Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1906-11-30
TOWNS ARE OVER cHURcHED.
INSTRUMENTATION Committee Recommends
Federations in Windham County Communities

The committee from the Congregational,
Methodist, Baptist and Free Baptist churches
of Vermont met at Montpelier recently and
the executive committee composed Of Rev.
r. T. Lowe and Rev. W. \. Kinzie of Barre,
Rev. Lewis Dexter of West Topsham Rev
Il, f, Reed Of Montpelier, and Rev Fraser
Mctzger of Randolph made report OF the
condition Of the churches throughout the
state and made recommendations IN regard
to certain fields OF the state. This report Is
in part as follows:
70 all the churches have been sent circular
letters some 500 in number, stating the OBJ
iect and purpose of the inquiries
The following were the inquiries: % Is
YOUR town over.churched! (2) In your judg'
ment il any, should you be willing to give
way TO- or combine with, any other church
or churches and whyl (3) What is the best
and most practicable form Of consolidation or
do Won think that federation Of all the local
! churches, for practical cooperation would De
the wisest stepl "a Are the churches in
vour community ready for it, and il not,
| what are the chief obstacles' (5) Do you
| personally favor such move
In reply to the first question as to wheth-
err the town was Over.churched l03 an
swered in the negative and II in the affrma-
| tive To the second question number say
| that the Protestant Episcopal church should
give way since it is the smallest and does
not appeal to any large portion of the popu-
| lation but they are Of the opinion that II Is
not likely to give way.
| Some do not say which church should be
merged but answer in such a way as to leave
very plain inference. Eight or ten pas
tors have been found that say they are will
| ing to resign their pastorate and go else
where if better man could be found for
| the consolidated church.
The committee reports that it is evident
| that some towns are overc hurched. There
are towns having two churches which work
amicably together, while there are some in
which prejudice and party feeling runs 50
| high as to retard the movement of fedora
| ton.
The committee is of the opinion that the
following towns could be federated to good
advantage: Brooklne, Westfeld, Newport
Center, Wardsboro, East Dover, Westford
Wilmington, Essex Junction, Johnson, Gays
vile. Jericho Corners, and Goshen. The com
i mittee did not deem it advisable to have
nine churches in the town of Lyndonvillt
| which has but 5000 population In st
Johnsbury, the committee thinks the Baptist'
and the Free Will Baptists should unite; IL
Richford the federation of the two Adven
churches would be advisable.
First and most fundamental there is
svmnathetic attitude which must precede al
attempts at cooperation; second, there Is
form of federation in which each church re
tains its own pastor and is perfectly antony
nous. Such federation is being ORGANIZED
[ in Newport for the purpose of doing variou
kinds of Christian and benevolent work bu
each church retains its own pastor. Tn
80, ;s onofhnr form of federation
where one, two or more societies agree U
have one pastor and each organization main
tains its identity. Examples of such ar
Randolph, Castelton, East Charleston, WI
Iiston and Proctor. Doubtless this KIND 0
| federation has marked tendency towar
complete amalgamation under the Congrega
tionaI form. The fourth step is complet
consolidation =,
Tbera are various notifications to TN
foregoing according to the circumstances an
tbe committee realizes the difficulty of apply
ing the foregoing principles to any commun
ity and doubt if it can be met at long rahse
II will probably be ineffective TO can "
eether representative men of the denomiha
tions interested to consider the case III an
rivon community They think, however, tina
n,;ssionarv aid ought not to be granted t
two different evangelical churches In over
ebnrcbpd towns. They also think that Tn
most practical way of removing supefnu
ors church would be for the denomlnatio
Giving mn something in one place to receiV
somatbinr elsewhere and thus balance
nowers, be maintained. Denominations
pride in this way would be saved
In REGARD to question four the obstacle
oro about such as might be expected, exces
s;va denominational feeling prejudices, an
social differences. As a rule the smaller IN