The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-09-20
United Church Urged
 By Pastor In Sermon
Rev. Dr. John C. Walker Says Christian Unity One of
 Great Tasks Facing Present Generation

ral passion and it's social wisdom. The PresbyterianS who made the larger choice and came into union were known for their fine loyalty to the kirk their reasoned and ear- nest approach to the things of faith, their high sense of civic and nation al responsibility.
 Plans Being Made
 Out in Australia, as in America. forward looking leaders are working out plans for church union; hoping and praying that the churches will move steadily and surely toward union. The situation in Australia, as in America, is not very hopeful, sad to relate! Some ten years since there was a movement fo, a union similar to that of the United Church of Canada. When the union was brought to the vote of the churches, the Methodists and the Congrega- tionalists voted by overwhelming ma- jorities to concur, the Presbyterians rejected the proposal. At present there are plans for union of the M Methodist and Congregational church-God grant that 1t may come! One of the executive officers of the Congregational Union in Australia asked me all sorts of ques- tions about church unity and church union in the United States and in Canada, incidentally revealing a knowledge of our problems and pro- gress which astonished me. At his request I wrote a short article for the Australian Christian World on the success sof the church union in Canada.
 All this is indicative of the trend of the times in the work of the church. Church union and on an increasingly larger scale must in- creaSingly challange our Christian thinking and service. Christian un- ity, free, genuine and powerful is one of the great tasks to which the church of our generation is called. Two hundred and fifty Protestant denominations in America Is a shame and disgrace cryinng out for repentance, renewal and reunion. Some one somewhere this summer told me that there is small group of mission churches in India which bears the cumbersome and appalling title, "The Dutch Reformed Church of America in India. Nowhere in the world has denominationalisn1 been carried to such an exterme as in America. Nowhere in the world is there greater warrant fof con- certed movements in the interests of the unity of the faith.
 Name Lifts Soul
 And is the name of those par ticular mission churches in India reveal something of the weakness of American denominationalism, there is the story of those mission church. es and missionaries in China who had the vision to form some 10 or l2 years ago, The Church of Christ in China" The very name warns the heart and gives 8 lift to the soul English and Scotch and Irish Americans and Chinese; Presbyter- ians, Methodists and Congregation alists are bound together in a great fellowship. The membership is Chi nese, the leadership Chinese but with the missionaries in an advisory capacity. While in Australia l read of the death of a certain Frank Rawlinson whose automobile was struck by a bomb during the air raids on Shanghai. Well, Frank Rawlinson was one of the church statesmen who helped to form the Church of Christ in China and l verify believe that when the trum- pets sounded on the other shore that not the least of his services men, toned in the heavenly dispatches was that he had been one who had given long and valiant service in the cause of Christian unity. May he rest in peace!
 trust that the Second church will always throw its weight and witness on the side of Christian unity. I trust that we will be pre- pared to make an interesting num- Der of sacrifices in the interests of the Christian fellowship at large in Waterbury, in the nation, in the world. We have an active and m- fiuential ministers association in Waterbury, we have an active and useful council of churches God speed the day when the ideals en- shrined in the name "The Church of Christ in Waterbury" shall be fully realized in unity and in power. The national preaching mission culmi- mated in the appeal of Dr. E. Stan ley Jones to think and pray and serve in the name of 'The Church of Christ in America" The Federal Council of Churches of Christ inp America serves a most useful pur- pose and deserves our faithful sup port by word and gift but beyond every council of churches there looms the vision of united church. We must not forget "The Church of Christ of China" "The Church of Scotland" "The United Church of Canada"-these are churches which represent the ideal of unity and power to which we must attain.
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