New Britain herald., 1914-05-28
COY. BALDW|N'S IDEAL OF CHURCH UNITY
Executive Advocates Single Christian Organization With Short Creed.

Hartford, Conn, May 2S.-A sin gle church organization embracing every body of Christian believers, and with a short creed, was the ideal of a church unity advanced by Gov ernor Simeon E. Baldwin last night i'll an address at the annual dinner of St. Johns Episcopal club here.
 ..,'"An annual dinner is a good fea- ture of every human association" said the governor, but it is pecu- liarly an appropriate thing in a church society or brotherhood. To meet around a common table for friendly conference during a com mon meal is token of that brother hood which belongs, in some meas ure and ought to belong in larger measure, to every church organiza- alton of whatever name. But there is also a larger broth erhood outside of any particular Christian church. There is a holy catholic church in which every par ticular Christian church-call it what you willis included. I wish that~we made more of it.
 Church Unity.
 "A large movement has set in within the last twenty years toward uniting the Christian church. It is to the credit of the church of Eng land that she initiated it at what we know as the Lambeth conference. .
 Tt was at meeting not long ago for the discussion of the subject be- tween a committee of the general churches of Connecticut and repre- sentatives of the Protestant Episco- o1,Y ~q York and Massachusetts. It was held in this city at the house of Bishop Brewster. We had full and frank talk over plans and possibilities and came to the conclusion that the ob- stacles to the ultimate union of those two churches in some form of church, broader than either, were not in- superable.
 Need United Purpose.
 Why should they be? What is the essential thing in church of Christ? Is it not united purpose to follow His teachings; to join in public worship of God as manifested through Him to us; and to proclaim what we received from Him-the simple gospel of the fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man?
 
 haps centuries hence-when Christian men shall have finally shaken them selves free from the influence of the dark ages and the middle ages, when there will be- again one single organ ization known as the catholic church, not the Roman Catholic, but em- bracing the. Episcopal; not the Con- gregational, the> Baptist, the Presby- terian or Methodist but embracing every body of Christian believers. l The creed will be a short one. There 1 may be constituent groups of church. | es differing in, their relations to the l universal church. In one group bish- | ops may advise; in another, com- 1 mand. In one group no bishop may | be recognized; in another bishops of | equal power; in another bishops of | differing power; in one of them per- haps a bishop in whom is, centered the | highest power. ~.....>. .>s
 Names Are UnintelhgibIe.
 When we now send our mission l aries. abroad to foreign lands, we l send them as Congregationalists, or Presbyterians, or Episcopalians, or | names are unintelligib1e, to those to 1 whom they go. They, are divisive in l their spirit and effecp..
 Tn Japan they have already or ganized what they call the Kumai l church, which is, broader and more l comprehensive than any one of the l churches which have l been competing there for the lead. | I wish that kind of church could be 1 set up in other Oriental lands In | India another form of comprehensive | union has been recently adopted.
 ''All these things look to me as if | the day were dawning for wider | outlook and inlook as to what Chris | tianity really Is, and how it's spread l can be best promoted"