54. Chapter 49: The Churches in the New National Period

CHAPTER 49 The Churches in the New National Period

1. The National Period Brings New Developments

Two great periods may be distin­guished in the history of the United States: the colonial period and the period of national inde­pendence. The War for Independ­ence was the transition from the one to the other. In the national period several new and important developments took place. Perhaps the most spec­tacular of these was the tremen­dous increase in the number of religious bodies. At the end of the colonial period there were some­thing like a dozen churches and sects. At the present time there are 213. This increase has come about partly through the rise of new or­ganizations, and partly through the splitting of churches already in existence. The innumerable sects both old and new have all remained small. Many of these small sects have sub­divided into several still smaller branches. There are for example 254,000 Adventists. They are di­vided into five groups. The Men­nonites, numbering in all 149,000, are divided into fifteen branches.

One religious organization, still called a church, has placed itself really outside the realm of Chris­tianity, because it denies the doc­trine of the Trinity. It is the Uni­tarian body. It has never flourished, and today it has around 70,000 members.

There are three organizations which are counted as religious bodies but which are not Christian churches. They are those of the Mormons, the Christian Scientists, and the Spiritualists. All three had their beginning in America.

Another development in the na­tional period is of the utmost im­portance. The tendency of nearly all the large churches in this pe­riod has been, in America as in Europe, away from historic Prot­estantism in the direction of Mod­ernism.

2. The Colonies Disestablish Their State Churches At the end of the colonial period and at the beginning of the na­tional period there were two estab­lished or official churches in Amer­ica: the Congregational Church and the Episcopal Church. The Congre­gational Church was the Estab­lished Church in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. The Episcopal Church was the Es­tablished Church in New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Caro­lina, South Carolina, and Georgia. So there was an established church in nine of the thirteen colonies. An established church is a State church. It is the legally recognized church of the State. All the citi­zens of the State are supposed to belong to the State Church. In the early days people in Massachusetts who did not wish to belong to the Congregational Church were driven out of the colony. This happened to Baptists and Quakers. In the colonies in which the Episcopal Church was established, that church, through the State, hin­dered the work of the other churches. The ministers of the Es­tablished Church were the only ones given authority to perform certain religious acts. All citizens in the colonies where there was an established church had to pay taxes for its support, whether they be­longed to it or not.

Other churches in the colonies were of course opposed to the Es­tablished Church. The Lutherans, the Reformed, and the Presbyte­rians each felt that their church should be the State church. The only church that was not in favor of having an established church of any kind was the Baptist Church. The Baptists, as we have seen, be­lieved in the separation of Church and State. The Quakers, or Friends, were like them in this respect. The reason that Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania were without an established church was that in these colonies the Baptists and Quakers were in the majority. The Baptist Church supported by the other dissenting churches led the fight for disestablishment. Naturally the members of the ex­isting established churches did not like to give up their advantages and special privileges. Neverthe­less early in the War for Independ­ence disestablishment came easily in New York, Maryland, and the southernmost colonies. But in Vir­ginia there was a long and hard fight to disestablish the Episcopal Church. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison took part in the action for disestablishment, but neither one of these famous states­men did as much as the simple folk known as Baptists. The disestab­lishment of the Episcopal Church in Virginia was accomplished in 1786.

Thus in Virginia the principle of the separation of Church and State, from which complete free­dom of religion naturally follows, had finally triumphed. It soon spread throughout the nation. It was made a part of the first amend­ment to our national Constitution, and thus became a part of the fun­damental law of the land.

3. Independent American Churches Organize on a Na­tional Scale . In some of the churches there was no cutting of organizational ties with churches in Europe. That was because there was no official connection between them and the European churches. In these churches—the Congregational, the Baptist, the Presbyterian, and the Quakers — the process of national­ization was one of reorganization rather than of severing ties with Europe.

If you recall the story of the Quakers (ch. 46, sec. 6), you will understand that they were well organized on a national basis be­fore the close of the colonial period. They had held their yearly meet­ings in New England since 1661, in Burlington since 1681, and in Phil­adelphia since 1683. Although these meetings were strongly in­fluenced by what took place in Europe, and particularly by the teachings of George Fox, the Quak­ers in America had no official ties with those in Europe.

NEWINGTON CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
Religious News Service
This church in Newington, New Hampshire, is the oldest Congregational church in continuous use in the country. Worship services have been held there every Sunday since January 21, 1713. Notice the horse stalls behind the building ­remnants of an earlier day. The Congregationalist leaders, at the end of the War for Independ­ence, laid tremendous stress upon the independence of each local church. When the hitherto separate colonies were united as one nation, there arose among the Congrega­tionalists a movement also to unite the separate local Congregational churches in some kind of common bond. It was proposed to organize the local Congregational churches — if not in a nation-wide associa­tion, at least in state-wide associa­tions. This movement was strongly op­posed by the most influential of the Congregationalist leaders. The re­sult was that it failed. This failure of the Congregational churches to organize effectively proved to be a great handicap in their growth. During the colonial period the Con­gregationalists were the most numerous. In the national period they were outstripped by the Pres­byterians, the Episcopalians, the Methodists, and the Baptists. Later the Congregationalists also organ­ized nationally. But they have never been able to overcome the handicap they placed upon them­selves early in our national period. In theory the Baptists believe in the independence of the local church just as much as do the Congregationalists. But in spite of their theory they did organize dur­ing the war and in the years imme­diately following, in order better to carry on the fight for their great principle of the separation of Church and State. Between 1774 and 1789 they organized nineteen associations. These associations were linked together in a General Committee.

4. Other Churches Sever Their European Ties

We have seen that several of the churches in America had no official connection with churches in Europe. But there were other churches that did. The Episcopalians were subject to the bishop in London, and the Roman Catholics to the vicar apos­tolic in London. The Methodists were under the control of John Wesley, and the Reformed churches were under the supervision of the Classis of Amsterdam in the Neth­erlands.

However, now that the colonies in America had severed their po­litical connection with England and had become an independent nation, the churches that were more or less under the control of churches or persons in Europe likewise severed their ties with them and thus be­came independent American churches—except the Roman Cath­olic Church, which remained sub­ject to the pope in Rome.

It was in the early years of the national period that the Methodists in this country established their independence. Up to this time the Methodists had belonged to the Church of England. There were among them men who preached, but none was ordained; and Wesley did not allow unordained men to administer the sacraments. For these the Methodists were depend­ent upon ministers of the Episco­pal Church. In order that the Meth­odists in America might be organ­ized as a church they needed first of all ordained clergymen. Wesley was ready to do all he could to bring this about. As a presbyter in the Church of England he felt that he had the right to ordain. And so, assisted by two clergymen of that church, he ordained Thomas Coke as super­intendent of the Methodist Socie­ties in America.

Next he made provision for a creed and liturgy for the American Methodists. He remodeled the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England (ch. 30, sec. 7) by re­ducing them to twenty-four and leaving out everything that con­tained Calvinistic doctrine. He pre­pared a Sunday Service which was an abbreviated form of the English form for worship, and compiled a hymnbook thoroughly Arminian in its sentiments. These, together with a letter, he sent to America by the hands of three men — Coke, What-coat, and Vasey.

FRANCIS ASBURY
Methodist Information

These men arrived in New York late in the fall of 1784. A confer­ence was held in Baltimore on De­cember 24. Fifty preachers were present at this "Christmas Confer­ence." Wesley’s letter was read, and it made a deep impression. The Conference decided to follow Wes­ley’s advice and to organize as an independent church. They adopted the name Methodist Episcopal. Coke and Asbury (ch. 46, sec. 11, ch. 48, sec. 4) were elected as su­perintendents, and a number of men were ordained as ministers. The creed and liturgy provided by Wesley were adopted with but slight alterations. Then the Con­ference adjourned. It had been in session only ten days, but it had accomplished something of tremen­dous importance. It had severed the official connection of the Amer­ican Methodists with their founder, John Wesley in England, and con­stituted them a national American church. This newly organized Methodist Episcopal Church started out in 1784 with some 15,000 members, gathered in since 1766 through the work of lay or unordained preach­ers. The Episcopal Church entered the national period in a rather weakened condition, due in great measure to the fact that its loyal­ties had been divided during the War for Independence. It was still subject to the bishop in London. The leadership that transformed it from a colonial church dependent upon the Church of England into an independent American church came chiefly from the states in which it had not been established. The outstanding Episcopal lead­er in America at the close of the War for Independence was William White, rector of the Episcopal Christ Church in Philadelphia. He was a thorough American, having been born and educated in this country. Toward the end of the war he wrote a pamphlet entitled, The Case of the Episcopal Church Considered. In this pamphlet he outlined a plan for the organization of the Episcopal Church as an American Church, national in char­acter and independent of the Church of England. This plan was later adopted. His proposal to grant the ordinary members of the Church representation in the An­nual Assemblies and in the Nation­al Convention shows the influence of the new American spirit. The second step in the break away from the Church of England was taken when Dr. William Smith called a conference of clergymen and laymen in the state of Mary­land. This took place at the time White’s pamphlet was published. In a document issued by this con­ference in 1780 the name Protest­ant Episcopal Church was first used. A second convention of the Maryland clergy, held in 1783, chose Dr. Smith as bishop-elect for that state. A third step toward reorganiza­tion of the Episcopal Church in America was taken in Connecticut just as the war came to an end. At an informal meeting of ten Episco­pal clergymen of that state, in 1783, Samuel Seabury, Jr., was chosen to go to England to obtain consecration as bishop. Refused in England, he went on to Scotland. There in November, 1784, in the house of John Skinner, coadjutor bishop of Aberdeen, Seabury was consecrated a bishop. Upon his re­turn to America Bishop Seabury held the first assembly of his clergy. In the fall of 1785 a General Convention met in Philadelphia. The all important work of this con­vention was the preparation of the Ecclesiastical Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. This constitution provided that the gov­erning body should be made up of an equal number of laymen and clergymen. It was adopted in 1789, and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States had come into existence. The Dutch Reformed and the GermanReformed churches sev­ered their official connection with the Classis of Amsterdam soon after the War for Independence. They translated their creeds, cate­chisms, forms of worship, and gov­ernment and discipline from the Dutch and German respectively into English, and had these pub­lished.

They also selected names in keeping with their newly estab­lished independent existence. The German Reformed Church in 1793 adopted the name The Reformed Church in the United States. The Dutch Reformed Church became known as the Reformed Church in America. At the time of the outbreak of the War for Independence there were some one hundred Lutheran congregations in the colonies. In 1796 the Lutherans adopted a constitution adapted to the needs of a church now living under the con­ditions of an independent American nation. With the adoption of this constitution the control of the Lu­theran Church in Germany over the Lutheran church in America came to an end. The Roman Catholic Church in America was under the control of the vicar apostolic in London throughout the colonial period. But the vicar was completely inactive with regard to the churches in America. When the colonies be­came an independent nation he de­clared that he considered his juris­diction over the Roman Catholic Church in the United States at an end. In 1784 the pope appointed John Carroll (ch. 48, sec. 4) superior over the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. With this ap­pointment English authority over the Catholic Church in America came formally and officially to an end, though Roman authority con­tinued.

Five years later, in 1789, John Carroll was appointed bishop by the pope. He thus became the first Catholic bishop in the United States, and Baltimore, the place of his residence, the first Roman Catholic see.