The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1920-12-27
APPEAL TO CHURCHES
FOR RENEWED EFFORT
Has Been Sent Out By the Baptist,
Congregational and Methodist SUI
perintendents of YER
mont.

The following letter is being sent out
this week by the superintendent OF
the Baptist, Congregational and Meth
odist churches of Vermont:
"To the pastors, officers and members
of the Baptist, Congregational and
Methodist churches of Vermont: Dear
Fellow Christians. Two years ago we
ventured to send to you a joint letter
in which we outlined our conception OF
the task confronting the churches at
the conclusion of the war. The stu
alton to-day is even more serious, per
picking and challenging than it was
then The tremendous effort that was
put forth to win the war has been fol-
lowed by spiritual reaction which
perhaps was inevitable but which
threatens to destroy the possibility of
attaining those moral aims for which,
in the mind of Christian men, the war
was really fought. Absolutely unpreee
dented do we believe the need to be
for bringing the invincible dynamic of
the Christian motives and the Christian
spirit to bear upon the individual and
collective life of men. In simple truth,
the leadership of Jesus is the world 5
only hope at this turning point in hui
man history.
"Plainly, therefore, our call of two
years ago for deeper and more fruit
full cooperation among the churches and
our undertaking to do what we could
to promote that cooperation ought to
be renewed and re.enforced For unless
the churches do think, speak and act to-
gether in practical and definite ways
at this hour, not only will they lose
the strength for a hereulean task which
lies in union but the world viii turn
impatiently away from any appeal for
it to apply a spirit of cooperative
brotherliness to its affairs which the
churches do not supremely exhibit in
their relations to each other.
The Interchurch World Movement.
Because of this belief in the neces-
sity for cooperation we entered hearth
ly into the interchurch world move
ment and tried to carry forward in con
nection with it the interchurch plans
and projects which had already been
begun in Vermont. We We're deeply dis
appointed that this national inter
church movement did not realize the
high hopes we and Others had for it,
result which we believe TO be due pri-
marily to an effort to do too much in
too short time. However, the flag of
Protestant cooperation in America is
only temporarily furled, If indeed 1t Is
really furled at all There were other
organizations in existence before the
interchurch, notably the home missions
council, the foreign missions confer
ence, the federal council OF the church
of Christ in America, through which
effective cooperation will be carried on,
and il seems inevitable that in due
time another agency will arise, combin-
ing those now in existence, in reality
succeeding the interchurch but more
representatively organized and more
conseryatively managed, through which
those branches of American Protestant
ism which feel the necessity Of cooper
alton will work together in perma-
nently successful way, Meanwhile, it
should be remembered that practically
all the contributions pledged in Yer
mont under the impulse of the inter
church movement were actually pledged
to the denominational movements
which were cooperating in the inter
church and which are under obligation
to expend their contributions in CO.
operative and not a competitive way.
Community Cooperation.
"Especially in Vermont, we intend to
,.~t4b aouoparafiya flapg