A committee of sponsors consisting of thirty-two Protestant church laymen has been formed for the purpose of carrying on a crusade for a United Church of America. The committee includes such influential members as the Hon. Herbert Hoover, Gov. Luther W. Youngdahl, of Minnesota, Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, and J. C. Penney.
This committee recently engaged the world-known Dr. E. Stanley Jones to devote a month in an intensive campaign for the furtherance of its aims. He gave three lectures in each of thirty important cities, under the auspices of local Inter-Churchmen's Fellowship groups. These work closely with the Federation of Churches or the Federal Council of Churches.
It was my privilege and that of A. S. Anderson, pastor of the Albany and Troy Seventh-day Adventist churches, to hear the three lectures given in Albany early in September, the final one being at what was termed a union meeting of the Protestant churches of Albany.
In his introductory remarks Dr. Jones said : "A world seeking unity, knowing that it must find it, or perish, will pay only a marginal heed to a church unwilling or unable to show the way to unity. The next great step for the churches is to face the world—united. A divided church in a divided world lacks moral authority." He referred to speeches made the previous week by the Pope and Stalin, and pointed out that throughout North America the newspapers had reported these, and had drawn attention to them in bold headlines. Why? Because these men represented power. Speeches of Protestant leaders went unnoticed, because no one represented a sufficiently large denomination to carry any weight with the press.
As a result of this lack of moral authority on the part of Protestantism there arose the crusade for a United Church of America, which it is hoped will later result in a United Church of the World. The speaker pointed out that the denominational emphasis in our Christian faith has taken us as far as it can go. It has run its course and has made its contribution, which will not be lost but will be gathered up in a larger whole and will enrich the whole. He admitted that each denomination has been founded upon a neglected truth, or a group of neglected -truths. But he said that by uniting we will have The pooled truths of all denominations and in this way come nearer the truth. We must do it to save those truths and save the world. It was hoped that this campaign would kindle the soul uf the church into a flame of desire for action.
Even though the speaker held that the united church would have the pooled truths of all denominations, he emphasized that there would be but one tenet to which members would need to subscribe, namely, Peter's confession, "Thou art the Chi-ist, the Son of the living God." A minister arose and objected to this as a required doctrine, for it would rule out the Unitarians and the Universalists, which now are members of the Federal Council of Churches in New England. Dr. Jones felt, however, that there had to be one common belief, and they had not yet been able to find a more appropriate tenet than the one stated.
It was pointed out that the Catholic Church has greater influence with the legislature than the Protestants, but that when a united Christendom, seventy million strong in the United States (this number also includes the Catholics, as the door would always be open to all churches) would speak, the lawmakers would listen ; and if the 737,000,000 Christians in the world (the greatest single unit of the world) would speak, the nations now in a confused situation would listen. It was asked whether the plan is that the united church shall counsel its members as to how they shall vote. The reply was that this was a matter yet to be decided.
The united church would be not an amalgamation or a federal association but a federal union, where the union is supreme. The present denominations would be branches of this union. The letterheads would have in large letters, "The United Church of America," and then in some inconspicuous place in small letters could be indicated the branch, as "The Presbyterian Branch," "The Methodist Branch," "The Baptist Branch," and so forth. This would not mean the freezing of the denominations, but the melting of them. As in a marriage each loses himself, or herself, in something beyond himself, or herself—the union—thus the constituent bodies would surrender themselves to something beyond themselves—the union.
It was hoped that after a time the various ones would forget to indicate the branch. This would be somewhat similar to the federal union of the States in the U.S.A., though it would not be territorial but on the branch basis. The speaker did not, however, say on what basis it would be if, as it is hoped, the branches should be forgotten.
Each country would use the national expression of the Church of Christ, as the Church of Christ in Britain, as the Church of Christ in China, and so on. Over all these national expressions would be the World Assembly of the Church of Christ, made up of delegates from each of the national assemblies.
It was suggested that the branches delegate sovereignty to the union, while retaining freedom of local self-government under that union. Over these branches there would be a General Assembly of the Church of Christ in each country. There might be two houses in these—the one made up of an 'equal number of delegates from each branch, and the other an unequal number according to membership. There would also be assemblies over smaller units of territory.
The plan would be to amalgamate the boards of the branches. As for instance, missions at home and abroad could be placed in the hands of a general missions board, with responsibilities assigned to the branches.
Cards were given out to sign. These committed the signer to union, to form groups for study and discussion, and to get as many groups and denominations as possible committed to union, and to pray for the success of the crusade.
The concluding statements were that from every side the demand for union is arising, and that there is one goal—a church adequate for its individual, national, and world task, and that nothing but a united church can be adequate.
