USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > New Canaan > Canaan parish, 1733-1933, being the story of the Congregational church of New Cannan, Connecticut > Part 14
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NOTE-The Committee has offered suggestions for some changes in courses in the School which have been presented to the teachers, the chief changes centering around the plan of offering more concrete Bible Study and courses dealing with Bible content, in the Junior Department.
SECTION III.
The Anniversary Committee on Religious Education recommends the appointment by the Deacons of a permanent Committe on Religious Education to supervise and co-ordinate all the educational activities of the Church.
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COMMITTEE ON YOUTH IN THE CHURCH
The Committee on Youth in the Church appointed for the Two Hundredth Anniversary program has met and studied this department and recommends the following:
1. That the young people of intermediate and senior department ages meet in their own group twice on Sunday under adequate adult leadership:
a. On Sunday mornings for worship as a separate department of the Church School, after which they adjourn to their classes.
b. On Sunday evenings as the Young People's Federation for worship, discussion and sociability.
and that this group be known as the Young People's Department of the Church.
2. That the entire church program for Youth be placed under the supervision of a permanent committee on Religious Education to be appointed by the Deacons.
3. That the above committee elect adequate adult leadership for all activities of this department, in consultation with the Young People's Council. We believe the ultimate goal should be a competent paid director.
4. That the Church School provide a financial budget to cover approved activities of the various organizations of this Depart- ment, including training opportunities for selected young men and young women and their adult leaders.
5. That there be larger opportunity for participation by young people in all programs and activities of the Church :-
a. That this Department be represented on the Church Council.
b. That wherever practical, young men and young women be included on church committees.
6. That carefully planned services of worship, planned by young people and conducted by young people, be an essential part of the meetings of the Department as a means of nurturing spiritual attitudes.
7. That emphasis be placed upon training young people for leader- ship :-
a. Through leadership classes in connection with the Church School.
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b. Through sending representatives to denominational and in- terdenominational training schools and conferences.
c. Through promotion of approved reading courses.
Signed,
Mrs. Wayne G. Miller, Chairman; Mrs. L. J. Keyes, former Federation leader; Edwin Bouton, County Y. P. Conf .; Lawrence Bauer, B. C. F .; Elizabeth Piper and Ernest Urban, Storrs Delegates, and representing also two Church School classes. Edna Barnes representing 1933-1934 Federation.
COMMITTEE ON GOALS AND PROGRAM
I. THE CHURCH AND RELIGION
The Church's function is to provide for man's religous and spiritual needs. The Church recognizes that religion is a vital function in the harmonious development of his character, its aim being to make him conscious of his relationship to God and to Jesus Christ, to stimulate the growth and enrich- ment of personality, to moralize and socialize the individual, to develop in him poise-that is to say, a sense of perspective on life and a philosophic outlook on its trials and disappointments, its injustices and inequalities-to place high ideals before him and to afford him through inspiration the strength and determination to live up to them. That, as we see it, is the aim of the Christian religion, and that should be the aim of our Church.
Many means are available to the Church in pursuing that aim, and none of them should it neglect. Worship, prayer, exhortation and instruction from the pulpit; meditation, appreciation of the beauties of nature, poetry, the study of history, philosophy and science, the ideas of great minds, the lives of great men, the appreciation of art, the cultivation of a healthy body, the rendering of service to our fellowmen-all contribute to the realization of this aim. Everything that enriches life builds religion and everything that builds religion has a place in the program of our Church.
The promotion of beauty, truth, knowledge and goodness-there are the essential aims of the Christian religion, and these should be the aims of our Church. Beauty expressed in the natural surroundings of the Church, in its structure and scheme of decoration, in its services, in the relations of its members one with another and with their fellow men: truth, expressed in its teachings, in the message it bears to the outside world, in the sincerity of its professions and actions: knowledge that will illuminate the mind, knowledge of the teachings of Christ, knowledge of our inheritance of wisdom from the past, knowledge of the world as it is today, knowledge of the universe and of the laws of nature: and Goodness, the application of Beauty, Truth and
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Knowledge to conduct: the aims and object of our Church should be to come as near as one can to realizing this four-fold ideal.
II. THE CHURCH AND THE INDIVIDUAL
The Church is the means by which the individual may satisfy the deeper spiritual needs of his nature, through the worship of God, whose character Jesus reveals, through prayer, and through the inspiration of the ideals that the Church upholds. It should be as a beacon to those looking for guidance, a haven for those seeking rest and consolation, a stronghold for those engaged in conflict with evil and temptation, a home for those wanting human sym- pathy and friendliness. It should be permeated by the spirit of Christian fellowship. It should be a happy cheerful place. The modern approach to religion calls for gladness, and every step in the Christian life should be made joyfully. The Church should evoke in all its members a spirit of gracious- ness and friendliness. Warmth and heartiness should characterize every service, so that no member will want to be absent and the casual visitor will want to return. The Church should seek out those who are in need of what it can give and try to send none away unsatisfied from its doors. It should strive to permeate every relationship of life-home, business, social and civic life-with the spirit and purpose of Jesus Christ.
The Church should give scope for the individual's need for self-expression, through the singing of hymns, prayer, discussion, through opportunities for leadership and through social service. The Church should seek to give senti- ment the place in life of which the modern age has constantly tended to deprive it. It should build up and sustain sentiment for the home, the com- munity and for the church itself. It should uphold the traditions of the Church, make known its history, instill reverence for it as the House of God, realizing that proper estimate of our religious heritage from other days will enrich and stabilize our religious faith. The Church should emphasize the fact that it belongs not to us alone but to generations of people past and future. Hallowed associations surround it, and the spirit of its founders still lingers about its walls. We must enter into fellowship with that spirit in order to have sure foundations for our work of building for the future.
III. THE CHURCH AND THE COMMUNITY
The Church today is only one of a number of agencies for good in the community. Many of the functions that it once served have been taken from it and placed under secular control. Schools, hospitals, philanthropic and social enterprises of all kinds-these are no longer controlled by the Church, or in most cases, connected directly with it. Not only is this so, but the Church has to limit its own activities in order not to conflict with the legitimate and necessary claims of these other agencies on the time and attention of its
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members. And this is a fact that has to be kept constantly in mind in plan- ning a modern Church program.
This process of detaching from the Church many of its former functions may be regarded as inevitable, even advantageous, owing to the increased com- plexity of modern life, requiring greater division of labour, more specilization of knowledge and technique, more concentration of effort, and greater elasticity of organization, than were needed when the Church was the centre of communal life and the focus of all philanthropic work. Nor need it weaken in any way the real abiding and essential influence of the Church for good. The Church's function today is to serve as the center of the spiritual life of the community, to which every agency for good must come in order to satisfy its need for inspiration and enlightment. It is by influence, not by control, that the Church must seek its object. What the Church can do and must do, is to permeate every such institution and agency with its spirit-the spirit of Christ,-and it can do this best by supplying from its membership, Christian men and women, able and willing to take the lead in all such enterprises. The Church that is fulfilling this function in the modern world is a source of light, a source of power and a source of energy for every useful and worth- while activity in its community. It is the source of that spiritual experience which finds its expression in the service of one's fellow men.
In our community there are several other churches, each one of which in its own way fulfills the same function. Cooperation with them should be one of our chief aims. We should seek by all the means in our power to break down the barriers which separate us one from another, and which prevent us from bringing our influence to bear with maximum efficiency on the life of the community. Christian unity should stand in the forefront of our program, being the expression of our deepest conviction regarding the need of the Church in facing its present problems.
IV. THE CHURCH AND SOCIETY
The Church today has a two-fold mission-to create a better social order and to create a better type of character. It is concerned as much with the great social questions of the day as it is with the spiritual problems of the personal life. It is no longer the saving of our own souls that solely concerns us: rather it is the making of ourselves more fit to help save the soul of the world, and we realize that in striving to solve the problems of society we shall at the same time be helping to solve our own personal problems. "He that loses his soul shall find it." Sinners we may be, in constant need of God's forgiveness, but we are also human instruments of His will, some better, some weaker, but each striving in his own way and within his limitations to bring in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. We strive for self-government, we seek for spiritual power, but striving and seeking, our aim is not merely our own personal salvation, but the perfecting of ourselves for the carrying out of the
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Divine Purpose in the world. The aim and purpose of our Church is to work for social justice, the eradication of crime and misery, the spread of the spirit of universal goodwill, the just treatment of the weak by the strong, peace, friendliness and understanding between all nations and races.
V. THE CHURCH AND THE MODERN WORLD
The Church today needs to be alive, vigorous, active, as never before in its history. It is freer than it has ever been to do its best work in the world. It has been set free from the fetters that held it captive in former days-the domination of the State, the grip of authority, the element of fear, the shackles of taboo, superstitions and outworn creeds and dogmas. Our forefathers of the sixteenth century gave us Liberty of Conscience and Freedom of Thought. Those of the seventeenth century fought and obtained for us Civic and Re- ligious Liberty in the State. And ever since then the movement of thought has broadened and deepened. We have cast away bigotry and intolerance; we have allowed the advances of Science to open our minds to vast new con- ceptions of the Universe and of Life. The Church has opened its heart to Beauty and Truth wherever they are to be found.
And yet the Church is threatened as never before by the forces that would destroy it-by militarism, nationalism, materialism, atheism, paganism and the sheer indifference of the multitude to all that the Church stands for. It is fight- ing to hold its ground, even to win back lost ground, and it is the stiffest fight of its existence. In order to win it needs enthusiasm, loyalty, the spirit of sacrifice, the spirit of comradeship. Above all, it needs to enlist and retain its Youth. In order to do this it must educate its Young People to a sense of their responsi- bilities, it must appeal to their idealism and inspire them with a desire for con- structive service, and it must train them for leadership. Only by so doing can the Church hope to emerge victorious over its enemies and bring the coming of the Kingdom of God nearer to realization.
VI. THE CHURCH AND ITS MEMBERSHIP
To meet the challenge of the modern world the Church requires a loyal, active and enthusiastic membership. The forces of custom, convention and authority that formerly supported it have crumbled away to the point of disappearing. Membership in a Church or attendance at its services is now entirely a matter of individual inclination. The Church has to depend upon itself as much as any business concern. And our Church in particular places the responsibility of its welfare directly upon the shoulders of each individual member. It is what each member acting together as a congregation, makes it. Its very existence, therefore, depends upon how strong a sense of responsibility and stewardship its members possess. It is not enough for each of us to attend regularly and contribute money according to our means. We should stand forth as witnesses of Christ, advocates of the Church. Let each individual
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member be enthusiastic about his Church. and he will be as potent an influence for the growth of his Church as the most eloquent preacher. A book becomes a best seller because those who read it and like it tell their friends about it and the word gets passed around that it is a good book. All the advertising and publicity given it by its publisher and all the promotion work he may do are as nothing compared to this. And so it is with a Church. Its growth both in numbers and in spiritual power is in direct ratio with the degree of affection and enthusiasm and loyalty it arouses in its members.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
I. THE CHURCH SERVICES
(1) The committee has no recommendations to make regarding the Sunday morning service.
(2) The committee recognizes that there is some sentiment in favor of a Sunday evening service but does not feel that, taking into consideration all the difficulties involved, it can recommend such an addition to the services of the Church at the present time.
(3) The committee feels that the spiritual life of the Church suffers from the lack of any kind of mid-week service. It appreciates the fact that unless intelligently planned, such a service, if instituted, is liable to suffer from lack of support, especially in view of the competing claims and attractions of other mid-week community activities. Yet it believes that the attempt should be made, that mere numbers should not be considered in estimating the value and worth of such a service and that, if carefully planned and led, it would receive adequate support and be a welcome addition to the services of the Church.
The committee recommends that the mid-week service, if the idea of it is accepted by the Church. should be planned to serve a definitely construc- tive purpose. It should have a well-defined program, in the working out of which the minister should have the assistance of the deacons, as well as of all members who are vitally interested in the spiritual welfare of the Church and the community. It is suggested that one of the principal aims of the service should be to afford greater scope and opportunity for self-expression in religion than is. or can be, afforded by the Sunday service. This self-expression can be attained through prayer, through singing and through open discussion. and through all three mediums it can serve as a powerful means of spiritual enrichment. Many rich fields of religious experience cannot be properly cul- tivated in the Sunday service, the primary object of which is worship. As one example, our hymn singing would have greater value for us if we knew more about the history of the hymns we sing, how they came to be written and the inner meaning they possessed for the author. Frequently they are the fruit of a unique spiritual experience. knowledge of which would lend the
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words a significance lacking for us hitherto. This is stated as merely one field of spiritual experience that might be explored at the mid-week services. Help and guidance in the problems of every day life-this might be our chief ob- ject in meeting together on Wednesday evenings.
The committee recommends that in weeks when a social is held, the social shall take the place of the mid-week service.
(4) While not committing itself to the opinion that a new hymn-book is either necessary or desirable, the committee, in deference to the wishes of some of its members, suggests the appointment of a special committee to con- sider the matter.
II. THE CHURCH SOCIALS
The committee recommends that these should be a part of the regular church program, to be held at regular intervals. They should not be allowed to run themselves, but a concerted effort should be made to make them of real worth, so much so that no one could afford to stay away. It is suggested that they be arranged so as to combine several purposes: (a) social-to serve as a "get together", so that members should become better acquainted, one with another, as well as with newcomers to the church and the community; (b) to promote the spirit of fellowship; (c) intellectual and cultural enrichment by the giving of addresses or talks on various subjects of interest to a church body; (d) devotional. At each social a committee of six or eight could be appointed to be responsible for the following social. Different organizations of the church might take a particular social and arrange the program-i. e. the Young People's Department, the Women's League, the Younger Women's groups and the Choir. There should be no difficulty in finding in the ranks of members or of other friends of the Church in the community or outside, people who would give a talk on some subject, or, to vary the program, an occasional debate might be both instructive and entertaining. It is suggested that a supper should be a frequent, if not a regular, feature, and that on occasions when it is omitted, refreshments should be served.
III. THE BOARD OF DEACONS
The committee is of the opinion that the duties of this Board should be extended in order that it shall more thoroughly fulfill its proper and allotted function, which is to assist and advise the pastor in everything pertaining to the spiritual welfare of the Church. Proper performance of this function re- quires that the Board exercise definite supervision over the organized work of the Church. To this end the committee recommends that a deacon be present at every Church School session, the duty to be performed in rotation. In particular, the Board should undertake the task of planning for a steady advance in the spiritual life and work of the Church. The Board should also accept
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the responsibility of assisting the minister in pastoral work, according to the needs of the case, and in the supply of lay leadership in spiritual enterprises. To perform these duties properly the Board should meet regularly once a month.
IV. THE USHERS
The committee recommends magnifying the office of usher. It feels that the office is so esential a part of the Church organization, the usher being really "the host of the congregation" and that so much that is vitally important to the welfare of the Church depends upon the manner in which the usher performs his duties, that greater recognition should be given to the office than at present. The committee, therefore, recommends the institution of a Board of Ushers each year to serve for one year, their appointment to be made by the Board of Deacons.
The duties of the ushers should be made the subject of special and care- ful study by the deacons in conjunction with the ushers, and every new usher should be carefully instructed in his duties before beginning his term of office.
V. THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION COMMITTEE
(1) The committee endorses the recommendation of the Anniversary Committees on Youth in the Church and on Religious Education for the appoint- ment by the deacons of a permanent Religious Education Committee to supervise the entire educational program of the Church. It suggests that this Committee be composed of seven members-three men and three women and a chairman,-and it would like to see the pastor invited to be the chairman. In the selection of this Committee, special regard should be had to the four main sub-divisions of the Church's educational program, e. g. the children, the young people, the adults and the home.
(2) With regard to the last-the home-the Committee wishes to stress the importance of giving aid to parents in the religious nurture of their children. It is strongly of the opinion that the home should be considered of equal importance with the Church School, that the School can by itself accomplish little without the cooperation of parents, and that parents, in order to perform their duty properly, need help and counsel. To this end the com- mittee recommends (a) that it should be part of the functions of the Re- ligious Education Committee to make practical suggestions to parents and to advise in regard to books to be read and studied in the home, and (b) that it should promote meetings between parents and Church School teachers. No opportunity should be missed to impress upon parents how real is their re- sponsibility in this matter.
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(3) The committee further recommends that one of the first matters to be considered by this Committee should be that of a Church Nursery. The primary purpose of such a nursery would be to enable parents, who would otherwise be kept at home, to attend Sunday morning service by being able to leave their children under proper care. But the committee feels that it might be made to serve a valuable secondary purpose, that of affording an additional opportunity for religious education of the children.
An expressed desire for such a nursery has reached the committee from several quarters, and the committee feels that the matter is one deserving of careful and sympathetic consideration. Furthermore, the members of the Sigma Alpha Phi sorority have volunteered their services in the management of the nursery, should the scheme be adopted.
(4) The Committee suggests that Adult Education is a subject deserv- ing of special study by the Committee on Religious Education.
VI. YOUNG PEOPLE'S DEPARTMENT
The committee notes, and endorses, the finding of the Anniversary Com- mittee on Youth in the Church "that there be larger opportunity for partici- pation by young people in all programs and activities of the Church."
As additional steps in this direction the committee recommends (1) that the immediate supervision of this department should be placed in the hands of a special sub-committee of the Committee on Religious Eduction, presided over by the Director of Young People's Work; and (2) the appointment of a select group of six young people, to serve as volunteer assistants to the Board of Deacons, their duties to be assigned to them by the Deacons. The Committee believes that the institution of such a group will not only afford training in leadership and service but will form a stronger tie between the Church and the young men and women who are passing beyond the Church School age and who need encouragement and incentive to take an active part in Church work. The Committee regards training in leadership as a vital part of the work of the Young People's Department.
The Committee wishes to express its satisfaction with the appointment of Mr. Wayne G. Miller as Director of Young People's work and hopes that his efforts will be productive in strengthening the ties between the Church and its young people. It expresses the further hope that any program initiated by Mr. Miller will be such as can become part of the permanent program of the Church, to be continued after his term of office has expired.
VII. WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS
The committee has taken under consideration the present scope and activities of the various women's organizations of the Church-that is to say, of the Women's League, the Lend-A-Hand Club, the Calling Committee,
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the Sigma Alpha Phi Sorority-and, while it is not prepared to make specific suggestions for extending and developing these activities, it is of the opinion that something should be done to broaden their scope so as to enlist the active support of every woman member of the congregation, the object being to provide groups of various kinds according to the special tastes and inclinations of the members. Thus there might be a group.for those interested in missionary work, another for those interested in social welfare, another for political and civic problems, another for service within the Church in connection with the socials and similar activities, and so on. The committee recommends that a meeting of the women of the Church should be called to consider the matter. In this way a comprehensive scheme might be worked out embracing the whole organized work of the women in the Church.
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