p. 24 | A Meeting of Great Significance

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 10, 1908

A Meeting of Great Significance

IN the Academy of Music at Philadelphia last Wednesday evening, with a choir of a thousand voices behind him, with the representatives of about thirty Protestant denominations surrounding him, and with a vast audience confronting him, Dr. William H. Roberts said: “The first session of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America is now open.” The statement was greeted with vigorous applause. In its report of this meeting the Philadelphia Press referred to it as “the most important ecclesiastical gathering since the apostolic days.” In his opening address Dr. Roberts, the president of the council, thus defined the organization: “It is not a body whose members are self-chosen, but one composed of delegates duly appointed by competent authority and possessed of a representative character. This council stands officially for thirty denominations, eighteen million of communicants, and a world-wide Christian work.”

The utterances of the various speakers who addressed the great audience were thus interpreted in the Philadelphia North American: “Throughout the meeting, in the words of the speakers, and even more evidently in the assent that was thrown back at them from the body of the house, one idea stood out very clearly—the growing realization of the gathering that, from last night, there is what may be actually called an American Church, a consolidated Protestant Church of the United States.” The declaration was made that the council officially represented churches whose adherents numbered “more than half the population of the United States,” and vigorous applause followed the declaration.

The significance of this organization is thus emphasized by the Philadelphia Public Ledger: “The Federal Council marks an important development in the church life of America. In a measure this gathering of four hundred delegates appointed by the governing bodies of thirty-one Protestant Evangelical churches is epoch-making. These churches have an adult membership of eighteen million. They claim to have fifty million adherents, or considerably more than one half the population of the United States. When such a powerful group of religious bodies act in concert, far-reaching results may be expected.”

The proposed field of work of the council was thus defined in the opening address of the president: “The church of Christ and the nation are vitally related each to the other, and the welfare of the nation depends upon the fidelity of the church to its trust. The question of questions for a nation is its religion, and that question this council will make effort to answer in a Christian manner. We believe that the great Christian bodies in our country should stand together, lead in the discussion of, and give an impulse to, all great movements that make for righteousness. We believe that questions like those of marriage and divorce, Sabbath desecration, foreign immigration, modern industry, the moral and religious training of the young; indeed, all great questions in which the voice of the churches should be heard, demand their united and concerted action if the church of Christ is to lead effectively in the thorough Christianization of our country.”

Although it is not openly stated in so many words, yet one can hardly avoid the conclusion, as he observes the general drift of the meetings and the discussions, that the great influence of the council will be directed, in this country at least, toward attaining to civic righteousness, rather than personal righteousness, and that this influence will be brought to bear upon lawmakers rather than upon lawbreakers. The reasons for this conclusion will be given more fully in a later report of this great gathering.