Protest Over Tilton Membership Removal at Plymouth Church
A formal protest from the Clinton Avenue Church and the Church of the Pilgrims against the dropping of Theodore Tilton’s name from the roll of membership without any investigation of the charge which had been made against him of slandering Mr. Beecher has been served upon Plymouth Church. The document inveighs against the lax church discipline involved in the proceedings, and demands that the subject be taken before a convention of Congregational churches for discussion and settlement. Copies have been served upon Mr. Beecher as pastor, and Mr. Halliday as clerk. Although in Congregational government there is no judicial system superior to the individual churches, the custom has been to refer disputed questions to a conference of other churches of the same denomination. In such cases, the church in which the dissension has occurred names the churches which shall form the tribunal. This is the plan which the protest demands shall be adopted, the document being signed by Dr. Storrs and Dr. Budington as pastors. The matter will be laid before the members of Plymouth Church at a meeting not yet called, but which is to be held this week. Informal discussion has already developed sufficient diversity of opinion as to whether Mr. Beecher shall be sustained in the stand he has taken. Should Plymouth Church refuse to accede to the demand of Dr. Storrs’ and Dr. Budington’s churches, precedent gives them the right to go on with the investigation in an ex-parte way. The tribunal which they would call together could not excommunicate the offending church, but could cut it off from denominational intercourse and fraternity.