Thirty-Three years ago a group of American churchmen organized what is now well known as the Federal Council of Churches. After a period of precarious existence, with the usual ups and downs of an organization of that kind, it grew and became a great influence in church circles in America as well as abroad. Today the Federal Council of Churches has expanded until it embraces twenty-three denominations, the Protestant Episcopal Church having joined in 1940 as the latest recruit.
The Federal Council has as its principal objective: A visible expression of the unity and full strength of non-Roman Christianity in America. In recent years it has sought to enlarge the area of church cooperation. Certain activities, such as religious education, and home and foreign missions, have increasingly interested the council.
This growing interest in Christian social and cultural activities in America and throughout the world was unmistakably revealed at the last biennial meeting of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America at Atlantic City, New Jersey, December 10-13, "in conjunction with the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, the Home Missions Council, and four other cooperative agencies, all corning together for the first time to face unitedly today's unprecedented demands, under the general subject, 'The American Churches and the Needs of the Hour.' "—Zions Herald, Dec. 25, 1940.
The cooperative affiliation of these agencies is described thus in the Christian Century:
"There are certain activities which lie nearer the heart of the churches than do some of the activities for which the Federal Council has traditionally assumed responsibility. Among these are religious education and the twin enterprises of home and foreign missions.
"In each of these three fields there is already a high degree of cooperation. The International Council of Religious Education has long been accepted by the churches as the common denominator of their program for religious education. The Home Missions Council (with which the Council of Women for Home Missions has now been merged) is an advisory and administrative organ of the home mission boards of many denominations, and the Foreign Missions Conference of North America is a similar organ created by nearly one hundred foreign mission boards for united action and mutual help.
"Few of the laity, and but a small fraction of the clergy, realize the extent to which this unifying process has already gone in these three fields. The Atlantic City meeting was notable in that it was projected as a joint meeting of the Federal Council with these organizations, together with the Missionary Education Movement, the National Council for Church Women, and the United Stewardship Council. (The International Council of Religious Education was unable formally to accept, but it was informally represented.) Thus the main cooperative enterprises of the North American churches were brought together in a shared program under the auspices of the Federal Council. This fraternizing of minds, already involved in cooperative work, is bound to open up ways of integrating these now-separated functions in a larger unity upon a more responsible basis."—Dec. 25, 1940.
The work of the Federal Council at the Atlantic City meeting is compactly outlined by H. D. Hawver, in Zions Herald:
"Ten specific actions bearing upon the important issues before the church were taken by the council during the closing hours, after thorough and prolonged discussion by the seminars and careful sifting by the business committee. The recommendations came from the divisions on 'The World Mission of the Church,' The Church and the International Crisis,' and 'The Church and Social Change,' and were as follows:
"1. The acceptance of the Dulles statement with amendments urging prayer by all bodies of the Christian fellowship for our overseas brethren of every nation.
"2. That the Government be requested to protect the men in Army training camps from exploitation by liquor interests and commercialized vice, by prohibiting the sale of intoxicating beverages tb men in uniform and the creation of a ten-mile zone from commercialized vice.
"3. The receiving of all reports for printing.
"4. The dissemination to the public of facts concerning court decisions on conscientious objectors, thus making it possible for counsel to protect the interests of the conscientious objector.
"5. Deputation of church leaders to Latin-American countries for the purpose of cementing cultural relations, and also, when conditions warrant, the sending of similar commissions to the Far East and to Europe.
"6. The appointment of a commission for the study of a just and durable peace, and that the cooperative church bodies be invited to become members.
"7. The appointment of a commission on relief and unemployment for the purpose of petitioning the Government in making recommendations of the council.
"8. That the executive committee arrange for interchurch days and hours of prayer for peace with justice throughout the world.
"9. The formulation of an educational program to set forth the moral problems involved in liquor and public safety.
"10. That a meeting be arranged for some time in June, 1941, near the Canadian border, for the promotion of fellowship with the Canadian brethren in their critical hour, commending them for their sacrifice in behalf of liberty and joining with them in prayer that, when peace shall come, we, alike, shall be ministers of reconciliation."—Dec. 25, 1940.
Quoting again from the Christian Century of December 25, 5940, we find these concluding remarks:
"Here was a new note in modern Christianity. Our Protestantism has been historically guilty of dividing the church on issues which are far less significant and substantial than those which the war has raised in the consciences of men. Whether, in the event of America's entrance into the war, the churches can maintain their unity and the Federal Council itself survive, is no idle speculation. By adopting this clarifying insight into the nature of the Christian church as primarily a community of faith—a community which embraces profound differences of conscience and which carries within itself the means of reconciling these differences—and by solemnly committing itself to this insight in advance of the supreme test to which the churches may be subjected, the Federal Council has, please God, prepared the way for a unity far deeper and more enduring than Protestantism has imagined itself capable of attaining. If the test comes and the church fails, this document will, next to our Lord's own reproach, be the source of our most poignant spiritual humiliation.
"The Federal Council has thus far led us out of our parochial and separatistic modes of thinking to the point where the American church is capable of thinking organically. More and more the unity of the body controls our outlook. We cannot say that we are not divided ; but we can say that we are less divided than we were. Our divisions decrease; our unities increase. God grant that this dawning unity of the body of Christ may be able to stand whatever test the future may bring ! Thus tested, may it grow from strength to such strength that, by His grace, it shall endure though all else be shaken."
At this same meeting it was voted "to issue renewed invitations to the remaining nonaffiliated bodies, including those which had at one time withdrawn, asking them to reconsider their previous decisions and to share with their brethren in making the Federal Council an expression of the full strength of non-Roman Christianity in America."—Id.
"The misunderstandings of the past have cleared away. No reason now exists for any denomination to fear that its autonomy will be invaded or curtailed by the Federal Council. The fact that two such communions as the Society of Friends and the Protestant Episcopal Church, representing the widest ecclesiastical extremes, find it possible and spiritually rewarding to have fellowship with each other and with all other constituent bodies in the council, would seem to remove the last barrier of fear or conscientious scruple from the deliberations of those bodies that yet remain in isolation. That there can be any internal reason in the field of creed or of order for their continued abstention is hardly credible, and it is highly improbable that such reason will be put forward. The outlook, therefore, is hopeful that by the next biennial meeting the Christian forces of the United States and Canada (whose united church is already affiliated) will be united under a common banner for a long forward march."—Id.
Thus with misunderstandings removed, doctrinal differences overlooked, and denominational fears allayed, the way seems clear, under pressure of the times, for non-Roman churches in America to form that long-anticipated "visible expression of unity and strength."
Note the following comment by the messenger of the Lord on these trends in religious affairs in America:
"The wide diversity of belief in the Protestant churches is regarded by many as decisive proof that no effort to secure a forced uniformity can ever be made. But there has been for years, in churches of the Protestant faith, a strong and growing sentiment in favor of a union based upon common points of doctrine. To secure such a union, the discussion of subjects upon which all were not agreed—however important they might be from a Bible standpoint—must necessarily be waived."—"The Great Controversy," p. 444.
