foundations by theological change; the Great Awakenings of the decades surrounding the turn of the 19th century had also left indelible marks upon the churches. Some churches openly embraced revivalism, while others, particularly in the Boston
area, reacted negatively to the developments by adopting Arminian viewpoints in opposition to the intensified Calvinism espoused by preachers such as Edwards and George Whitefield
. Many of these congregations would eventually depart the Congregational fellowship in 1825 to form the American Unitarian Association; this body is now known as the Unitarian Universalist Association
.
Meanwhile, despite the cherished commitments to independence and freedom, Congregationalists moved increasingly in the direction of espousing the main aims of the ecumenical movement within American (and world) Protestantism, a movement gathering much energy from the rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe
and a perceived decline in religious life among Americans during the first third of the 20th century. These impulses led Congregational leaders to pursue close relations with numerous Protestant groups, but one group emerged as a prime candidate for actual organizational union: the Christian Churches.
ist faiths such as the Methodists and the Baptists, and most found spiritual homes within those groups, or others deriving from the ferment started by the Great Awakenings.
However, several preachers led, in different parts of the country, dissenting movements against the leadership of some of those churches. In the 1790s, a Methodist pastor serving churches in central North Carolina
and southeastern Virginia
, James O'Kelly
, took exception to the development of an episcopacy within his church. He felt that the rise of bishops, strongly advocated by the likes of Francis Asbury
, would approximate the powers of the recently-disestablished Anglican church and thus unduly control the ministry, particularly through the practice of itinerancy
. When leaders ignored O'Kelly's protests, he and some sympathizers withdrew from the Methodist Church to form a body originally known as the "Republican Methodist Church." Upon extensive discussion and prayer, O'Kelly began to hold that the name implied a sectarianism that was quite at odds with what he felt were prescriptions from the New Testament
prohibiting churches from identifying with mere human opinions. Thus, he and others arrived at the notion that their churches should simply bear the name of "Christian."
Several hundred miles to the north in Vermont
, a Baptist preacher by the name of Abner Jones
began to refute the then-prevalent Calvinist dogmas within his fellowship. He led some of his followers out of his congregation into a new fellowship founded upon a platform similar to O'Kelly's, with a strong emphasis upon open communion and freedom of conscience. Later in the first decade of the 19th century, he and a New Hampshire
pastor began publishing a newspaper for the movement, Herald of Gospel Liberty, reputed by some historians to have been the first general-interest religious periodical in the U.S. The movement progressed throughout New England, especially within those two states, as well as Maine
and Massachusetts
. Ironically given the Christian Connection's later history, the churches were treated, in the main, in a hostile fashion by adherents of the Congregational "Standing Order."
Both movements were restorationist in outlook, and influenced the later Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement
. That later movement produced several larger groups still in existence today: the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
, the Christian churches and churches of Christ, and the Churches of Christ.
The geographically disparate Northern and Southern wings of the Christian movement did eventually discover each other, and they formed a convention in 1820, at which time a general list of five (some scholars have claimed six) principles unifying the otherwise diverse congregations were agreed upon. The unity, unfortunately, did not survive engrossing controversies over slavery and the ensuing Civil War
, and the "Christian Connection," as was the case with American Protestant groups such as the Methodists and Presbyterians, split once again into Northern and Southern factions. This was largely precipitated by the Northern group, many of whose leaders, much in the same vein as the Congregationalists, made strong denunciations of slavery. The Northerners used the schism as an occasion to legally assume denominational form, in 1850. Despite the bitterness of the split, Christians in both sections reunited much sooner than the other separated groups, forming the General Convention of the Christian Church in 1890.
Many Southern/O'Kelly Christians owned slaves, some of whom formed churches of their own in that tradition after the Emancipation Proclamation
. Centered in central and eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, African-American Christian congregations formed a convention of their own in the 1890s, a body that existed until 1950, well after the Congregational Christian merger, when it joined the Convention of the South, heretofore composed of Congregational churches founded by the American Missionary Association.
Theologically, the Christian Churches did not encourage a highly elaborate system of doctrine or Biblical interpretation; relatively few of their ministers had educations past the elementary grades, a circumstance that persisted well into the early 20th century. Their leanings were toward revival
ist Wesleyanism
, emphasizing traditional evangelical themes such as regeneration, acceptance of personal salvation, and the performance of good works of charity. Few if any of their members were inherently predisposed toward polemical attacks upon other traditions, although some pastors and churches would eventually identify with the emerging fundamentalist movement in later decades.
By the time that the Congregationalists had approached Christian leaders about possible union, some disaffected adherents of the wing of Restoration Movement
led by Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell had joined the Christian Connection. This group gave the movement a geographical complexion that entailed pockets of strength in New England, upstate New York, southeastern Virginia, central and eastern North Carolina, western Georgia, eastern Alabama, southwestern Ohio
, and eastern Indiana
, with dispersed congregations in parts of the Great Plains
. Most of the membership was rural, outside major cities, usually engaged in farming or similar occupations.
The Christians founded schools such as Ohio's Defiance College
and Antioch College
and North Carolina's Elon University
; during the early 20th century, an academy and seminary for African-Americans operated in Franklinton, North Carolina
. Defiance, Elon, and an advocacy center headquartered in the physical plant of the North Carolina school all continue to relate to the United Church of Christ today.
, and, later, World War II
. It would not be until after the latter concluded that the CC churches would embark on anything like a major church extension program; this was the case, of course, with most U.S. denominations during this period, as their churches often struggled to merely stay open, with little or nothing left over for mission work.
Congregationalists constituted about 85-90% of the membership of the new denomination; this caused few if any resentments or conflicts because, by and large, the two groups did not overlap each other geographically, except in parts of New England, upstate New York, Ohio, and among African-American churches in North Carolina. Regional judicatories and national domestic and foreign mission agencies merged together quite smoothly, often continuing to use varying terminologies (e.g., "convention," "conference," "association"), depending on custom. On the domestic front, most of the new church planting efforts were concentrated in newly developing areas such as southern California
, Arizona
, Florida
, and suburbs of major Midwestern cities (e.g., Chicago
, Detroit, Minneapolis). Abroad, many CC missionary efforts shifted their emphases toward medical and social services, particularly after many of the churches Congregationalists had founded in earlier decades had formed autonomous bodies of their own.
One distinguishing trait of the new fellowship, aside from its unusually tolerant attitude regarding subscription to ancient doctrines, was its bold enthusiasm for ecumenical adventures, especially those growing out of the "Faith and Order" and "Life and Work" inter-church initiatives in Great Britain
in the 1920s and 1930s. These developments and others led to the founding of the World Council of Churches
in 1948, of which the Congregational Christian Churches was a charter member. In the U.S., the Congregational Christians made several overtures to other Protestant groups toward federative unions and/or organic mergers in the years before World War II. But the main legacy of those discussions was what became the United Church of Christ in 1957.
in that city, a seminary of the Evangelical and Reformed Church
, a denomination predominantly of German origin and itself a merger of two previously separated traditions, as part of an informal interchurch discussion group in 1937. Douglass' and Press' talks led to the involvement of both bodies in proposals to consider organic union, work that eventually culminated in the Basis of Union in 1943, which both national bodies approved after a five-year period of revising. The Rev. Dr. Douglas Horton
, a former Harvard Divinity School
president, had become the CC general minister and president by this point, and became the prime figure in the CC union efforts.
filed suit against the CC moderator, Helen Kenyon, in 1949 to legally stop the merger proceedings; the major legal contention made by the church and the anti-union advocates was that the CC General Council possessed no authority to enter into a merger as a national entity. After some initial victories in lower courts, a New York state Court of Appeals declined jurisdiction and judged in favor of Ms. Kenyon and the CC Churches in 1953. With this defeat, the anti-merger forces turned instead toward forming a new denomination, which became the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches
, founded in 1955; a preponderance of these churches were located in non-metropolitan New England, southeastern Michigan
, parts of Wisconsin
and Illinois
, and southern California. Some years before that, motivated by different concerns, chiefly doctrine, a group of evangelical-leaning congregations formed the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference
, in 1948.
. Eighty-eight (88) percent of the delegates approved the motion to unite with the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and the latter body's General Synod approved by an even wider margin. This set the stage for the Uniting General Synod, which took place in Cleveland, Ohio
, on June 25, 1957; the CC Churches were represented by the Rev. Fred Hoskins
, who had succeeded Horton some years earlier as general minister and president. Hoskins would become, along with E&R President James Wagner, one of the co-presidents of the UCC. The actual consummation of the UCC, however, did not occur until 1961, when a sufficient number of CC congregations voted to approve the denomination's new constitution.
The CC Churches brought into the new UCC
approximately 1.4 million members, about 60 percent of the total number of members in the new denomination. In order to attend to necessary legal business continuing from years past, the General Council remained incorporated until 1984, when it finally dissolved.
UCC "Short History Course": The Christian Churches
The Shaping of the United Church of Christ: An Essay in the History of American Christianity, Louis H. Gunnemann; Charles Shelby Rooks, ed. Cleveland: United Church Press, 1999.
A History of Black Congregational Christian Churches of the South, J. Taylor Stanley. New York, United Church Press, 1978.
The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, Williston Walker; Douglas Horton, foreword. Boston, Pilgrim Press, 1960.
The Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ, volume 6, Growing Toward Unity, Elsabeth Slaughter Hilke, ed.; Thomas E. Dipko, postscript; Barbara Brown Zikmund, series ed. Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2001.
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
denomination that operated in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from 1931 through 1957. On the latter date, most of its churches joined the Evangelical and Reformed Church
Evangelical and Reformed Church
The Evangelical and Reformed Church was a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. It was formed in 1934 by the merger of the Reformed Church in the United States with the Evangelical Synod of North America . After the 1934 merger, a minority within the RCUS seceded in order to...
in a merger to become the United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
. Others created the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches. During the forementioned period, its churches were organized nationally into a General Council, with parallel state conferences, sectional associations, and missionary instrumentalities. Congregations, however, retained their local autonomy and these groups were legally separate from the congregations.
The body came into being in Seattle, Washington in 1931 by the merger of two American bodies that practiced congregational church governance, the General Council of Congregational Churches and the General Convention of the Christian Church. Initially using the word "and" between the words "Congregational" and "Christian," the new denomination decided to combine the predecessor churches' identities into one nationally, while its constituent churches remained free to either retain their original names or adopt the new usage.
Congregationalism
Established by settlers in present-day New EnglandNew England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
fleeing religious persecution in their native England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the Congregational churches were identified with the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
theological and political perspective within Anglo-Saxon
Anglosphere
Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...
Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
during the 17th century. Many American historians have viewed their semi-democratic practices as laying the foundation for the representative nature of the U.S. political tradition. Although they were originally strongly Calvinist
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
in the 18th century, eventually, by the 19th century, Congregationalists had accepted their peculiar vocation in U.S. religious life, maintaining a broadly orthodox faith while cultivating a passion for freedom, equality, and justice.
These ethical convictions would propel the Congregational churches into the forefront of social reform movements during the next 150 years or so. Most notable of these was strong support for the abolition of slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
among African-Americans in the Southern U.S. In the aftermath of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, numerous pastors and female schoolteacher missionaries, working under the auspices of the American Missionary Association
American Missionary Association
The American Missionary Association was a Protestant-based abolitionist group founded on September 3, 1846 in Albany, New York. The main purpose of this organization was to abolish slavery, to educate African Americans, to promote racial equality, and to promote Christian values...
, established academies, colleges, and churches for the freedpeople; six of the colleges are still in existence. Yet later generations became involved in causes such as temperance
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...
, women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
, and the Social Gospel
Social Gospel
The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early 20th century United States and Canada...
.
In the midst of all the political involvement, Congregationalists held firmly to the notion that each local church was ruled directly by Jesus Christ, as testified to in the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
and preached to those convicted by the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
, and thus constituted a spiritual republic unto itself, needing no authorization from outside ecclesiastical forces.
On the homefront, Congregationalism became primarily a grouping found among townspeople and affluent urban residents of New England, New York state, the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
region, portions of the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
, and the Pacific Coast
Pacific Coast
A country's Pacific coast is the part of its coast bordering the Pacific Ocean.-The Americas:Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western border.* Geography of Canada* Geography of Chile* Geography of Colombia...
; roughly speaking, the Northern United States
Northern United States
Northern United States, also sometimes the North, may refer to:* A particular grouping of states or regions of the United States of America. The United States Census Bureau divides some of the northernmost United States into the Midwest Region and the Northeast Region...
. By the turn of the 20th century, the churches had begun to attract worshipers from outside their original base constituency of English-speaking Anglo-Americans
European American
A European American is a citizen or resident of the United States who has origins in any of the original peoples of Europe...
. Immigrant groups that formed Congregational churches included Volga German
Volga German
The Volga Germans were ethnic Germans living along the River Volga in the region of southern European Russia around Saratov and to the south. Recruited as immigrants to Russia in the 18th century, they were allowed to maintain German culture, language, traditions and churches: Lutherans, Reformed,...
s, Swedes, Puerto Ricans, Chinese
Overseas Chinese
Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
, Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
, and Hawaiians
Native Hawaiians
Native Hawaiians refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants. Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii.According to the U.S...
. The Congregational churches also acquired two smaller church bodies: several Congregational Methodist churches in Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
and Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, during the 1890s, and the Evangelical Protestant Churches, a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
-immigrant group located primarily in and around Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
and Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, in 1925.
Theologically, the Congregationalists spent much of the 19th century moving from orthodox Reformed concepts and teachings (e.g., total depravity
Total depravity
Total depravity is a theological doctrine that derives from the Augustinian concept of original sin...
, limited atonement
Limited atonement
Limited atonement is a doctrine in Christian theology which is particularly associated with the Reformed tradition and is one of the five points of Calvinism...
) toward a decidedly more liberal orientation, facilitated by a group of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
-educated pastors in and around the time of the Civil War. Led by the likes of Horace Bushnell
Horace Bushnell
Horace Bushnell was an American Congregational clergyman and theologian.-Life:Bushnell was a Yankee born in the village of Bantam, township of Litchfield, Connecticut. He attended Yale College where he roomed with future magazinist Nathaniel Parker Willis. Willis credited Bushnell with teaching...
and Nathaniel Taylor
Nathaniel William Taylor
Nathaniel William Taylor was an influential Protestant Theologian of the early 19th century, whose major contribution to the Christian faith , known as the New Haven theology, was to modify historical Calvinism in order to fit into the religious revivalism of the time .-Life and Ministry:Born in...
, the New Divinity
New Divinity
The New Divinity is a system of Christian theology that was very prominent in New England in the late 18th century...
men broke, some would say irrevocably, with the older pessimistic views of human nature espoused by classical Congregationalist divines such as Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather, FRS was a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author and pamphleteer; he is often remembered for his role in the Salem witch trials...
and Jonathan Edwards, declaring instead a more sanguine view of possibilities for the individual and society. Even as this grand shift may have attracted individuals weary of overbearing, harsh harangues from generations of revivalist preachers, numerous others deplored what they felt was an abandonment of the true faith; these conservatives increasingly sought refuge in more doctrinally more rigid churches such as the Baptists and the Presbyterians, especially outside New England.
The losses to Presbyterianism increased greatly in the decades in which the Plan of Union, designed by Connecticut Congregationalists and the Presbyterian General Assembly to avoid duplication of effort in evangelizing the frontier regions, held sway, as numerous Congregational-founded parishes were annexed to presbyteries, usually through the pastor's affiliation and often without the local church's assent. The need to dissolve that failed attempt at interdenominationalism, which had already taken place among the Presbyterians, prompted the first national gathering of Congregationalists since the 1648 synod that produced the Cambridge Platform, a confession of faith similar to the Presbyterians' Westminster Confession, at Boston in 1865. It was not until 1870, though, that a sufficient number of Congregationalists responded to a call to organize nationally.
This was not the first time American Congregationalism had been shaken to its foundations by theological change; the Great Awakenings of the decades surrounding the turn of the 19th century had also left indelible marks upon the churches. Some churches openly embraced revivalism, while others, particularly in the Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
area, reacted negatively to the developments by adopting Arminian viewpoints in opposition to the intensified Calvinism espoused by preachers such as Edwards and George Whitefield
George Whitefield
George Whitefield , also known as George Whitfield, was an English Anglican priest who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the British North American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical movement generally...
. Many of these congregations would eventually depart the Congregational fellowship in 1825 to form the American Unitarian Association; this body is now known as the Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association
Unitarian Universalist Association , in full the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations in North America, is a liberal religious association of Unitarian Universalist congregations formed by the consolidation in 1961 of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of...
.
Meanwhile, despite the cherished commitments to independence and freedom, Congregationalists moved increasingly in the direction of espousing the main aims of the ecumenical movement within American (and world) Protestantism, a movement gathering much energy from the rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and a perceived decline in religious life among Americans during the first third of the 20th century. These impulses led Congregational leaders to pursue close relations with numerous Protestant groups, but one group emerged as a prime candidate for actual organizational union: the Christian Churches.
The Christian Churches ("Connection")
While Puritans were consolidating their domination of religious, political and intellectual life in New England, elsewhere in America, during the period immediately before the American Revolution, many newly-arrived settlers became dissatisfied with theology, preaching, liturgy, and ecclesiology inherited from Europe. Many of these people had turned to revivalChristian revival
Christian revival is a term that generally refers to a specific period of increased spiritual interest or renewal in the life of a church congregation or many churches, either regionally or globally...
ist faiths such as the Methodists and the Baptists, and most found spiritual homes within those groups, or others deriving from the ferment started by the Great Awakenings.
However, several preachers led, in different parts of the country, dissenting movements against the leadership of some of those churches. In the 1790s, a Methodist pastor serving churches in central North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and southeastern Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, James O'Kelly
James O'Kelly
James O'Kelly was an American clergyman during the Second Great Awakening and an important figure in the early history of Methodism in America. He was also known for his outspoken views on abolitionism, penning the strong antislavery work Essay on Negro Slavery...
, took exception to the development of an episcopacy within his church. He felt that the rise of bishops, strongly advocated by the likes of Francis Asbury
Francis Asbury
Bishop Francis Asbury was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, now The United Methodist Church in the United States...
, would approximate the powers of the recently-disestablished Anglican church and thus unduly control the ministry, particularly through the practice of itinerancy
Circuit rider (Religious)
Circuit rider is a popular term referring to clergy in the earliest years of the United States who were assigned to travel around specific geographic territories to minister to settlers and organize congregations...
. When leaders ignored O'Kelly's protests, he and some sympathizers withdrew from the Methodist Church to form a body originally known as the "Republican Methodist Church." Upon extensive discussion and prayer, O'Kelly began to hold that the name implied a sectarianism that was quite at odds with what he felt were prescriptions from the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
prohibiting churches from identifying with mere human opinions. Thus, he and others arrived at the notion that their churches should simply bear the name of "Christian."
Several hundred miles to the north in Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, a Baptist preacher by the name of Abner Jones
Abner Jones
Abner Jones , also known as Elder Abner Jones, was a minister and early church reformer in the United States.-Early life:...
began to refute the then-prevalent Calvinist dogmas within his fellowship. He led some of his followers out of his congregation into a new fellowship founded upon a platform similar to O'Kelly's, with a strong emphasis upon open communion and freedom of conscience. Later in the first decade of the 19th century, he and a New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
pastor began publishing a newspaper for the movement, Herald of Gospel Liberty, reputed by some historians to have been the first general-interest religious periodical in the U.S. The movement progressed throughout New England, especially within those two states, as well as Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
and Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. Ironically given the Christian Connection's later history, the churches were treated, in the main, in a hostile fashion by adherents of the Congregational "Standing Order."
Both movements were restorationist in outlook, and influenced the later Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement
Restoration Movement
The Restoration Movement is a Christian movement that began on the American frontier during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century...
. That later movement produced several larger groups still in existence today: the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
The Christian Church is a Mainline Protestant denomination in North America. It is often referred to as The Christian Church, The Disciples of Christ, or more simply as The Disciples...
, the Christian churches and churches of Christ, and the Churches of Christ.
The geographically disparate Northern and Southern wings of the Christian movement did eventually discover each other, and they formed a convention in 1820, at which time a general list of five (some scholars have claimed six) principles unifying the otherwise diverse congregations were agreed upon. The unity, unfortunately, did not survive engrossing controversies over slavery and the ensuing Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, and the "Christian Connection," as was the case with American Protestant groups such as the Methodists and Presbyterians, split once again into Northern and Southern factions. This was largely precipitated by the Northern group, many of whose leaders, much in the same vein as the Congregationalists, made strong denunciations of slavery. The Northerners used the schism as an occasion to legally assume denominational form, in 1850. Despite the bitterness of the split, Christians in both sections reunited much sooner than the other separated groups, forming the General Convention of the Christian Church in 1890.
Many Southern/O'Kelly Christians owned slaves, some of whom formed churches of their own in that tradition after the Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...
. Centered in central and eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, African-American Christian congregations formed a convention of their own in the 1890s, a body that existed until 1950, well after the Congregational Christian merger, when it joined the Convention of the South, heretofore composed of Congregational churches founded by the American Missionary Association.
Theologically, the Christian Churches did not encourage a highly elaborate system of doctrine or Biblical interpretation; relatively few of their ministers had educations past the elementary grades, a circumstance that persisted well into the early 20th century. Their leanings were toward revival
Christian revival
Christian revival is a term that generally refers to a specific period of increased spiritual interest or renewal in the life of a church congregation or many churches, either regionally or globally...
ist Wesleyanism
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
, emphasizing traditional evangelical themes such as regeneration, acceptance of personal salvation, and the performance of good works of charity. Few if any of their members were inherently predisposed toward polemical attacks upon other traditions, although some pastors and churches would eventually identify with the emerging fundamentalist movement in later decades.
By the time that the Congregationalists had approached Christian leaders about possible union, some disaffected adherents of the wing of Restoration Movement
Restoration Movement
The Restoration Movement is a Christian movement that began on the American frontier during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century...
led by Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell had joined the Christian Connection. This group gave the movement a geographical complexion that entailed pockets of strength in New England, upstate New York, southeastern Virginia, central and eastern North Carolina, western Georgia, eastern Alabama, southwestern Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, and eastern Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, with dispersed congregations in parts of the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
. Most of the membership was rural, outside major cities, usually engaged in farming or similar occupations.
The Christians founded schools such as Ohio's Defiance College
Defiance College
Defiance College, located in Defiance, Ohio, USA, is an independent, co-educational liberal arts college affiliated with the United Church of Christ. The campus includes eighteen buildings and access to the Thoreau Wildlife Sanctuary....
and Antioch College
Antioch College
Antioch College is a private, independent liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was the founder and the flagship institution of the six-campus Antioch University system. Founded in 1852 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1853 with politician and...
and North Carolina's Elon University
Elon University
Elon University is a private liberal arts university in Elon, North Carolina, United States. Formerly known as Elon College, it became Elon University on June 1, 2001. The campus is a botanical garden and features oak trees, brick sidewalks, fountains, and lakes...
; during the early 20th century, an academy and seminary for African-Americans operated in Franklinton, North Carolina
Franklinton, North Carolina
Franklinton is a town in Franklin County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,745 at the 2000 census. It is home to a plant operated by Novozymes. Novozymes North America Inc...
. Defiance, Elon, and an advocacy center headquartered in the physical plant of the North Carolina school all continue to relate to the United Church of Christ today.
Early Post-Merger Years
After the 1931 merger, relatively few practices and customs changed drastically within either of the uniting traditions, largely because its members, like most Americans, were overwhelmed by, first, the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, and, later, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It would not be until after the latter concluded that the CC churches would embark on anything like a major church extension program; this was the case, of course, with most U.S. denominations during this period, as their churches often struggled to merely stay open, with little or nothing left over for mission work.
Congregationalists constituted about 85-90% of the membership of the new denomination; this caused few if any resentments or conflicts because, by and large, the two groups did not overlap each other geographically, except in parts of New England, upstate New York, Ohio, and among African-American churches in North Carolina. Regional judicatories and national domestic and foreign mission agencies merged together quite smoothly, often continuing to use varying terminologies (e.g., "convention," "conference," "association"), depending on custom. On the domestic front, most of the new church planting efforts were concentrated in newly developing areas such as southern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and suburbs of major Midwestern cities (e.g., Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Detroit, Minneapolis). Abroad, many CC missionary efforts shifted their emphases toward medical and social services, particularly after many of the churches Congregationalists had founded in earlier decades had formed autonomous bodies of their own.
One distinguishing trait of the new fellowship, aside from its unusually tolerant attitude regarding subscription to ancient doctrines, was its bold enthusiasm for ecumenical adventures, especially those growing out of the "Faith and Order" and "Life and Work" inter-church initiatives in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
in the 1920s and 1930s. These developments and others led to the founding of the World Council of Churches
World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches is a worldwide fellowship of 349 global, regional and sub-regional, national and local churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service. It is a Christian ecumenical organization that is based in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland...
in 1948, of which the Congregational Christian Churches was a charter member. In the U.S., the Congregational Christians made several overtures to other Protestant groups toward federative unions and/or organic mergers in the years before World War II. But the main legacy of those discussions was what became the United Church of Christ in 1957.
UCC Merger Talks
The Rev. Dr. Truman Douglass, pastor of St. Louis' Pilgrim Congregational Church, met with the Rev. Dr. Samuel Press, president of Eden Theological SeminaryEden Theological Seminary
Eden Theological Seminary is a seminary of the United Church of Christ in Webster Groves, Missouri, near St. Louis, Missouri.The seminary was established in 1850 by German pastors in what was then the American frontier. The pastors soon formed the German Evangelical Synod of North America. This,...
in that city, a seminary of the Evangelical and Reformed Church
Evangelical and Reformed Church
The Evangelical and Reformed Church was a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. It was formed in 1934 by the merger of the Reformed Church in the United States with the Evangelical Synod of North America . After the 1934 merger, a minority within the RCUS seceded in order to...
, a denomination predominantly of German origin and itself a merger of two previously separated traditions, as part of an informal interchurch discussion group in 1937. Douglass' and Press' talks led to the involvement of both bodies in proposals to consider organic union, work that eventually culminated in the Basis of Union in 1943, which both national bodies approved after a five-year period of revising. The Rev. Dr. Douglas Horton
Douglas Horton (clergyman)
Douglas Horton was an American Protestant clergyman and academic leader who was noted for his work in ecumenical relations among major Protestant bodies of his day...
, a former Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...
president, had become the CC general minister and president by this point, and became the prime figure in the CC union efforts.
"Continuing Congregationalism"
However, a small but vocal minority of ministers and laymen protested the developments, charging that any merger with a confessional, presbyterial body such as the E&R Church would destroy the heritage and structure of American Congregationalism. These opponents formed groups that published pamphlets and attempted to persuade churches to reject the proposed merger. An anti-merger congregation in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
filed suit against the CC moderator, Helen Kenyon, in 1949 to legally stop the merger proceedings; the major legal contention made by the church and the anti-union advocates was that the CC General Council possessed no authority to enter into a merger as a national entity. After some initial victories in lower courts, a New York state Court of Appeals declined jurisdiction and judged in favor of Ms. Kenyon and the CC Churches in 1953. With this defeat, the anti-merger forces turned instead toward forming a new denomination, which became the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches
National Association of Congregational Christian Churches
The National Association of Congregational Christian Churches is an association of about 400 churches providing fellowship for and services to churches from the Congregational tradition. The Association maintains its national office in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee...
, founded in 1955; a preponderance of these churches were located in non-metropolitan New England, southeastern Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, parts of Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
and Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and southern California. Some years before that, motivated by different concerns, chiefly doctrine, a group of evangelical-leaning congregations formed the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference
Conservative Congregational Christian Conference
The Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, colloquially known as the CCCC or 4C's, is a Protestant Christian denomination operating in the United States. The denomination maintains headquarters in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, a suburb of St. Paul...
, in 1948.
Union Approved
The final vote on CC participation in the UCC merger took place at the 1956 General Council, meeting in Omaha, NebraskaOmaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
. Eighty-eight (88) percent of the delegates approved the motion to unite with the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and the latter body's General Synod approved by an even wider margin. This set the stage for the Uniting General Synod, which took place in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, on June 25, 1957; the CC Churches were represented by the Rev. Fred Hoskins
Fred Hoskins
Fred Hoskins was an American clergyman who served as first co-president of United Church of Christ with James Wagner from 1957 to 1961.-Life and career:...
, who had succeeded Horton some years earlier as general minister and president. Hoskins would become, along with E&R President James Wagner, one of the co-presidents of the UCC. The actual consummation of the UCC, however, did not occur until 1961, when a sufficient number of CC congregations voted to approve the denomination's new constitution.
The CC Churches brought into the new UCC
United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
approximately 1.4 million members, about 60 percent of the total number of members in the new denomination. In order to attend to necessary legal business continuing from years past, the General Council remained incorporated until 1984, when it finally dissolved.
See also
- S. Parkes CadmanS. Parkes CadmanSamuel Parkes Cadman , better known as S. Parkes Cadman, was an American clergyman, newspaper writer, and pioneer Christian radio broadcaster of the 1920s and 1930s. He was an early advocate of ecumenism and an outspoken opponent of anti-Semitism and racial intolerance...
, prominent minister and leader of the Congregational Christian Churches in the early 20th century** - Christian ConnectionChristian ConnectionThe Christian Connection or Christian Connexion was a Christian movement which began in several places during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and were secessions from three different religious denominations. The Christian Connection claimed to have no creed, instead professing to rely...
Sources
The Shaping of American Congregationalism: 1620-1957, John von Rohr. Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1992.UCC "Short History Course": The Christian Churches
The Shaping of the United Church of Christ: An Essay in the History of American Christianity, Louis H. Gunnemann; Charles Shelby Rooks, ed. Cleveland: United Church Press, 1999.
A History of Black Congregational Christian Churches of the South, J. Taylor Stanley. New York, United Church Press, 1978.
The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism, Williston Walker; Douglas Horton, foreword. Boston, Pilgrim Press, 1960.
The Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ, volume 6, Growing Toward Unity, Elsabeth Slaughter Hilke, ed.; Thomas E. Dipko, postscript; Barbara Brown Zikmund, series ed. Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2001.