4. Such Congregational general societies for Christian work, and the faculties of such theological seminaries, as may be recognized by this Council, may be represented by one delegate each, such representatives having the right of discussion only. III. Officers.-1. At the beginning of every stated or special session, there shall be chosen by ballot, from those present as members, a moderator, and one or more assistant moderators, to preside over its deliberations. 2. At each triennial session, there shall be chosen by ballot a secretary, a registrar, and a treasurer, to serve from the close of such session to the close of the next triennial session. 3. The secretary shall receive communications for the Council, conduct correspondence, and collect such facts, and superintend such publications, as may from time to time be ordered. 4. The registrar shall make and preserve the records of the proceedings of the Council; and for his aid, one or more assistants shall be chosen at each session, to serve during such session. 5. The treasurer shall do the work ordinarily belonging to such office. 6. At each triennial session, there shall be chosen a provisional committee, who shall make needful arrangements for the next triennial session, and for any session called during the interval. 7. Committees shall be appointed, and in such manner, as may from time to time be ordered. 8. Any member of a church in fellowship may be chosen to the office of secretary, registrar, or treasurer; and such officers as are not delegates shall have all the privileges of members, except that of voting. IV. By-Laws.'- The Council may make and alter By-laws at any triennial session. V. Amendments.— This constitution shall not be altered or amended, except at a triennial session, and by a two-thirds vote, notice thereof having been given at a previous triennial session, or the proposed alteration having been requested by some general State organization of churches, and published with the notification of the session." The work on the constitution was completed on the afternoon of November 17. On the evening before, the Council had listened to a paper by Rev. Dr. William I. Buddington" on the Unity of the 1 I omit the by-laws as of temporary importance. 2 Brooklyn, N. Y. Church. That paper was referred, on the morning after its presentation, to a committee composed of Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon, Rev. Dr. Truman M. Post,1 and Charles B. Lines, Esq.; and on November 18 these brethren reported, and the Council adopted, a declaration which the Council "ordered to be put on record in close proximity to the constitution," and which has ever since been regarded as part of the basis of the body. It runs thus:* "DECLARATION ON THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. The members of the National Council, representing the Congregational churches of the United States, avail themselves of this opportunity to renew their previous declarations of faith in the unity of the church of God. While affirming the liberty of our churches, as taught in the New Testament, and inherited by us from our fathers, and from martyrs and confessors of foregoing ages, we adhere to this liberty all the more as affording the ground and hope of a more visible unity in time to come. We desire and purpose to cooperate with all the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the expression of the same catholic sentiments solemnly avowed by the Council of 1865, on the Burial Hill at Plymouth, we wish, at this new epoch of our history, to remove, so far as in us lies, all causes of suspicion and alienation, and to promote the growing unity of council and of effort among the followers of Christ. To us, as to our brethren, 'There is one body and one spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling.1 As little as did our fathers in their days, do we in ours, make a pretension to be the only churches of Christ. We find ourselves consulting and acting together under the distinctive name of Congregationalists, because, in the present condition of our common Christianity, we have felt ourselves called to ascertain and do our own appropriate part of the work of Christ's church among men. We especially desire, in prosecuting the common work of evangelizing our own land and the world, to observe the common and sacred law, that in the wide field of the world's evangelization, we do our work in friendly cooperation with all those who love and serve our common Lord. 1 St. Louis, Mo. 3 Minutes of Obertin Council, p. 36. 2 Waubaunsee, Kan. 4 Ibid.. pp. 31, 3', 65, 66. We believe in "the holy catholic church.' It is our prayer and endeavor, that the unity of the church may be more and more apparent, and that the prayer of our Lord for his disciples may be speedily and completely answered, and all be one; that by consequence of this Christian unity in love, the world may believe in Christ as sent of the Father to save the world." The National Council, thus established, has more than vindicated its right to be. Though subject to protest during its early years from the churches of New Jersey' and New York as a possible menace to Congregational independence, it has always had the support of a vast majority of the Congregational body, and has already substantially outlived criticism. It has unified the statistics. of the denomination, it has relieved friction between the benevolent societies of our body, it has been largely instrumental in making some of them truly representative of the churches, and will doubtless eventually bring all into directly responsible connection, and above all it has fostered the spirit of denominational unity and fellowship, which the Congregationalism of the first half of this century so largely lacked, and which is essential to all permanent growth. Its statements of faith, adopted at Oberlin, are valuable as illustrating the catholicity of spirit which has accompanied this growth of denominational consciousness. In matters of doctrine the constitution is more important for what it does not affirm than for that which it declares. Though nowhere expressly stated, the understanding at Oberlin at its adoption, and the interpretation since usually put upon it, is that it holds out the olive branch of denominational fellowship to brethren of Arminian sympathies, and is but a further illustration of that desire not to limit Congregational brotherhood to those who hold exclusively the system known as "Calvinism," which was already manifest in the Council of 1865. 1 The General Association of this state protested in 1877 and 1880 against the continuance of the National Council as a regularly recurrent body, meeting to give advice in denominational matters. Minutes of Council of 1877, pp. 19, 22, 37, 38; of 1880, pp. 15, 16, 26, 27, 186-191. 3 The General Association requested in 1880 that the Council refrain from expressing opinions by votes, and the Hudson River Association asked the same year that the functions of the Council be more clearly defined. See references in previous note. TEXT XX THE "COMMISSION" CREED OF 1883 The Congregationalist for March 6, 1884, and other contemporary religious papers; Huntington, Outlines of Congregational History, Boston, 1885, pp. 189194; Boardman, Congregationalism, Chicago [1889], pp. 62, 63. Literature The Minutes of the National Council of 1880; Religious newspapers contemporary with its publication. THE years. HE doctrinal expressions put forth by the Councils of 1865 and 1871 were the first united confessions which American Congregationalism had produced for more than two hundred But they were far from universally satisfactory. Their language was too general, and they were not adapted to form the creed-expressions of local churches, newly founded or desiring to modify their creeds. It was, moreover, a question in many minds how far the allusions of the Burial Hill Confession to the symbols of 1648 and 1680 implied that those venerable documents were authoritative standards of modern Congregationalism. On a strict construction of that Declaration it certainly appeared that the Council at Plymouth reaffirmed the doctrinal statements of those ancient formule with substantial fullness; but it might well be that this reference to the productions of these seventeenth century synods was, as Dr. Bacon styled it, merely a "rhetorical discourse." So strongly was the desire felt for a simple declaration, in modern language, that the Oberlin Council of 1871 put on record its judgment that there had'— "come up, from all quarters, earnest calls for some brief manual of doctrine and polity for use in the families and Sunday-schools of our churches"; and, hearing that a manual was in "preparation by the Congregational Publishing Society," the assembly at Oberlin appointed a 1 Independent. Oct. 14, 1880. ■ Minutes of National Council, 1871, p. 41. committee of five to whom it could be submitted for approval.1 The publication of the so-called "Boston Platform," in 1872, by the committee appointed by the Council of 1865, made the committee of the Council of 1871 feel discharged of any further duty in the matter.' But the lack of such an outline of doctrine was increasingly felt, and led, in 1879, to the appointment by the Congregational Association of Ohio of a committee, of which Rev. James Brand* was chairman, to consider what might be done to supply the want. At its suggestion the Ohio Association, at its meeting in Wellington in May, 1880, adopted an elaborate memorial, addressed to the National Council, setting forth the deficiencies of the previous declarations, and the inexpediency of reaffirming the seventeenth century creeds, and asking the Council to take into consideration, in such way as should seem best to it, the desirability of a "formula that shall not be mainly a reaffirmation of former confessions, but that shall state in precise terms in our living tongue the doctrines which we hold to-day." This memorial was seconded by similar appeals from the General Conference of Minnesota," and the Central South Conference of Tennessee;" and the three memorials were duly laid before the National Council on November 11, 1880, at its session in St. Louis, Mo.7 There they were reinforced by an able and convincing historical and argumentative paper by Prof. Hiram Mead. The Council referred. this paper and the memorials to a committee consisting of Rev. Dr. A. L. Chapin," Rev. C. D. Barrows," Rev. Dr. S. R. Dennen," Rev. Dr. N. A. Hyde," Rev. F. P. Woodbury," Dea. D. C. Bell," and J. E. Sargent, Esq." This committee sympathized with the memorialists, and at its recommendation," the Council, on Nov. 15, adopted the following resolutions: " "Resolved, (1) That the paper on creeds1' be printed, and receive the thoughtful consideration of the churches. 1 Ibid., p. 46. s Minutes of 1874, p. 32. * Oberlin, O. See Minutes of 1880, p. 133. * In full, Ibid., pp. 133-138. • Ibid., pp. 139, 140. Ibid., pp. 144-173. 10 Lowell, Mass. 13 Rockford, Ill. • Ibid., pp. 138, 139. Of the Theo. Sem., Oberlin, O. 11 New Haven, Conn. 14 Minneapolis, Minn. 16 Its report in full, Ibid., pp. 198, 199. 18 Prof. Mead's. Ibid., p. 13. 12 Indianapolis, Ind. |
