1. They assert and protest that those branches of the Church of Christ in Scotland now united in this Church have always claimed, and this Church continues to claim, that the Church of Christ has under Him as her only Head independent and exclusive jurisdiction and power of legislating in all matters of doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of the Church, including therein the right from time to time to alter, change, add to or modify, her constitution and laws, Subordinate Standards, and Church Formulas, and to determine and declare what these are.
2. The General Assembly accordingly declare anew and enact that it is a fundamental principle and rule of this Church that, in dependence on the grace of God, recognising the authority of the Word of God, contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as the supreme unchangeable Standard, and looking to the Head of the Church for the promised guidance of the Holy Spirit, this Church has the sole and exclusive right and power from time to time, as duty may require, through her Courts to alter, change, add to, or modify, her constitution and laws, Subordinate Standards and Formulas, and to determine and declare what these are, and to unite with other Christian Churches; always in conformity with the Word of God, and also with the safeguards for deliberate action and legislation in such cases provided by the Church herself--of which conformity the Church herself, acting through her Courts, shall be the sole judge--and under a sense of direct responsibility to the ever-living Head of the Church, and of duty towards all the Church's members.
3. The General Assembly also declare and enact that in all the Courts of the Church a decision of the Court given either unanimously, or by a majority of its members present and voting, is the decision of the Court, and the decision of the General Assembly so reached is final. With respect to Acts which are to be binding Rules and Constitutions of the Church, the Assembly shall have regard to the safeguards referred to in the foregoing resolution.
4.The General Assembly further declare that the Church holds her funds and property, present and future, in conformity with these principles; the Church reserving her right to accept and hold benefactions, subject to specific conditions attached to them by the donor, when and so long as she judges these conditions to be consistent with her liberty and her principles, and to be expedient in the circumstances of the time.
[2255] The Proceedings and Debates of the General Assembly of the Un. Free Church of Scotland, May and Oct., 1929, together with the Proceedings and Debates of the Assembly, Nov. 1928, 371 pp., Edinb., 1929. Includes notable addresses on union by the moderator, Alexander Martin of New College.--Report of the Committee for Conference with the Ch. of Scotland, Nov., 1928, 106 pp.--Proceedings of the Union Assembly, Church of Scotland, Oct., 1929, 120 pp., giving addresses of Cosmo Lang, Abp. of Canterbury, Lord Davidson, former Abp. of Canterbury, President Henry Sloane Coffin, Union Seminary, New York, Rev. Dr. John Hutton, etc.--Buchan and Principal Geo. Adam Smith: The Kirk in Scotland 1560-1929, 244 pp., London, 1930, gives a brief history of the Church of Scotland and an account by Principal Smith of the Union Assembly, of which he was a member.
[2256] The Barrier Act provided that no 'rules or constitutions' should be binding upon the Church unless proposed to the Assembly as an overture, then passed by the presbyteries and finally reported to the Assembly and approved by it.
The Congregational and Christian Churches.
The organic union of these two bodies was favorably acted upon by the National Council of Congregational Churches meeting in Detroit, May, 1929, and the General Convention of the Christian Church at Piqua, October 25, 1929. Under the name of the Congregational and Christian Churches, the two communions alike maintain the independence of the local congregation, subject to no higher judicial church body and at the same time the duty of the congregations to take counsel together and co-operate together. The history of the Congregational churches in the United States goes back to Plymouth, 1620; the Christian Church to the last years of the eighteenth century. The "Principles" of the latter body are expressed in the statement: 'The Church of Christ is One; it embraces all those who have been accepted by Christ as his real disciples; and, in its whole and in its parts, it should be so organized, named and governed as to include all and exclude none of those whom Christ has so accepted.' As for fixed formulas, its position is set forth in the words, 'The Holy Scriptures are our only creed.' In 1929 its membership was 99,749 and in union with the Congregationalists the membership is more than 1,000,000. The Plan of Union provides for 'immediate practical unity' and 'complete union into a single body' to be consummated at a joint meeting of the National Congregational Council and the General Convention of the Christian Church at Seattle, 1931. At that time, it is proposed 'to adopt a constitution and organize.' In the meantime a volume has been issued, 1930, in New York and Dayton, the headquarters of the Christian Church, combining the Congregational Year Book and the Christian Annual with 427 pages, and giving statistics of both bodies. The book is pronounced 'an evidence of the reality of the union.'
The Plan of Union issued by the General Council made up of members of the two bodies sets forth the basis of union in these words:
The basis of this new relation shall be the recognition by each group that the other group is constituted of the followers of Jesus Christ. Each individual church and each group of churches shall be free to retain and develop its own form of expression. Finding in the Bible the supreme rule of faith and life, but recognizing that there is wide room for differences of interpretation among equally good Christians, this union shall be conditioned upon the acceptance of Christianity as primarily a way of life, and not upon uniformity of theological opinion or any uniform practice of ordinances.
Methodist Church Union in England.
The union of the English Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Primitive Methodist Church, and the United Methodist Church is confidently expected to be consummated, 1932, under the name, The Methodist Church. The movement is under the direction of The Methodist Union Committee. The United Methodist Church is itself the product of the merging of three bodies, 1907--the Methodist New Connection, the Bible Christians, and the United Methodist Free Churches, organized, respectively, 1797, 1815, 1836. The larger union now under way has been voted upon twice by the three uniting bodies and received from all the necessary three-fourths majority. The final and determining vote is to be taken, 1931, and, if favorable, the first United Conference will be held, 1932. In the meantime, preparation for the organic union is being made by the interchange of pulpits, inter-communion services at the Lord's Table, and gatherings for prayer. The necessary legislation has been passed in Parliament and recognizes that 'the religious doctrines held by each of the Churches or denominations are in substance identical' and that their differences concern matters of organization, procedure, and the tenure and disposition of property. The three denominations have together a membership of 850,000. The main object of the union is announced to be 'the more effective evangelization of the world and service of the age.'
Under the head of Doctrine, the Scheme of Union refers to the articles held in common by the three bodies, without designating them. They are given in this volume, pp. 807-813. The Scheme as it affects 'Doctrine ' runs thus:
1. The Methodist Church claims and cherishes its place in the holy Catholic Church, which is the Body of Christ. It rejoices in the inheritance of the Apostolic faith, and loyally accepts the fundamental principles of the historic creeds and of the Protestant Reformation. It ever remembers that in the Providence of God Methodism was raised up to spread Scriptural Holiness through the land by the proclamation of the Evangelical Faith, and declares its unfaltering resolve to be true to its Divinely appointed mission.
The Doctrines of the Evangelical Faith, which Methodism has held from the beginning, and still holds, are based upon the Divine revelation recorded in the Holy Scriptures. The Methodist Church acknowledges this revelation as the supreme rule of faith and practice. These Evangelical Doctrines to which the preachers of the Methodist Church, Ministerial and Lay, are pledged are contained in Wesley's Notes on the New Testament and the first four volumes of his Sermons.
The Notes on the New Testament and the forty-four Sermons are not intended to impose a system of formal or speculative theology on Methodist Preachers, but to set up standards of preaching and belief which should secure loyalty to the fundamental truths of the Gospel of Redemption and ensure the continued witness of the Church to the realities of the Christian experience of salvation.
2. The Conference shall be the final authority within the Church with regard to all questions concerning the interpretation of its doctrines. In any necessary Act of Parliament provision shall be made to secure the recognition of this power.
3. Christ's ministers in the Church are stewards in the household of God, and shepherds of His flock. Some are called and ordained to this sole occupation, and have a principal and directing part in these great duties; but they hold no priesthood differing in kind from that which is common to the Lord's people, and they have no exclusive title to the preaching of the gospel or the care of souls. These ministries are shared with them by others, to whom also the Spirit divides His gifts severally as He wills.
4. It is the universal conviction of the Methodist people that the office of the Christian Ministry depends upon the call of God, Who bestows the gifts of the Spirit, the grace, and the fruit which indicate those whom He has chosen.
5.Those whom the Church recognises as called of God, and therefore receives into its Ministry, shall be ordained by the imposition of hands, as expressive of the Church's recognition of the Minister's personal call.
6. The Methodist Church holds the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers and consequently believes that no priesthood exists which belongs exclusively to a particular order or class of men.
But in the exercise of its corporate life and worship special qualifications for the discharge of special duties are required and thus the principle of representative selection is recognised.
The preachers, itinerant and lay, are examined, tested, and approved before they are authorised to minister in holy things. For the sake of Church order, and not because of any priestly virtue inherent in the office, the Ministers of the Church are set apart by ordination to the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments.
The general usage of the three uniting Churches whereby the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is administered by Ministers shall continue to be observed.
[2250] Washington in his address to the bishops, clergy, and laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 1789, among other things said: 'It would ill become me to conceal the joy I have felt in perceiving the fraternal affection which appears to increase every day among the friends of genuine religion. It affords edifying prospects indeed to see Christians of different denominations dwell together in more active charity, and conduct themselves in respect to each other, with a more Christian-like spirit, than ever they have done ill any former age or in any other nation.'