The Ekalaka eagle. [volume] (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920, 1916-08-04
Religious
CongregationaIists' Greed Spreads.

Inc remarkable spread of a state
ment of faith adopted originally by
Congregationalists, but afterward by
churches of other denominations, has
attracted widespread attention lately
among Protestants in every part Of the
country. 1t is 1916 words in length and
reads as follows:
We believe in God the Father, infinite in
wisdom, goodness and love, and in Jesus
Christ, his Son, our Lord and Saviour.
VINO for us and our salvation lived and
died and rose again and liveth
ana IN the Holy Spirit, who taketh Of the
Things OF Christ and revealeth them to US,
renewing. comforting and inspiring the
souls Of men,
We are united in striving to know the
will of God as taught in the Holy Scrip
lures and in our purpose to walk in the
ways of the Lord, made known or to be
made known to us.
We hold it to be the mission Of the
church Of Christ to proclaim the gospel to
all mankind, e~Xalting the worship of the
one true God. and laboring for the prog
ress of knowledge, the promotion Of JUS
tice. the reign of peace and the realiza-
ton of human brotherhood.
Depending. as did our fathers, upon the
continued guidance Of the Holy Spirit to
lead us into all truth, we work and pray
for the transformation of the world into
the Kingdom of God, and VIC look with
faith for the triumph of righteousness
and the life everlasting.
This statement was adopted first by
the national council of the Congrega.
tional churches of the United States,
meeting in Kansas City in 1913. Since
then 1t has been adopted as an express
sion of faith 10y hundreds of Consrega-
tional churches and by some churches
other than Congregational, which have
found in it a sufficient platform of
Christian affirmation.
Although the spread of the statement
is known to be great, there is no way
OF telling the extent of it's adoption.
Congregationalism has never had a
creed. Each local church has been
free to make its own statement Of be-
lief. as each is a unit and under no OBJ
legation to adopt any declarations Of
state or national bodies unless it
chooses. The national council adopted
the statement as an expression of it's
own beliefs simply.
New Ritual For Methcdists.
NethOdists are to have a new ritual,
but the essentials are not to be af-
fected.
The orthodoxy of Methodism is to
be more pronounced than ever" n
nounced Bishop Wilson. resident New
York superintendent of Methodism.
to a gathering of ministers at the
Book Concern headquarters. There
is to be no disposition, however, to
hunt heretics."
The making of changes in the ritual
was left to the bishops. There is to
he a change in the ritual for use when
the Lords supper is administered, he
said. Also there was strong pressure
brought to bear to omit the words
holy Catholic" from the creed. but
the bishops refused to do this. he said.
1.-The essentials of the inspiration Of
the Bible and all the old tenets of the
faith. the resurrection, Virgin birth and
the miracles, are to be adhered to even
stronger than before he said, eff
such is possible.'
1t was also proposed to take out Of
the marriage service the words with
all my worldly goods l thee endow,"
but the bishops refused to do SO.
Bishop Wilson stated that the imme-
date Methodist program includes the
unitication with the Methodist Church
South, moral reform and prohibition
and an aggressive evangelism.
"Methodism," said the bishop, sis
joining hands more tightly than ever
before in the movement to wipe out
every saloon in the United States and,
to do the job at the earliest possible
moment"