New-York tribune., 1902-12-14
PLACED At PLYMOUTH.
n BROOKLYN MEMORIAL.
Nezo England Society to Be Repre-
sented at Wi1sdozc UnUeiling.

A pilgrimage to Plymouth, Mass. where the
Pilgrim fathers and mothers and little children
landed from the historic Mayfower two hundred
and eighty-two years age, will be made next Sat
urday by a large committee of officers and mem
bers Of the New-EngIand Society of Brooklyn.
They 90 to attend the unveiling Of two costly me-
mortal windows which the society has given TO the
First Cnurch of Plymouth, the oldest Protestant
church IN America &
The NeH-Ensland Society of New-York, holding
70 the old date of December o. which is said be
incorrect, viii celebrate Forefathers' Day by din
ing together in this city. Edmund Clarence Sted-
man, president of the society. will preside, and
many w-Englanders Of prominence will speak
Thus does New-York pay her respects to the sturdy
men whose early migration from England and
whose sterling worth such factor in the
early development Of this country.
The Brooklyn society had planned to hold its an
nual dinner IN Plymouth Saturday evening, and
ex-Secretary Long, President Eliot of Harvard and
DR.. Edward Everett Hale to deliver ad-
dresses Last week it was found that many of the
members could not make the long trip to Plymouth
st this time OF the year, and the commttees visit
was substituted. The windows which TO be
unveiled represent Civic Liberty and Religious
Liberty" This visit viii probably mark the
close of interesting denominational controversy
as which IS the Oldest Protestant church in
America. The Church Of the Pilgrimage, a Con-
eregational oshoot Of the Old First Church. which
ie Unitarian has been trying wrest from it the
proud title Of oldest church, An overabundance
of historical fact has been brought forward TO
support the First Unitarian Church, and the
Congregational authorities have withdrawn their
claim
The rival churches. for such they are. though the
members of neither Will admit it. except indirectly,
sccupy two sides Of the town square the foot Of
Burial Hill in the centre of long, lean Plymouth
The Unitarian, First, Church has handsome
stone building. erected in 1896 at cost of s50000
It Is a memorial the Pilgrim Fathers, and the
f.rdS frOrn all Of he
being given by the New-England Society of New
York The Church of the Pilgrimage, Congrega-
tionai, is plain frame structure. recently remod-
elled at considerable cost Strange TO say. neither
of the churches is the site Of the original first
church built in 1857, seventeen years after the Pill
grins landed
The controversy began about year and half
ago when a bronze tablet placed the
Church OF the Pilgrimage which read:
raais tablet is inscribed in grateful memory Of
time of the Unitarian controversy in lSl adhered
70 the osneI ed OF ae d yanan o nrnetated at
great sacrifice in the Church of the Pilgrimage the
evangelical faith and fellowship OF the church OF
England In isOs
The members Of the First Church. which includes
nearly two hundred direct descendants OF those
VINO in the Mayfiower. read the tablet
and wondered.
DO you TO claim that your church is the
real first church," they asked the Congregation
alists. You wrong if you do. .or we have the
records from the beginning at Scrooby in 1906 and
We hold an the property Of the original church,
I'VE grant you those points, said the Consrega-
tionalsts but you have departed from the faith
Of the Pilgrims. and are longer worthy TO be a
memorial TO them We have never swerved from
the faith Enthusiastically the first the old
est Protestant church In America"
AS matter CT fact, both have departed far from,
The faith Of the original Pilgrims. The Consrega-
nonai doctrine, though is little the origi-
nal than the broader Unitarianisrn.
But with the unveiiing Of the tablet began the
tempest IN teapot 1t must be admitted that IL
was q friendly tempest. and there has never been
dispute between churches, perhaps, which de-
yeloped less hard feeling. The Unitarians cited
history. the Congresationaists talked of faith and
creeds- So IT stood until the pot boiled over and
the outside world took an interest
This came when the Church of the Pilgrimaee
issued an appeal for 10000 for the erection OF
memorial ed'ace. The appeal began: For nearly
two hundred years this mother church of modern
CongrhgatienaIisn has remained in undivided faith
aid fellowship With the Congregational churches