CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1931, 13 December 1913, Page 11

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.

CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES. Tiio New York "Outlook" of November 8 states:— Tlio triennial meeting of the National Council of Congregational Clnuchcs in the United States at Kansas City, Mis* smivi, during tho last week of October ',va6 aotofrorthj; for the constitutional

changes it adopted with a view to greater denominational efficiency. Sine* its meeting in 19.1.0, at Boston, a Committee of Nineteen has been engaged in working out the improvements which have now been adopted with hut a single-negative vote h;y a body of ..six hundred delegates. Tho thii,s eifected consist in. o new confcsfi.oii of religious belief and, a new plan. of church polity. As to tho former, it is remarkable for its brevity and ovaft* Helical simplicity, condensed as it is into less than two hundred words, strongly PtmtrnsUug thus with the extended statement set forth in 1883. A close approach to it was ni.ado in 1906 Uthe staicmeat drawn up and sfrveed to for the then proposed union of tho Congregational, Methodist, Protestant, and United Brethren Churches.■■. Ailother- notable feature of it is in .its equally proportioned statement ofll*o truths believed and the duties required by them, as follows:—

" Wo believe in Gntl the Father,. .infinite in go-mliiess, and love: and in ISesns Christ, His son, «mr Lord and Saviour, who, for us-and 4«r salvation, lived and died alid ro?e strain and livoth evermore; and in tire floly Boiiit, Who takot.li 'of Uio things o'f Christ and rcvnalcth thcra. to us, recomfortins, and inspi-iiiig tho souls of men. Wo are united in striving to know tho will of God as taught in this Holy Scriptures, and in our purpose to walk in the ways of the Lord., made known or to ho made known to us. We hold it_ ta_ he the mission of the Church of Christ to proclaim tha Gospel to all mankind, exalting for worship of the one true God, .and lnliourimj for the progress of knowlodao and: promotion of justice, tho triumph of neaee, and tho realisation of human brotherhood. Depending, ns did our fathers, upon the continued guidsiyien of the Holy Spirit to lewd us into all truth, wo work ami prny for the transformation of the world into the king, doni of God ; and we look with faith for. tho triumph «f righteousness and for life- and glory era-lasting. Amen." While this recognises the freedom of faith in theological thought. •it also anneals to conscience to justify its faith' hv its works, President Sanders, of Washburn. Kansas,'chairman of the Committee of Nineteen, stated that the finished document it presented! represented the work of.more than nnn thousand persons who had contributed to its formation. It was subjected to a rigorous discussion hv tho Conne.il, in which boih Conservatives and Progressives suggested amendments, hut Hoiiu was made, and it was adopted at ihs end of the session in which it was presented.