The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1913-07-04
CHURCH CONSOLIDATION

Conferences have been held lately
between representative of the three
Protestant religious denominations
that have churches in Orovillo with
the object of discussing the advisa-
bility of organizing confedearted
congregation by consolidation. Not
as Il permanent arrangement to do
entirely away with denominational
worship. but to continue until such
time as the population grows % LAT
number that each OF the several
churches will avhe a membership
sufficient to decenUy support sep
arate church, although considering
that salvation is supposed to be a re-
ward of righteou, life, with the
Lord as 4 Judge as to hc degree of
righteousness, it i les seem absurd
that weak mortals should elect to
say as to which is the mode of wor-
ship most in conformity with the
wishes of the Divine Teacher, and
which is the more certain and direct
line over which to travel in order to
get to that very desirable haven of
rest and happiness. At first blush
this matter Of cosolidation may NOT
appeal to individual members of :,
denomination who have been born
and raised in certain church, and
are obscsscd of the idea that through
the medium of that church alone is
there any hope of salvation and they
may shy at any such proposition, yet
1t is believed among those who ave
given the subject any thought that
after calmly considering the present
situation, and the real benefit spirit
ually for the community that COM
bination of the kind entered into with
earnestness and sincerity woul,. be
most of the opposition would disap
pear. 1t is realized how hard il is
for anyone raised in any particular
faith, welded to the doctrines pro.
mulsated by that faith, to givs up,
even temporarily. their pet form If
worship, yet shorn of the form all
worship when sincere, is for the pur-
pose OF leading to the same end. The
fact is that any man who is christ
len at heart cares little as to the route
his neighbor is following to the COM
mon goal, if by precept and practice
that neighbor is living an upright life
When you come to think about it it
does seem absurd that there should
be so many channels supposedly lead
ing to the same single end and it
would look more like sinceritJ
of belief in a future salvation if ALI
worshipping the same Supreme Being,
should bow the head and bend the
knee as one religious body.
Then there is the material as well
as the spiritual side of devotional
exercises in a small town to take into
consideration. 1t seems the heighth
of foclishness from worldly point
of view to try and keep up several
churches in a community in which
not a single one of the several is
strong enough in membership to sup
port separate organizations. There
is nothing conspicuously christianly
in this struggle for dcnominational
existence when the living of the lead
er OF the flock is taken into consid-
Grafton. 1t is practice for nulAer
ically small and, as a rule, poverty
stricken congregations, to cali a
minister, and then fail to provide the
unfortunate man decent income
upon which to exist. Indeed it is
cruel in the extreme and this expert
cnce OF the past among the separate
organizations should in itself appeal
to all reasonable men and women
communicates. No minister has ever
found his path flower strewn IN Oro-
vile. and there is no better e>idr ,.s
that the avearge minister is sustained
largely by an unwavering faith in the
religion that he breaches than the
earnest and faithful mlnistrations of
members of The cloth in this COM
munity on the meager support their
churches have provided 1t is not
fair, just nor honest to engage a min
lister and then fail to provide him the
support sufficient TO keep a family
in some degree of comfort. Fairness,
justice aud honesty are supposed to
be hall marks of christianity, and all
of us who have 'oen parties to such
"calls'as mentioned must plead guilty
of doing things that our conscien:e re
rebellcd against. Under present
churchly arrangements il ministers
are to be engaged and supported the
tax mus fall on the few if the month
ly salary envelope is to be issued.
With consolidation of the several
churches these pledges could be so
distributed chat the weight would fall
lightly upon the indiv dual supporter
of the church, and the total amount
pledged would be sufficient to provide
a decent stipend to whoever should
be employed to fill the pulpit Moth
ing may come Of the present move
ment, as it is hard for men aud wo-
men 10 break away from old tradi-
tions, customs and prejudices end
even christians find it difficult to make
concessions, yet If it should finally
materialize into cOnfederated church
by each denomination making conces-
sions and then Joining in a common
cause in all since itv, Orovil:e will
occasionally n Sundays have a
crowded church, and there have been
no announcements of standing room
only" in any of our churches in recent
years.