USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Danvers > Exercises in celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the First Church, Congregational, Danvers, Massachusetts: October 8th to 15th, 1922; with an address at the centennial of the Sunday School, November 17th, 1918 > Part 10
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Postlude-Hallelujah Chorus. Handel
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12 CHRISTIAN UNITY MEETING
That the Anniversary Week might not savor too much of self-congratulation and be of more than parochial influence and application, there was held Thursday evening a meeting in the interest of Christian unity. Representatives of four leading denominations, Baptist, Unitarian, Episcopal and Congregational, met on the same platform to discuss the question, Obstacles to Unity: How to Overcome Them.
The occasion made a wide appeal, all the churches of the town being represented in the audience, and many people from out of town, notably ministers, attending. In point of num- bers, the gathering was one of the largest of the week. Rev. George H. Hubbard of Boston led in the opening prayer. The pastor, Rev. Albert Virgil House, who presided, spoke in introduction, of the traditional spirit of comity in the First Church, and of the fact that in these last days it seemed to have incorporated the Apostolic principle of inclusiveness in its organic law, which asked no creedal subscription of can- didates for membership but freely received all on the basis of Christian loyalty. As to the question, how to overcome obstacles to unity, he declared that one needed element was the willingness to sacrifice. Denominational sentiments are very dear and affection for local churches very deep, but these should not be permitted to stand in the way of a real Christian advance. As a manifestation of the required spirit he cited the feeling of many graduates of Andover Theo- logical Seminary, being one himself, who held their old spiritual Alma Mater in purest veneration and affection, yet now were willing, for the sake of the great interest involved, to see her practically lose her identity in the new School of Theology in Harvard University. He felt that the new arrangement between Andover and Harvard was a great accomplishment in the line of the subject of the evening. It is not enough, he said, simply to talk unity. We must be prepared to take the practical steps even at the cost of the most precious memories and traditions.
The hymns of the service were chosen from the great, universal hymns of the church and illustrated the unity of
REV. CURTIS M. GEER, Ph.D.
Pastor, 1895 - 1897
FIRST CHURCH, CONGREGATIONAL, DANVERS, MASS. 107
Christian worship, the address of each speaker being followed by a hymn written by a member of his denomination.
Drs. Bradbury, Gilroy and Dieffenbach submitted resumes of their addresses and these are incorporated in the report which follows. The summary of Dr. McComb's address was written out later by another and submitted to Dr. McComb. Dr. McComb wrote that the report was correct and that he saw no need to change it.
The addresses follow.
REV. PROF. SAMUEL MCCOMB, D. D. Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge
Dr. McComb stressed the value of the historical background supplied by the Episcopal Church, yet he would not say that all people should be Episcopalian or that that form of polity and worship was necessarily the one thing needful for the religious help of men. He brought out the fact that men differ in temperament and that there was no basis in reason for the demand that all have the same religious experience or be run through the same mould. Some enjoy and require a liturgical service; others, the simpler forms of the non- Episcopal communions. The church of the future, perhaps, would be able to supply services of varying kinds for varying classes and temperaments. Why have different ecclesiastical organizations when the one church might be made to minister to men in all their multiple requirements ?
To the church of the future each denomination might have something of value to contribute. He felt that the central- ized government of the Episcopal church represented a nec- essary element. Some churches are too loose in discipline and perhaps its methods of government might be a contribu- tion of the Episcopal Church to the great unified body which he hoped would one day come to be.
A concession which Episcopacy must make is in recognizing the validity of non-Episcopal ordination. Dr. McComb was very pronounced in this and took the very strongest ground as to a ministry valid in all the churches. His statement of his position in this regard marked high tide in the session of the evening.
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Dr. McComb felt very keenly the shame of denominational- ism, illustrating his thought by deplorable deeds of narrow- ness witnessed during the great war.
If the desired consummation is ever effected Episcopalians must learn to look through non-Episcopalian glasses, and conversely, those of other affiliations must learn to look through Episcopalian glasses. Or, in other words, we must all get out of our narrowness and bigotry and see the whole subject without prejudice or selfishness.
REV. ALBERT C. DIEFFENBACH, D. D. Editor THE CHRISTIAN REGISTER
In our land such a celebration as this two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of a church of God by the pioneers is extraordinary, even apart from the fact that the vigor and efficacy of the congregation is more highly de- veloped today than it has been in any period of its long and persistent history.
For America, this is a venerable spiritual continuity. But I am speaking to a people whose country is very young among the nations. It happens that I may bring to your hearing a simple statement about another church in another land of which I think with a profound sentiment of reverent tribute to the everlasting reality of religion. The story will heighten the meaning of your own event tonight.
A few years ago I received an invitation to the eleven hun- dredth anniversary of the building of the church of my fathers, which was established by no less a person than Char- lemagne, head of the Roman Empire, whose rule was acknowl- edged over the western world. That was in the Year of Our Lord 812, and the church-or properly, from the architec- tural standpoint, chapel-still stands, its walls mellowed by the tears of time, its roof rusted by the sun and snow and rain of the centuries, its stone threshold worn deep by the pilgrims' feet who still go up faithfully to the temple to pray as all our fathers have done since first we became chil- dren of the Most High. That church has a kinship with your church.
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Charlemagne, on the very day he was crowned as Emperor, in 800 A. D., also was ordained as deacon in the church. That is a significant fact. He built throughout his empire a thou- sand shrines like this of my forbears in what is now Schlitz, a town in Hesse-Darmstadt. Many of them still stand upon holy ground for the worship of the children's children of those who were loyal in the olden time to both church and state.
May I say that the world has never been without witnesses, in the Christian economy, at least, to the relation of religion to politics? Every state has had its origin, in fact, in a religious ideal, and in the beginning the ruler was supposed to have his authority directly from God. The motive of obedience was a religious motive. All the people hearkened to the king as to the voice of God. This was his divine right. This was the sign and symbol that the state is founded not in the flesh but in the spirit of man; that religion keeps supreme the ideal that the state and its government is more than a business compact. The state is a sacramental bond of the people, designed to exalt the righteousness of God for the commonweal by means of laws and institutions. As Lincoln said at Gettysburg, our relation to the state is in the nature of dedication.
You sons and daughters of Pilgrim and Puritan know this is true. Why, then, should I remind you members of this church, whose own beings are the spiritual progeny of this idea ? Because the repetition of the fact is a stimulus of remembrance to make your day as worthy for those who shall follow after you as the day of those sturdy and devout fore- runners who brought you hither is worthy for you.
Religion at its best has been concerned with life in the large, and not with personal pieties only. It is universal and not merely parochial. The church takes the inclusive view of things. The world is its parish, as Wesley said; and the world is also its ally. The conquest of religion is the willing agreement and co-operation of all the sons of men in every land and nation to build the Kingdom of God.
Tonight something sings with joy in my heart as I think of these things, because here about this sacred desk are men invited from various denominations for a single united pur-
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pose. I need not tell you of the long and in part shameful story of the sects. I declare the better thing which is a fact before your eyes. We ministers of other churches come to bear testimony that there is a unity which cannot abide our divisions. Religion is a binder and not a scatterer. We are one people, with one nature, one need, one aspiration, one destiny. The deeps of ourselves are everlastingly the same. He who strives to make our likenesses greater than our differences is of Christ. He is a son of God !
I remember a story of the great Martineau, Unitarian theologian to whose genius all the open minds of the churches pay tribute. When he lived in London another great spir- itual power was preaching there to innumerable throngs of listeners. Charles Spurgeon was the idol of the multitude. It was Martineau's habit to hear the other ministers as he had opportunity. He was fond of Spurgeon. Yet the fact is, in matters of doctrine, no two men in that whole British Kingdom were further apart than Spurgeon and Martineau, the Baptist and the Unitarian. One of this liberal theo- logian's friends questioned him for going to a place of wor- ship so different from his own. "Why do you go to hear Spurgeon preach ?" he inquired. "You do not believe what he says." Martineau replied, "No, I do not but Spurgeon does!"
Not only was Spurgeon sincere, my friends, but he had a heart for all people, and 'never a taint of hatefulness was in his message of love from God and Christ. Without com- promise, he believed and spoke his belief. We admire that. The spiritual integrity of honest conviction is its own re- ward. A dynamic and inspiring something breathes from a soul who speaks truth as he understands it, if it be in the spirit of love. Interpretations change from age to age, but love is the eternal constant. And love, I am certain, is the power which brings even our beliefs more and more into accord. Because we love more, there is less difference of opinion, and surely less pride of opinion, among the people in this part of our country than there has ever been in our history. That is to say, because of growing love there is more desire today for the spiritual fundamentals by which men live together and move forward than we have witnessed
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in the last two hundred and fifty years. Shout the glad tidings !
As we contemplate the future, the immediate tomorrow, what may we say? If I may borrow a word from the field of medicine, it is this: Once the several churches were "spe- cialists." The Episcopalian emphasized the beauty of cere- mony and ritual and architecture; the Presbyterian, the in- violable attributes of a divine Sovereign expressed in a great system of theology; the Methodist, the free and abundant grace of God, with its human expression in the joy of good- ness ; the Baptist and the Congregationalist, the freedom of the soul to be its own master in matters of faith; the Uni- tarian, the dignity and divinity of human nature, with the corollary of the rights of man as a child of God, to be treated by his fellows worthily as a brother.
I do not mean these were the only things that character- ized the churches. They were the distinctive things, and as such had great prominence in the lives of the devotees of the denominations. There were, in fact, denominational types, which a discerning eye may still find in every com- munity. They linger among us, but they are dwindling. The reason is, the churches are no longer "specialists" first in religion. They are engaged in "general practice." Re- ligion as a whole is their ministry. The old peculiarities of the sects are not primary any more. They all contribute their special religious gifts and talents to the one great body of religious life and practice, and thus have begun the build- ing of a true and comprehensive church universal.
As a minister of one of these churches, I declare that Uni- tarians are ready and willing and eager to join in that in- elusive fellowship on every occasion, and indeed for every day of the year, throughout the generations yet to be, be- cause there is no other faith so great as the teaching of Jesus Christ, namely, that one God is our Father and we are brethren, and the only commandment is that we love the Lord our God, and our brethren as ourselves.
On this rock your fathers built this church. There is no other foundation. Build ye upon it, so that they who follow
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may find graven in the walls of the sanctuary the words that each of you may write:
After me cometh a builder- Tell him I too have known.
REV. PROF. WOODMAN BRADBURY, D. D. Baptist Theological Institution, Newton
The sects are but segments of the church universal. They have historical reasons for existence which are not altogether valid for the modern mind. They arose from loyalty to the Bible, based on the assumption that the Bible was inerrant in all matters and an infallible guide. This assumption is now known to be groundless. Another assumption underlies denominationalism, namely that all members of the same church must hold identical beliefs. The inclusiveness of many denominations today proves the falsity of this assump- tion. There is therefore no reason why there should not be a far greater rapprochement among the sects.
What, then, keeps us apart? Partly the conservatism of human nature. By Newton's first law of motion, we tend to go on in the same direction we have been going. Then, too, denominational machinery tends to perpetuate the di- vision. There are large vested interests which are highly conservative. Moreover, we still differ largely in our the- ologies, our manner of worship, and our modes of church government. The barriers are intellectual, emotional and practical and are not therefore to be underestimated. How difficult for the high churchman and the Unitarian to unite on a creed, for the Quaker and the Salvation Army soldier to agree on worship, for the Roman Catholic and Baptist to have similar views on church polity !
Let us not be too hard, then, on denominations. As differ- ent theories of government divide our citizens into many political parties, as not every physician would practise the healing art after the manner of the Christian Scientist, as the economics taught at Columbia University differs from that of the Rand School, as Art itself is divided into differ- ent "schools," so in the hugely important matters of religion,
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to which the deepest loyalties of the soul go out, it is inev- itable that there should be different creeds, politics, and liturgies.
Nevertheless, we must not remain in our present isolation. "Is Christ divided?" If corporate union is out of the ques- tion at present, a very real unity is desirable and realizable. Let all denominations, then, take these steps: first, unite in co-operative tasks ; second, realize that to plant a new church in a stationary community already well served is a sin against the great Head of the church; third, honor membership in each other's denominations, so that one can pass in full communion from one to another and back again; fourth, recognize the validity of each other's ministry; and lastly, give up the idea that any one branch of the church is the simon-pure article and will eventually absorb all the others.
While the denominations are engaged in thus drawing to- gether, people of good-will in all the churches can help the situation at once and without formality by confessing our sin of narrowness, by gaining a sympathetic knowledge of what other denominations stand for and what they are accom- plishing, and by ever holding before our eyes the ideal of the church universal, the bride of Christ, the pillar and ground of truth. Then, in Martineau's words, we shall "dissent no longer with the heat of a narrow antipathy but with the quiet of a large sympathy," out of which shall come the more illustrious church of the future.
REV. WILLIAM E. GILROY, D. D. Editor Congregationalist
Dr. Gilroy claimed that the great contribution that Con- gregationalism had made to the united church was in his judgment its emphasis upon liberty and the chief obstacle to unity from the Congregational standpoint was the lack of breadth and liberty in the church.
He felt that before it was possible to effect a catholic or- ganization of the Christian churches there must be a more catholic spirit. He failed to see how this could come except by a larger recognition of the nature of Christian love and sympathy and by a realization that truth is much vaster than any one group's conception of it. He felt that any
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proposed united church, to have vital and effective unity, must be upon such a basis as shall make possible the widest variety of Christian experience and opinion.
He believed that many Congregationalists in their own out- look upon religion and the church had already attained this standpoint.
They thought of the church not as a local group, nor as a particular denominational organization, but as the great fellowship of true Christian believers everywhere and at all times.
Their faith and experience reached out to a great com- munion of saints who had gone before, of sincere Christians of every name and creed today and to a great succession of Christians who would follow in the days to come. The church in its nature, in their judgment, was spiritual and eternal. Such a church was bound to be catholic, and some day, Mr. Gilroy believed, there would be in the world an organiza- tion in accord with the breadth, depth and liberty of such a fellowship.
The following resolutions were offered by the chairman of the evening, and their adoption moved by Mr. C. H. Preston.
RESOLUTIONS
"We, the members and friends of the First Church of Danvers, Congregational, gathered in observance of the 250th anniversary of the church, would hereby express our sense of indebtedness to the brethren representing different branches of the Christian church, who have so sympathetically and ably presented to this meeting the subject of Christian unity in its various aspects.
"We rejoice in the bond of discipleship to Jesus Christ, which unites us all; in the increasing spirit of concord and co-operation among the churches of America and the world; and in their deepening purpose to find ways of yet more intimate and effective fellowship in the service of the Master.
"We invoke the blessing of God upon all effort looking to closer organic union among the various sectarian bodies and pray that by His wisdom He will guide His servants as they labor for this great object."
The meeting closed with the singing of the hymn by Ozora S. Davis, the last stanza of which is
REV. HARRY C. ADAMS Pastor, 1897 - 1909
-
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One common faith unites us all, we seek one common goal, One tender comfort broods upon the struggling human soul. To this clear call of brotherhood our hearts responsive ring ; We join the modern new crusade of our great Lord and King.
The meeting was summarized in the following editorial, by Rev. Dr. Gilroy, which appeared in the Congregationalist, October 26, 1922.
A DEMONSTRATION OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
On the evening of October 12, in connection with the 250th anniversary of the First Church of Danvers, Congregational, a unique gathering was held in behalf of Christian unity. Here in this parish the famous Salem witchcraft delusion had its rise, and the pastor, Rev. Albert V. House, had deter- mined that some fine manifestation of enlightenment and progressiveness on this anniversary occasion should counter- act the unwholesome memory of darker days.
Four speakers, from four different denominations, were asked to speak on the general theme, "Obstacles to Unity, How to Overcome Them." An interesting feature of the program was a hymn following each address by a writer of the same denomination as the speaker, with the apparent suggestion that in our hymn books we have already attained something of the ideal possible for the whole life of the church. The four speakers were: Rev. Prof. Samuel McComb, D.D., Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge; Rev. A. C. Dieffen- bach, D. D., editor The Christian Register, Unitarian; Rev. Prof. Woodman Bradbury, D. D., Baptist Theological Insti- tution, Newton; and the editor of The Congregationalist. Of course, each speaker had no authority to represent his de- nomination, but the viewpoints were none the less notable.
Particularly striking were the statements of the two theo- logical professors, Episcopal and Baptist. The attitudes of the two editors could be fairly well forecasted, but the pro- fessors, as it happened, touched very directly upon the very matters that constitute the difficulties of unity in connection with their respective denominations. Professor Bradbury de- clared in the strongest manner against closed communion, though he suggested that the practice of closed communion had arisen among the Baptists from the righteous purpose of preserving high and holy standards of church membership.
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His whole address was an uncompromising plea for catho- licity of fellowship.
Dr. McComb went to the heart of present controversies when he declared in no uncertain words that in proposals and steps toward unity there must be frank and honest rec- ognition of the validity of the ordination of the various min- istries. He expressed his sense of the unbrotherly and un- Christian character of the demand for Episcopal re-ordina- tion. Also, asserting his personal preference for a ritualistic service, he expressed the opinion that the church of a larger unity must have room for great variety in worship.
It was a notable feature that each speaker referred to the large measure of freedom in his own particular denomination. Can it be that men love and find the same thing under differ- ent forms? Is not this in itself one of the strongest argu- ments for unity ?
The writer came from this meeting at Danvers with two outstanding impressions. First of all was a keen sense of the value of such public gatherings as this at Danvers. Meet- ings like this throughout the land would do much to foster a new spirit. In some communities, we are aware, Unitar- ians would not find such recognition, but if those who fear to give them the place which the Massachusetts Federation of Churches has already accorded could have heard Dr. Dief- fenbach, their fears would have gone far toward removal. The keynote of his address was his story of Martineau's reply to a friend who criticized him for going, as he frequently did, to hear Spurgeon. "You do not believe," said the friend, "what Spurgeon says." "No," replied Martineau, "but Spur- geon does." Sincerity, he rightly suggested, was itself a great bond of union.
The second strong impression was that of the value of keeping open all the avenues of approach and contact between the various denominations. We have never been among those who shared high hopes of present negotiations with the Epis- copalians; in fact, we have felt at times that the whole movement was in danger of going in the wrong direction. As we listened to Dr. McComb, however, it became clear how valuable and necessary it is to preserve relations of courtesy and contact. The future of Christian unity does not stand
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or fall with the Lambeth proposals and the High Church Party. It is essential that there be ever in evidence and effect some movement whereby the men in the different communions who believe in unity on a basis of honest and brotherly recognition of a common Christian experience and purpose, may function toward the attaining of that end. Let us preserve sincerity of conviction, openness of mind, honesty and frankness of utterance, but let us see to it that we display that patience and courtesy which will maintain every possible common meeting-place. Old prejudices are dying ; false sanctities are disappearing before the holy sense of larger Christian communion. Great things are still pos- sible. Let us as Congregationalists preserve our integrity of soul, but in a house by the side of the road, open to all the contacts of earth and to all the winds of heaven.
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