The obvious benefits of the preshyterial ami synodal constitution in the Rhenish and Westphaliau churches, the fuller co-operation there of ministers and elders, the greater activity of the laity, the room afforded for the exercise of discipline, the variety of home mission work, and the facility for checking rationalistic tendencies, which had given the Rhenish and Westphaliau branch of the Prussian Church so great a power and influence, were so apparent that it, would have been impossible for the leading authorities of the Prussian Church not to desire to extend this form of government, modified by the consistorial constitution, over all her old provinces. Consequently a royal order of June -".,. 1850, introduced the institution of the general Church courts, and by an- other of Sept. lo. is?:;, it became definitively the plat- form for the congregations and synods there, while an extraordinary genera] synod for these provinces was announced. This synod was appointed by royal decree, to , >i-t, of the eleven general superintendents, of
twelve deputies of the theological and the juridical fac- ulties, of thirty members to be elected by the kin--, ami of loll members of the eight provincial synods, who were to be composed of not less than one third laymen ami one third ministers. This general synod tint for the fn-st time from Nov. 21 to Dec. 18, 1875. The new ecclesiastical constitution of Prussia provides for a reg- ular meeting of ibis general body al the call of the
kin-- every six years. The kin- is represented in it by the president of the Obt rhirchenrath, the highest Church tribunal in the state. 'I'he jurisdiction and competency
of the general sy 1. as summarized by a correspondent
of '/'/„ i ; id,-,, 1 1 'hrisiian . I dvocati . are shown by the fol- lowing, which indicates also the nature ol the connec- tion between ( Ihurch and Male :
'■ ]. 'I'he general synod co-operates with the king's func- tionaries for promoting the Interests of the State church mi the basis of the evangelical confessions of faith. 2. Law- en icted by the kin-, as head of the Chnrch, mnst have ii~ assi nt. Ii n i i \ also propose new measures, bul these cannot be laid before the king for sanction until the cnltus minister has examined them and fonnd nothing incompatible with the interests of the State in them. :;. It legislates exclusively on: the amount of liberty of teaching within tin- Chnrch; religious qualification- .■mil ordination vows of the candidates of ministry hymnals, and catechisms; holy days to be hitrodnre I or abolished ; and the form of discipline for refrn tory Chnrch members and ministers. *■• It controls the funds which
•i's
PRUSSIA
the Oberkirchenrath had, and also the expenditure of the appropriations for the Chnrch from the national treasury, which was iii the hands of the culms minister heretofore. 6. Regular and periodical taxes upon the congregations
for Chnrch purposes can only be levied by iis con-en t. »;. It can incite the king's fu nctiona lies (Oberkircfa .. con-i-tories) to greater activity by taking the initiative in proposing such new measures as are conducive to the church's welfare, 'i'he oberkirchenrath cannot reject them without giving its motive-. 7. It preserves the union of e Chnrch interest by revoking any such resolu- tions of a prominent synod as may be incompatible with the ( hureli at large.''
The AdvocnU then continues as follows:
"The king, as gummus episcopus, governs the church indirectly through its consistories— one in each province
composed entirely of theologians, except the president, who must be a jurist, and directly through the Oberkirch- enrath—the highest Church tribunal in the state — to whom the consistories are respoo
Between the sessions of the general synod a cabinet. composed of seven members, carries out the measures of the general synod, and confers with the Oberhirchen- rath respecting new measures.
It is not difficult for the members of the Lutheran and the comparatively few Reformed churches in Prussia to meet m the same synod-, because the union movement has not only given ri.-e to a common legislative and ad- ministrative busi-. but prepared the members and con- gregations, notwithstanding all the value they assign to their particular creeds, to lay greater stress upon that which they have in common than upon that on which they differ. 'I'he Lutheran churches have the Confes- sio Auffustana IneariaUi from dune l>.">, | .">;;< i (or the Augustana Variola from 1540), the Apologia sionis Augustame, the \rticuli Smalcalderi, the Cate- chismus Minor and Major Lutheri, and the Formula Concordia (1577). The Reformed Church ha- the Bei- delberg Catechism (1563), which it highly values. The authority of these creeds— the Minor Catechism and the Confessio Augustana perhaps excepted— is not binding in till the details; and in the ordination vow no declaration of allegiance to the symbols i- expected from the young minister, bo that some of tbi have nearly disappeared. So thoroughly ha- i he old spirit of division died out that there is no longer any opposition to communion of the two bodies in the same church. Nor is this practice confined to the United Church of Prussia; it is equally prevalent in the other union churches of Germany, in the former duchy of Nassau, in Anhalt-Bernburg, Dessau, Birkenfeld, Baden, in the former electorate of Hesse, in Saxc-Weimar, in Hildburghausen, Waldeck, Wurtemberg, and in one part of the grand-duchy of Hesse. In Past l'rie.-land the