The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1913-04-21

1
God would have us go.
AS u basis Tor conference We pre-
sent the following
Confession OF Faith.
We believe in the fathorhood ui
God and the brotherhood of man. as
revealed by Jesus Christ
we desire TO receive, and the follow
faithfully. the truth, made known OF
To bc made known, from whatever
source and by whatever means
with pcnitencc for our sins We dc
vote ourselves, In the spirit of Jesus
To aid in the coming of Gods Kingdom
and the doing of Gods will ON eartl,
as IL is done in Heaven r
I'VE welcome to our fellowship all
who thus devote thcmselpes--allowin in.
to them, as We claim for ourselves.
freedom in interpreting and apply ing
Gods word"
This was unanimously adopted 10y
| vote of the church, anu a committee
ordered appointed.
| The action If thu church received
| full notice in the local papers. The
members of the committee. realizmt,
that they were charged with AN cx-
cccdingly delicate task. hesitated about
! pressing the matter upon the attention
OF ministers and thurches--hoping
that the newspaper notices might
awaken some one to respond by such
| word 10 the committee as would
| open the way for the next step. There
| being no such response our committee
arranged to have, on February End, q
| special song service, entitled Hymns
Of the Churches" In this service were
used hymns written by Christians be-
longing to several differen, deuomiua-
| tions and cuuntries-hymns loved and
sung BY all Christians. The meeting
| was put at I o'clock i'm the afternoon
| SO rs not to interfere with other serv-
/ ices. Singers and ministers rom other
ChU Chcs very kindly assisted. and
/ there were present, representatives
| from most of the churches and many
who do not attend any church. tx
prCssions of appreciation OF this ser\.
| ice We're very marlicd-CspCCially with
| reference to its Christian Inclusive
ness. Five weeks later, March 9th
in response TO many requests our cont
J mittcc arranged a second service, ~
| Service of Psalms and Hymns and
! Spiritual Songs" The attendance aud
| interest at this meeting we're even
| larger and more Representative than on
! the former occasion. The programs
were good. but the best thing was not
| the singing nor the playing nor the
speaking. but the consciousness thai
w were doing these things together IN
the presence Of Him who is the Lord
aud Master of us all.
our committee has been, asked
What Is the object in view To what
is this cXpcctcdito lead?' We are glad
tor the qu"stidns. apd ar perfectly
willing To- answer titeu, to- the-bcst 81
our ability, -AAS-.aI.a-..lsaA.st sstd,@-I.fstc
merely to culTcatcr0od feeling among
the churchk, IbgnNr- eSl6fuhlty---
hclr all We can in that direction, our
committee Is committee on church
union, and on THE banner that We
would hold up is inscribed the prayer
or our Lord That they may all be
| Unc-that the world may believe that
thou didst send mo" Frankly. we be-
licyc that in the interest OF Il larger
Christian fellowship and more clfcc-
tive Christian service there should be
some consolidating and rcadjusting OF
the churches In Calumet. We also be-
licvc that there are many persons de-
tachcd from all the churches who are
not likely to he reached under present
conditions of division, but who would
he likely to respond TO more inclu-
siyc movement We do not expect {"
see all the thirty churches of Calu-
met united in one church, nor Two
churches, nor three churches, but we
do want to see such combinations
brought about as viii decrease the
isolation without sacrificing freedom,
and increase the joy and CilicicncS OF
work aud Worship without adding to
the burdens. And we believe that
this is possible.
Some individuals have already OK
pressed themselves us Interested IN
our undertaking and confident that we
are on the road to something good. i
is hoped that there are som" church, y
that will respond to the invitation oI
our church 10y appointing committees.
We are all on the same plane as
churches uf Christ. We share together
the blame and misfortune of our un-
Happy divisions. Church union must
be largely a local affair. Fratcrnal dele
gates. speaking in conventions ANA
councils. may he fcrvid in their greet
ings and say beautiful things In favor
of union, but If the local people do not
want to come together there will he no
union. On the either hand II the Chris
tians OF any community want To- get
together Their, is no power anywhere
that should be able to keep them
apart.