Church Unity in Local 
 Communities 
 
 A Summary of Experience in the 
 Field of Co-operation 
 
 By 
 
 ALFRED WILLIAMS ANTHONY 
 
 Executive Secretary of the Home Missions Council 
 
 156 Fifth Avenue 
 
 New York CitV 
 
 1920 
 
Foreword 
 
 This little pamphlet undertakes to summar- 
 ize the conclusions which have been wrought 
 out through experience in the field of local 
 church cooperation. It is dominated by no 
 commitment to ideals. Ideals, however, have 
 been the inspiration of the experiences, the re- 
 sults of which are here combined. 
 
 The substance of what is here written was' 
 prepared as a part of the report of the Com- 
 mittee on the War and the Religious Outlook, 
 a Committee which was appointed by the Gen- 
 eral War-Time Commission of the Churches. 
 
 Alfred Williams Anthony. 
 
 New York City 
 May, 1920 
 
 2 
 
The Movement Toward Church Unity 
 in Local Communities 
 
 HE theological content of sectarian- 
 ism is disappearing. The move- 
 ment has been in progress for a 
 half century, indeed since the Civil 
 War, but has been most rapid during the 
 last twenty-five years. This Great War, 
 through which we have just passed, has given 
 it decisive impetus. Where sectarianism now 
 survives, it is usually of an administrative char- 
 acter, rather than doctrinal, based upon a 
 pride of organization and efficiency rather 
 than in creeds or distinguishing dogmas. 
 
 This shifting of emphasis has quickened 
 the tendency toward the unity of Christian 
 forces in small communities. The movement 
 has passed through the following stages: 
 
 To Stop Waste of Resources. 
 
 I. First in historical order there has been 
 a recognition of the waste of resources due 
 to the competition of small churches, and the 
 maintenance of sectarian groups. The utter 
 failure of denominational competition, has been 
 most clearly demonstrated in the state of Ohio, 
 through studies carried on by Rev. C. O. 
 Gill, and published under the joint author- 
 ship of Mr. Gill and Hon. Gifford Pinchot 
 in a book called "Six Thousand Country 
 Churches." All over the nation this waste 
 and failure have been noted; but in the state 
 of Maine the first organization to seek dis- 
 tinctly a cooperative plan as a substitute for 
 wasteful and destructive competition was 
 formed as early as 1890. After thirty years 
 of testing, the principles then laid down 
 are acknowledged to be still sound and valid 
 
 3 
 
as far as they go. Men who have been min- 
 istered to in war by protestant chaplains of 
 many churches, and even by CathoHcs and 
 Jews, are not prepared to support needless 
 churches which duplicate each other's efforts. 
 
 II. As a remedy for the ills of sectarian- 
 ism, communities have tried the "union 
 church," and many are using now the name 
 "community church," meaning often times in 
 reality the same as "union church," despite 
 the difFerent designation. When a church 
 bears no denominational name, has no connec- 
 tion with denominational organizations and 
 enterprises, and in creedal position avoids dis- 
 tinctions and tests, or is neutral toward them, 
 or endeavors to be inclusive of all, it is in 
 effect a union church, whatever may be the 
 name it carries. 
 
 Arraignment of the Union Church. 
 
 A second step toward unity has come 
 in a clear recognition that the "union church," 
 though designed to promote unity, does not 
 secure the unity desired. Against the union 
 church have arisen out of experience eight 
 irrefutable and fatal charges: 
 
 ( 1 ) Without the usual associational fel- 
 lowships and friendships, which Christian or- 
 ganizations require, it lacks occasion for the 
 expression of allegiance, loyalty and devotion. 
 
 (2) It lacks adequate outside advice and 
 supervision, with expert and technical help 
 and guidance at critical periods, from Bishop, 
 Superintendent, Secretary, or other denomina- 
 tional leader. 
 
 (3) It is subject more than other churches 
 are to deception and abuse from unprincipled 
 and unworthy pastors and preachers, because 
 obliged to secure ministers from the foot-loose 
 variety. 
 
 4 
 
(4) Neither for itself, nor for its Sunday 
 School, has the union church a literature, 
 which is produced by its own associates ; and 
 it helps produce none. 
 
 (5) The union church promotes no insti- 
 tutions for education, religious or secular, in 
 any large and statesmanlike way. It has 
 therefore, within itself few of the incentives 
 toward light and learning which other churches 
 have. 
 
 (6) The union church is impoverished in 
 its religious ideals, because it has no agencies 
 of its own in its behalf, carrying on the great 
 enterprises of home and foreign missions. 
 
 (7) Usually the union church lacks a 
 complete system of truth, due to the fact that 
 in its desire to include all and offend none 
 it does not care to express, and so fails to 
 cultivate, deep religious convictions. 
 
 (8) The union church, built up of unlike 
 elements, fails in so many instances to evince 
 the spirit of unity and accord, as to have 
 gathered unto itself a reputation for being 
 illiberal, divisive, and quarrelsome. 
 
 In the state of Massachusetts are reported 
 more union churches, frankly so-called, than 
 in any other state. These, less than two score 
 in number, hold an annual conference, and, 
 under the guidance of the Massachusetts Fed- 
 eration of Churches, seek to secure the ad- 
 vantages of joint fellowship. Their success is 
 not such as materially to weaken the charges 
 against the union church. 
 
 Federated Churches Serve Temporary Pur- 
 poses. 
 
 III. A third step which has been taken 
 is in the form of an experiment with what 
 is called ''The Federated Church." 
 
 5 
 
To be clear on this point we must dis- 
 tinguish between three uses of this term, "The 
 Federated Church." First, there is the proper 
 use, when two or more churches, each pre- 
 serving its own organization and connection 
 with its own denomination, unite in some, or 
 all, of their functions under the pastoral care 
 of one man, or one staff of men. 
 
 Then secondly there is the looser, less ex- 
 act use of the term, to describe an organization 
 of individuals who, while retaining membership 
 in earlier churches of their choice, unite in a 
 new church, usually as a temporary expedient, 
 perhaps while in a foreign city, as in the 
 capitals of Europe where many reside for a 
 time, in student communities, in camps, or in 
 cities like Cristobal and Balboa of the Canal 
 Zone. Such churches as these supply a reaf 
 need under conditions of temporary residence. 
 In their localities, they are similar to "Union 
 Churches," yet differ from them in the im- 
 portant respect of being inter-related, rather 
 than unrelated, to denominations. Strictly 
 speaking, instead of being called "Federated 
 Churches," they should be called Churches 
 of Federated Christians. 
 
 Then in the third place, the term "Feder- 
 ated Church" has been applied very loosely 
 to almost any kind of a church combination 
 in which different elements have been consoli- 
 dated even though the result is in fact an 
 ordinary denominational church. A kind of 
 trade value is thought by some people to in- 
 here in the name. 
 
 There has been a very strong impulse to- 
 ward the formation of federated churches. 
 The overhead movements of the last twenty- 
 five years have been in this direction ; and the 
 development of that community consciousness. 
 
 6 
 
which during the war brought all people, even 
 of the most diverse types, together in coopera- 
 tive movements, has helped emphasize the 
 tendency. 
 
 Yet the federated church has been on trial 
 long enough, and fairly enough, to satisfy most 
 of its friends, as well as all of its enemies, that 
 it is not the final step toward unity in the 
 local community. 
 
 The reasons for discrediting the Federated 
 Church, if set forth in array, would probably 
 be somewhat as follows: 
 
 1. A Fed erated Church at its best is a 
 kind of makeshift and not a final settlement. 
 It is in a state of unstable equilibrium because 
 of a half dozen fluctuating conditions and in- 
 fluences. The question of the pastorate in- 
 volves recurring adjustments of denominational 
 connection and influence. New members must 
 decide which denominational church they will 
 join, and then the balance of strength is dis- 
 turbed; or if converts elect to join the "Federa- 
 tion" itself, then an anomalous and unplanned 
 for "union church" is projected into the midst 
 of the several denominational churches, with a 
 resulting confusion and uneasiness in the minds 
 of the saints. 
 
 Or, if the Federated Church gets happily 
 by the perplexities of changing pastors and re- 
 ceiving new members, it may come at any mo- 
 ment upon the pitfalls of adjusting denomina- 
 tional benevolences and financial responsibilities, 
 because of varying needs, and new campaigns, 
 or by reason of bequests, or because meeting 
 houses burn down, or decay and must be 
 repaired, and all of the other material and 
 temporal exigencies emerge. 
 
 Or some outside influence, unreckoned 
 with and unanticipated, may intrude at any 
 
 7 
 
moment, by the dictum of an ecclesiastical offi- 
 cer of one of the several varieties, or by the 
 expressed wishes of former members, or be- 
 cause of the ambitions of some prominent citi- 
 zens. 
 
 2. A verdict against the Federated Church 
 often rests upon the suspicion that behind it is 
 the intention of one of the parties to take 
 advantage of the others, and by strategy bring 
 them all into a single denominational camp, 
 with obvious gain to that one denomination. 
 When a suspicion of subterfuge, or of ulterior 
 motives, lingers in any mind, enthusiasm for, 
 and fidelity to, that enterprise vanish. 
 
 The history of Federated Churches has, we 
 regret to acknowledge, caused many of its 
 former friends to lose faith in it. The thing 
 itself may not be wrong, but it has been 
 used in too many instances for unworthy ends 
 and has thereby become discredited. 
 
 3. Then there is the difficulty, and some 
 would call it an impossibility, of keeping up 
 a divided allegiance with impartiality. The 
 Federated Church requires of many people 
 a continued poise of judgment and protracted 
 practice of equity and fair play, for which 
 not all people are adequately equipped. The 
 one pastor who serves two or more organi- 
 zations, blended as one congregation, must 
 deal justly and impartially with all. If bias, 
 or prejudice, or predilection tincture his min- 
 istry, the sense of injustice may develop into 
 resentment, and revolt follow. Committees 
 in the administration of their different duties 
 and influential people, as they serve and lead, 
 must likewise evince the spirit of equity and 
 goodwill, else the federation will fail. So 
 long as human nature is imperfect the utility 
 of the Federated Church will fluctuate with 
 
 8 
 
the varying degrees of judicial-mindedness and 
 goodwill to be found in different communities. 
 I he Federated Church itself is not a cure-all 
 nor a mend-all. 
 
 There are doubtless several hundred Feder- 
 ated Churches in the United States, in vary- 
 ing stages of activity and inactivity. In the 
 office of the Home Mission Council is a list of 
 about three hundred. 
 
 The Denominational Church Functioning for 
 the Community. 
 
 IV. The phrase, "The Community 
 Church," has lately come into prominence. 
 Great community enterprises, unparalleled in 
 the history of our country, occasioned by the 
 war, have prepared men for working together. 
 If they can meet together, plan together, con- 
 duct great drives for patriotic service, can they 
 not also worship together? If the people can 
 function in a community Red Cross, and a 
 community enlistment bureau, why not in a 
 Community Church? 
 
 We must look first to definitions. 
 
 The term "The Community Church," is 
 not yet definitely and distinctly used. Some- 
 times it is applied to a Federated Church; 
 sometimes it means nothing more than a de- 
 nominational church, which has institutional 
 features; at other times it is naught else than 
 the old-fashioned "union church," branded 
 with a new name; and then again church pro- 
 moters sometimes use the phrase as a trade 
 mark to catch the goodwill of people who 
 are looking for a church of a broad and lib- 
 eral type, imbued with social instincts. 
 
 We should limit the term to the function- 
 ing of a church not to its form of organization, 
 nor to its denominational connections, or lack 
 of them. That church, which seeks to min- 
 
 9 
 
ister to all the religious interests of a commun- 
 ity, gathering to its fellowship and its ser- 
 vices all the Christians of the community, of 
 whatever name or characteristic, is a commun- 
 ity church. How it is organized, or even 
 how it is named, is less important than the 
 question how does it minister? A Federated 
 Church may be a Community Church, or it 
 may fail to be a Community Church, even 
 though it be the only church in the community, 
 for if it fails to serve all of the religious inter- 
 ests of the community, and fails to include in 
 its fellowship all of the Christians of the com- 
 munity, it fails to be a Community Church. 
 On the other hand a denominational church 
 may be a Community Church, in case it em- 
 braces in the scope of its interests, and of its 
 ministries, all of the rehgious interests of the 
 community, and includes in its fellowship all 
 of the Christians of the community. It does 
 not need to receive into full and equal mem- 
 bership all of the Christians of the community, 
 but it must receive into its fellowship all, in 
 such ways as to be satisfying to the social 
 instincts of all and to call out the feeling of 
 corporate responsibility of every Christian, con- 
 servative or radical, of one type or of an- 
 other. 
 
 Here may be the difficulty, yet nevertheless 
 here is the goal, — to serve all of varying tal- 
 ents and varying attainments even as Jesus 
 Christ would serve them, with a toleration and 
 a patience that are all-inclusive. 
 
 Many considerations may be urged in favor 
 of the Community Church. 
 
 1. It is the New Testament type of church. 
 The church of Corinth, the churches at 
 Thessalonica, Colosse, Laodicea and at Rome 
 appear to have been Community Churches, 
 
 10 
 
Inclusive of all the Christians In the cities, 
 although some of them met at one time in 
 one house or another, and some of them were 
 even broken into factions, according as they 
 followed more closely Paul, or Apollos, or 
 Peter; or even used the name of Christ. Yet 
 their Christian designation was one, and their 
 fellowship was assumed to be one. 
 
 2. Practical experience of the years shows 
 very plainly that the Community Church alone 
 can adequately fulfil its mission. Others are 
 more wasteful of resources; others foster divis- 
 ion and competition, not to say strife, and so 
 sacrifice their own essential characteristics. 
 Communities have learned that it is not only 
 easier, but is also more Christlike, to maintain 
 in a small population one church which toler- 
 ates within itself every variety of Christian ex- 
 perience and attainment, than it is to maintain 
 and tolerate different churches, each of which 
 exists for a different type of Christian experi- 
 ence and attainment. Reconciliation and 
 spiritual agreements can more readily be se- 
 cured within a single group of Christians than 
 they can be between several groups. 
 
 3. It has been becoming plain to the aver- 
 age man through a long term of years, and the 
 effects of the war have hastened the process, 
 that the validity of the church does not con- 
 sist in doctrinal agreements. The war has 
 had an immense effect upon men in inaking 
 a few simple and far-reaching convictions 
 controlling; and these few fundamentals seem 
 to them common to all churches, and conse- 
 quently the question of rvhich church, ainongst 
 several, does not seem so Important as It did 
 to men of former days. The need of the 
 church then is regarded more as resting upon 
 its social and administrative functions than 
 upon its distinctive doctrinal and sacramental 
 
 11 
 
character. The common social functions of 
 the church, which appeal to men are these: 
 
 a. It is a place of testimony, speaking to 
 men of the deepest, the greatest, and the best 
 things of life. 
 
 b. It is a social center for acquaintance 
 and fellowship, where the human touch pre- 
 vails. 
 
 c. However small it may be, it nevertheless 
 is a great educational institution, in which the 
 proclamation of truth, the explanation of the 
 principles of life, and the inculcation of per- 
 sonal duties are constant themes. 
 
 d. However meagerly it may be equipped, 
 it is yet a place of worship, where the deepest 
 and most profound emotions are stirred, in the 
 sense of awe and in expressions of adoration 
 and praise. 
 
 e. The local church is a means of ministry 
 and service unto the community, — the com- 
 bination of Christians in united good will and 
 good deeds. 
 
 These are cogent reasons, which justify the 
 church in the community to practically all men. 
 
 The Mediating Ministry of the Community) 
 Church. 
 
 V. A perplexing problem now remains: — 
 How can the Community Church serve its 
 community adequately, and at the same time 
 not itself become limited to its community? 
 Can it be locally efficient without at the same 
 time becoming provincial? The mind of 
 Christ cannot be in men, unless they think and 
 they love with something of his universal in- 
 clusiveness. Can a church be both local and 
 catholic ? 
 
 The answer to this perplexing problem must 
 be sought in two directions, in the direction 
 
 12 
 
of the spirit of the Church and in the direction 
 of its relation to other organizations: 
 
 1. As regards its own spirit the church 
 must evince breadth of fellowship, which may 
 be described as follows: 
 
 a. It must allow the right of private judg- 
 ment. It will not then insist upon absolute 
 conformity to a single standard. 
 
 b. It will freely entertain varieties within 
 its fellowship, without seeking to reduce dif- 
 ferences to the level of flat uniformity; it will 
 rather endeavor to include variations within 
 the unity of a higher synthesis. 
 
 The plan of the so-called "Concordat," be- 
 tween Congregationalists and Episcopalians, in 
 accordance with which a Congregational min- 
 ister may receive a second ordination at the 
 hands of an Episcopal bishop, in order to 
 render his administration of the sacraments ac- 
 ceptable to Episcopalians, is a striving toward 
 this higher synthesis. 
 
 c. By its sympathetic inclusiveness it may 
 cultivate that best form of individualism which 
 jfinds itself in group consciousness. 
 
 d. If its principles seem to preclude full 
 membership for all the variant kinds of Chris- 
 tian conviction and experience within the com- 
 munity, then it will make some adequate pro- 
 vision for satisfactory affiliation, which will per- 
 mit it to be what a church should be to every 
 Christian of the Community in the five social 
 ways which have been enumerated. 
 
 In the plan of cooperation, which was put 
 into operation in the State of Montana in 
 1919, it was fully recognized that those 
 people who ordinarily gave social allegiance 
 to a church serving alone a community for the 
 sake of administrative efficiency, should have 
 the care and compensation, for the sake of 
 
 13 
 
conscience and conviction, of occasional minis- 
 tries by the ecclesiastics of their own choice. 
 This is the meaning of one of the principles 
 enunciated in the following terms: 
 
 "Occasional ministry by any co-operating 
 denomination to small groups of adherents of 
 that communion is not to be regarded as in- 
 fringement on the one hand nor as occupancy 
 of fields on the other." 
 
 2. As far as its relations to outside organ- 
 izations are concerned, four attitudes may be 
 taken by the local church. 
 
 a. It may take the attitude of self-sufficient 
 isolation, disclaiming all responsibility for any 
 person, or anything, outside itself and its com- 
 munity. But in this case, while it may con- 
 tinue to perform the local functions of a 
 church, it will lose the missionary and gener- 
 ative spirit of a Christian church, and will 
 soon cease to be Christian in the fullest sense 
 of the word. A church cannot remain Chris- 
 tian, which thinks only of itself and ministers 
 only to the interests of its own immediate en- 
 vironment, any more than a man can continue 
 to be a Christian, in the full meaning of the 
 term, if he limits all his interests to himself 
 and his family. The church must have 
 vision; it must love ,as Jesus loved'; "the 
 mind of Christ" was not limited to one locality. 
 The Church which loses its world-vision and 
 missionary zeal and devotion, fails to be a 
 true Christian Church. 
 
 b. It may respond to the appeals of a spon- 
 taneous and sporadic character, — to pray for 
 and to give to occasional needs, such as those 
 brought to public attention by reason of floods, 
 earthquakes, fires, pestilence, famine, and other 
 great misfortunes and calamities; or by soci- 
 eties which do good solely on the humanitarian 
 plane; or by organizations which push some 
 
 14 
 
partial and distorted propaganda. In much 
 of the generosity thus eHcited, there is no Httle 
 real Christian benevolence and virtue; but it 
 is not of the steadiest and strongest kind, nor 
 does it possess the proportion and balance of 
 those great missionary societies, which have 
 grov^n up under denominational care, through 
 the refining experiences of failures and successes 
 of many generations. 
 
 c. It may endeavor, as a Federated Church, 
 to yield allegiance to several missionary soci- 
 eties, and groups of societies, — a society or a 
 group, for each of the denominations repre- 
 sented in the Federated Church. Its success 
 may be w^ell proportioned and satisfactory; but 
 the difficulties and dangers, as the years pass, 
 are not few. Special appeals and special 
 "drives" by one denomination, or by another, 
 may disturb the balance and produce dis- 
 quietude. Changes of pastors and of com- 
 mittees may alter the emphasis and destroy an 
 equitable adjustment. Strife may arise if the 
 question of fixing the ratios must come up 
 periodically. All of these, and other dis- 
 turbances may impend. 
 
 d. But the safest, the securest, the most 
 satisfactory way is for a community church to 
 be connected with a single denomination, if this 
 be in any way possible. 
 
 Is it possible? Can a Community Church 
 be a denominational church, and as such (a) 
 serve well its own community, meeting the 
 needs of all of the Christians in the community 
 and (b) at the same time extend its interests, 
 its devotions, its prayers and its benevolences, 
 out through the channels of a single denomina- 
 tion unto all the religious needs of the world? 
 
 The answer is, yes — assuredly yes. There 
 are scores, probably hundreds, of churches, 
 
 15 
 
adequately meeting all of these conditions, both 
 within the community, and outwardly unto the 
 world's needs, and the prevailing type is the 
 denominational church which has become com- 
 munity-minded. 
 
 The tendency of the war has not been away 
 from doctrine and creeds of the broad and 
 comprehensive kind, but has been toward a re- 
 duction of the number of doctrines or beliefs 
 in a creed which are deemed important, and the 
 smaller number of great beliefs to hold to are 
 found present in most of the creeds of the 
 churches; so that now men, less than formerly, 
 care for the denominational name of the church 
 in which they worship so much, as they do 
 for the character of its community service and 
 the outreach and efficiency of the denomina- 
 tional organizations. This means that de- 
 nominations seem less like depositories of 
 truth and more like administrative organs of 
 efficiency. 
 
 VI. We have now reached an answer to 
 some of the questions which confront us. The 
 tendency toward unity in local communities 
 is toward that kind of unity which embraces 
 Christians of diverse types within the fellow- 
 ship of a single church, and that bearing a 
 denominational name, but broadened in sym- 
 pathy and in ministry to the extent of the needs 
 of the entire community. 
 
 And we are where the very circumstances 
 give exhortation to three classes of people: 
 
 1 . The time has come for advising all 
 churches, particularly those in small settle- 
 ments, and most emphatically that church 
 which is the only church in a community, to 
 enlarge the terms of its fellowship, if not the 
 terms of its membership, by dropping those ex- 
 clusive and sectarian tests which would shut 
 worthy Christians out of its companionship 
 
 16 
 
in work and worship, A church which will 
 not include in its fellowship all worthy Chris- 
 tians has no right to occupy exclusively a 
 single field. It should include all, else it 
 should give way to the church which will. 
 We can no longer tolerate more than one 
 church in a community of the one-church 
 size, and there is a tendency to put the popu- 
 lation of one thousand as the community 
 which should have but one church. And 
 when one Christian church is alone in a place 
 the necessity upon it of serving every Chris- 
 tian interest of the place seems apparent. No 
 one should require the violation of conscience 
 by any church which has distinctive require- 
 ments for admission to church membership, 
 such as Baptists, Disciples, Episcopalians, 
 Lutherans, or others may have, but such 
 churches can at least make their fellowship 
 broad enough and inclusive enough to receive 
 all who should be received. Many of these 
 churches are doing this already. The exhor- 
 tation for every church thus to enlarge its 
 spirit is strong, — indeed, it is almost a^ warn- 
 ing that unless the church, which seeks alone 
 to serve a community, shall do so, its doom 
 has been written, "weighed and found want- 
 
 99 
 
 mg. 
 
 2. It must be acknowledged that a very 
 large number of churches have all the im- 
 pulses and purposes to serve their communities 
 adequately, but are hindered, if not entirely 
 prevented, by the superior administrative offi- 
 cers above them, by the men who care for the 
 interests of the ecclesiastical organization next 
 above the local church, — the District, the Con- 
 ference, the Association, the Convention, the 
 Synod, the Presbytery, the Classis, or the Dio- 
 cese. With these men other matters are in 
 mind; they are thinking of associational and 
 
 17 
 
denominational strength, of statistical returns, 
 and the recompense of faithful administration. 
 These men are less ready to recognize com- 
 munity conditions and needs than are pastors 
 and resident church members. They, more than 
 any other class of responsible administrators of 
 church affairs, prevent the very thing at which 
 most of us are arriving, the abolition of 
 waste, and the extension of Christian com- 
 ity, for they are insisting upon the rigors of 
 denominational ties for the sake of holding 
 to denominational possessions, not recognizing 
 that the compensations of enlarged fellowship 
 may be as great as are its losses. 
 
 For all of these men a particular device has 
 been employed, called the plan of "Reciprocal 
 Exchanges," which helps make the fact of im- 
 mediate compensation apparent. By this plan 
 when one denomination gives up its members 
 and work in one community, to another denom- 
 ination, then another community is sought in 
 which conditions are reversed, so that the 
 denomination which before yielded may now 
 gain and the denomination, which in the former 
 case gained, may now make the concession. 
 This plan first proposed, and put into opera- 
 tion in Maine, has been approved by many 
 bodies, including the Home Mis'sions Council 
 and the Commission on Interchurch Federations 
 of the Federal Council, and has been put into 
 operation in several states. It is the very 
 nerve center of the plans which have been car- 
 ried out so successfully in Vermont. The 
 sense of fair play and equity takes away a 
 large share of the stings of concession, sur- 
 render and loss. 
 
 • 3. Out of the experiences of the church in 
 moving toward unity in local communities, 
 comes a message for the leaders of the de- 
 nominations at large. The message is this: 
 
 18 
 
No little movement toward unity in a 
 remote, or apparently insignificant place, fails 
 to affect the strength and vitality of the very 
 head center of the denomination itself, and 
 all of these movements, of which there is an 
 increasing host, utter a warning that the head 
 centers must give hepd to greater cooperation 
 and closer federations among themselves. 
 
 The meaning of this message may be put 
 somewhat in detail as follows: 
 
 a. Denominational headquarters are not 
 now leaders of thought, as they used to be. 
 They are administrators for efficiency and not 
 the custodians of orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is 
 now more nearly common property, the sub- 
 stance of belief, which all denominations hold. 
 
 b. The little church, and the sum total 
 of little churches, are essential for denomina- 
 tional efficiency, and whatever the little church 
 does must be in accord with the larger plans 
 of the denomination. 
 
 c. But when the little church finds it need- 
 ful, for the sake of fulfilling its true Chris- 
 tian mission, to carry out policies which are 
 not exclusively sectarian, or denominational, 
 then the denomination, to preserve its own in- 
 tegrity and efficiency, must at the top consider 
 plans tending toward cooperation and federa- 
 tion, of which the movements of the little 
 church are a part. 
 
 d. These movements of the little churches 
 toward unity require the head centers to think 
 and plan in their behalf. Community churches 
 should not be stopped. Indeed they cannot be 
 stopped; but they should now be anticipated 
 and planned for, with wisdom which discerns 
 all needs and takes all factors into account. 
 
 e. Denominations now existing must plan to 
 "mother and father" these community churches 
 
 19 
 
in a broad and charitable spirit, else they may 
 be sure that a new organization will arise 
 which will give them a fostering care. They 
 will get together and create their own overhead 
 organization, which will be equivalent to the 
 creation of a new denomination of interde- 
 nominationalism. 
 
 f. For safety's sake, denominations must 
 move in unison. If the head moves without its 
 following, then the movement is a division, and 
 sects are multiplied. If the lesser parts go 
 off, while the head stays unchanged, then the 
 strength of the head is diminished, and it will 
 fail. 
 
 g. The time has come for the heads to get 
 together for the lesser parts are coming to- 
 gether. Nearly all things prove this. We 
 have had the Foreign Missionary Conference 
 of North America, including practically all 
 Foreign Mission Boards, for twenty-five years. 
 We have had the Home Missions Council, 
 and the Federal Council of Churches of Christ 
 in America, for twelve years. The World 
 Conference on Faith and Order has been in 
 progress since 1910. The American Council 
 on Organic Union has spent two years in 
 thoughtful planning. The Interchurch World 
 Movement grew like a giant almost over night. 
 
 These things are significant. In only one 
 of these movements is there an attempt to 
 define faith, or its content. In all of them 
 men are seeking efficiency. 
 
 This great movement toward administrative 
 unity is on. It manifests itself in little com- 
 munities, and runs through the entire church. 
 
 20