CHURCH UNION | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 27, 1890

CHURCH UNION.

In San Lorenzo, Alameda Co., Cal., they have a church that is practically run on the church-union principle. It has been in existence about sixteen years, and was organized because no one denomination felt strong enough in the small village to maintain an organization. At first the church comprised persons attached to six different creeds—Presbyterian, Congregational, Methodist, Baptist, Unitarian, and Episcopal; but there have since been added Lutherans, Swedenborgians, and Universalists. Their first ministerial supply was Rev. Dr. Poor, a professor in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary, San Francisco; then they had Rev. Dr. Holbrook, Congregational. After him came Rev. Mr. Merrill, now of Southern California, who acted as pastor. The present incumbent is Rev. George B. Allen, who was formerly an Episcopal minister, but now Congregational. He began to supply the “Protestant Union” last November, but has accepted a call as permanent pastor. The church owns a chapel building and a parsonage, and it is said that no sectarian differences have ever troubled them. Following is the confession of faith, or church covenant:—

“We do hereby confess one faith in God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Saviour, and the holy Ghost our Comforter and Sanctifier, trusting that God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven us our sins and through grace divine helping us, we will strive to live as becomes the followers of the meek and lowly Saviour, conforming to his example, cultivating within us his Spirit, and studying his life and teachings, that we may know the path of duty and be governed by the principles of the inspired word.”

The curious feature of such a society is its restriction to a “Protestant union.” Why not let in the Catholics also? The anomaly would not be any more striking than a theological compact of Baptists, Swedenborgians, and Unitarians.