Church Federation Coming
By L. A. S.
CHURCH union of the leading denominations in this country being an admitted impossibility, in the view of leading representatives of those bodies, there is now a turning toward the idea of church federation. Federation is not union, but it is believed that a federation of the churches will accomplish the object of union in some important respects. Recently sixty Episcopal bishops met here in Washington, and sent out a proposition for conferences with the Methodist and Presbyterian churches to consider what might be done toward some form of reunion between these bodies. It appears that real union can be realized only by submission to the authority of one church by the others, and this, says The Independent, can never be. “To ask union by submission is an insult,”6it says. And in the view of the leading Methodist organ, the New York Christian Advocate, “none of the evangelical denominations, so-called, that recognize each other’s ministry and sacraments, can possibly take a step which would take away the power of that recognition from them.” But though union is impossible, is not federation feasible? Concerning this the Advocate says:— It would be a most glorious spectacle for Protestantism, leaving out of course those who deny the deity of Jesus Christ . . . to raise the banner of genuine Christian unity, presenting thus to the pagan world, to the Roman Catholic, the Greek, the Russo-Greek churches, and to Mohammedanism, a body thoroughly unified, representing Christianity free from what many believe to be yokes that had their origin in many elements which do not spring from the seeds planted by Jesus Christ, but from the love of power, organic and individual. It might then claim to be The Catholic Church.
This can be accomplished only by federation, and such federation is one of the crying needs of our Protestant churches. Some of our denominations in their national meetings have pronounced in favor of it. It would maintain the separate entity of denominations that are not ready to consolidate, and yet would be an evidence to the world of their essential and spiritual unity. The Independent thinks it would be a good idea if a proposal were sent out “to the national body of every Protestant denomination in the country asking it to appoint representatives to meet in Washington in 1906,” “with a view to the establishment of a federate union of the entire body of churches.” It commends this proposition “to those of every denomination who are interested in the visible unity of the Christian church.” Christian union being impossible, it is proposed to secure “unity” among the different Protestant bodies by a church federation. The world is federating; that is its style of union, the only kind of union which it knows. But should Christian believers adopt this plan of union? They have a “bond of unity” of which the world knows nothing, and this bond of unity — the Holy Spirit — secures real Christian union, the closest union that could exist, union which is perfect in every respect, in the Christian church. It is the union which exists between God the Father and his Son. See John 14. When God has made provision for this unity in his church, when it is his purpose that this unity should prevail among believers, for their good and for a testimony to the world, how can Christians concern themselves with any other plan of union? And what good to the cause of Christianity is a unity which is not Christian union, and which is found where Christian union is impossible? But church federation is coming, and that federation will be like other federations; it will take in some organizations and leave out others. The big and popular denominations will be included, and the small and unpopular ones will be disregarded; and all who are unwilling to consent to the terms of admission to the combine, will of course remain on the outside. Thus will be set up a new antagonism in the religious world, just as there exists an antagonism between the “union” and the non-union workman. We shall have “non-union” churches, and they will be regarded and treated by the federated churches as foes of Christian progress,—foes of the cause for which the federation stands. And who can not see in this movement for federation of the churches, another illustration of the church coming into line with the world? The world is federating, the church is moving for federation, and when that is realized, church and world will federate, and where will those be who refuse to come in to the federations of either the world or the church? It will be theirs to say in that day, “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us. . . . Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”