St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1907-04-17

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Federations which have failed. The frs
two of these places especially neet
Christian unity, but Especial persona
! leadership is not given death must worl
( further publication before such can b'
realized. The old Union churches al
Huntington and Huntington Center are
failures. These two needy fields call fol
dominant Christian leadership under
single UNCONVENTIONAL control
The Vermont nter-denominationa
Comfy Committee was organized April
6, 1899, in a meeting held at Montpelier.
1t was formed after the pattern of the
Maine Committee. The Methodist Pre-
siding Elders of the State were its chief
instigators. Its chief object seems to
have been to curb the excessive propa-
gandism of denominational interests.
Such an agency was then and still is
greatly needed. AS such it has been
effective only as an organized sentiment.
1t has had neither authority nor inclna-
ton to promote local reform or to settle
difficult cases. As to the practical re-
suits of its past work it is generally con
sidered a failure. Its weakness lies i'll
the fact that the persons who compose it
are on both sides of the same question at
once. AS Presiding Elders and Mis-
sionary Secretaries their business is to
forward UNCONVENTIONAL interests while
as Comfy workers they are supposed to
suppress them.
During the past year however, the
committee has done investigation work
of Importance. A commission of one
man from each of five leading denomina-
| tions was chosen to report on the over
churched communities of the State, and
the means of remedying this difficulty.
| This commission sent out nearly four
| hundred letters of inquiry to the
| churches, and from the one hundred and
seventy-two responses valuable conclu-
| sions are reached. They were reported
at the annual meeting of the Comfy
Committee at Montpelier, November Fl,
1906 and will be embodied i'll the next
section of this report.
Since the future of this committee
seems to be in doubt word of recon-
mendation is given. Its present organ
ization is a substantial beginning. 1t
should embrace other Protestant de-
nominations in the State, in particular
the Protestant Episcopal. 1t should
embody and forward the work of the
Newport Federation and similar move
ments. Its work of, research should be
done by parties other than its members,
but who are scientifically trained, are
without UNCONVENTIONAL bias, and who
care only for the Kingdom Its propa-
gandism should be chiefly that of exact,
up-to-date instruction. 1t should seek
fellowship with the larger movement
outside of the State.
Three recent Investigations have been
made of conditions i'll Vermont with
respect to Church Federation. The first
was made in 1905 by the author of the
present report, under the auspices of the
Carnegie Institution at Washington,
Department ofEconomics and Sociology
1t consisted of personal interviews,
statistical computations and first hand
observations as well as of correspond
ence. Most of it is given in brief form in
The Christian Advocate New York;
March 20, and April 5, 1906. The
second investigation is the one by the
Commission of the INSTRUMENTATION
Comfy Committee. The third is the
one now being reported, which has had
special reference to church unions and
federations now existing.
Since the acts and conclusions of the
three Investigations are at our disposal,
acknowledgement hereby being made to
the Carnegie Institution and to the
Comfy Committee for the use of data,
it seems best to make summary of the
information that is now available.
% Some communities are better off
with two or more churhes. The first of
the above mentioned Investigations thus
concludes since the multiplication of
local churches by two, in three compu-
tations, have been seen to multiply
church membership per town by 1913, Al,
and 2.5 respectively. The second, be-
cause such churches often live pros
perously.
(2) The first investigation explains
the above conclusion by the observation
that the sectarianism of social class or
| caste is greater than that of creed.
Special study of thirty cases shows that,
as a rule, when two distinct social
grades exist in the church of one-church
community there is difficulty, while
different churches in the same COM
munities may accommodate the different
social strata with prosperity.
(3) A large number of Vermont COM
muties are overchurched. The first
investigation found that fifteen out of
twenty-eight communities in twenty
average Vermont towns intensively
studied were churched-six of them
extremely so. The second shows that
seventy-one out of one third of the
Protestant ministers in Vermont con-
slider their communities as over-churched
0ver-churching means financial waste
and the betrayal of the Christian integ-
rity of the Church.
az The existence in Vermont of seven
teen examples of successful church
unions, federations, and single churches
by federation methods, indicates beyond
question the practicability of church
federation and union-where needed and
properly appled-as an adequate means
5 of solving the religious problem of the
!, small town.
r (5) The multiplication of so-called
r Union churches is inadvisable The social
n principle of them is defective. That
y method is most effective which dis
t appears when it's work is done. The
r best results are in churches of single
l. UNCONVENTIONAL utilization. Church
S Federation in any form is only means
Il to an end.
n (6) Church Federation in its thirt
Il aspect, Of which the Newport Fedora
h ton is an example, is of great impor
fapoa FOE Nax,,,A,tt o,,I el1,,IJ H.,