Article May 31, 1913 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from R. J. Campbell

[The Universalist Leader.]

Recently we proposed to solve the church unity problem in a word, by changing the word "denomination" to "department," thus recognizing what we all admit when we come face to face, that all churches are but branches of the same body. There is one Christian church, and each separate organization is but a department of that one church; we are all working for the same thing in our own way, and with our own equipment, in our own place, with our own people Under the name "denomination" we have established our "department," and through the years or centuries it has grown dear to the hearts of our people, and no one wants to give it up, yet all see the utter folly of preserving these distinctions in such a way as to frustrate every effort at real federation. We have but to affirm openly what we all secretly believe, to make the Christian church one as our United States government is one with its departments, through which it becomes strong and efficient.

And now another word comes into line as illustrative of the same thing: there is nothing that carries so much bitterness and that stands so in the way of church unity as "sectarianism." That word stands for division; it has stood for mental and pgysical persecution. "The sects" is a term of reproach to our work at home and to our missions abroad; and yet but a slight recasting of the word and it becomes the expression of unity: instead of the "sect," which includes and excludes, which sets itself apart and independent of all others, why not the "section," which means a part of the greater whole? Not the Congregationalist sect, but the Congregationalist section of the Christian church; not the Universalist sect, which shuts itself out and is in turn shut out, but the Universalist section of the Christian church, which, with its own faith, with the inspiration of its own history, is to do its part in its own way as its contribution to the mighty Christian church of which it is a living part.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access