Presbyterianism

Canada, Australia, Africa.

The United Church of Canada came formally into existence at Toronto on June 1o, 1925. This remarkable union of Congregationalists, Methodists and Presby terians is the outcome of negotiations which have been proceed ing since 1908, in order to cope effectively with the religious needs of the Dominion, where (especially in the west) the ecclesiastical divisions were felt to be a serious weakness. The legislation required to make the union effective was carried through the Canadian Parliament in 1924. The polity of the united church is admittedly Presbyterian. A minority of the Presbyterian Churches (714 out of 4,531 congregations) declined to follow the lead. In Australia a movement for re-union simi lar to the Canadian enterprise has been wrecked in the meantime. Both in Australia and in New Zealand the shortage of ministers is being acutely felt, in face of the increasing number of immi grants and the scattered population. Australasia reckons 127,305 communicants (including the Missionary Synod of Tahiti, New Hebrides, etc.) with 967 ministers, but the latter are insufficient for the needs of the situation. Another failure of Presbyterian ism to unite with other branches of the Church has to be chronicled in South Africa. In 1917 the Presbyterian Church inaugurated a movement for union with the Congregationalists, but the project had to be abandoned in 1921, partly on account of the colour question. Within the Presbyterian Church herself the colour ques tion has had to be solved by the creation of the Bantu Presby terian Church, composed of purely African natives, independent but allied. On the other hand, the Church of Central Africa came into being on Sept. 17, 1924, a very fine example of union between the Church of Scotland's Blantyre Presbytery, the United Free Church's Livingstonia Presbytery and the Dutch Reformed Church's Nyassaland (Mission) Presbytery. The Dutch Re formed Church in South Africa with a membership embracing 840,000 white adherents, brings up the total of Presbyterians in Africa at present to a large number, proportionately; there are in all 1,768 congregations, including the various missions and 532,085 communicants. A growing spirit of co-operation is also manifest.

Asia.

In India the South United Church was formed of Pres byterians and Congregationalists in 1908; the community numbers over 240,00o, and proposals have even been made for union be tween this Church and the Southern Indian section of the Church of England. The North United Church, also on a Presbyterian basis, arose in Dec. 1924, from the Presbyterian Church, which had received 53,00o Welsh Calvinistic Methodists from Assam in 1921, and the local Congregationalists. On a smaller scale the genesis of the United Church of Christ in China resembles that of the Indian and the Canadian communities. It arose in 1921 from the Presbyterians and the Congregationalists, the former numbering 87,332 members, the latter 29,00o. This had been rendered possible by a previous reunion among the Presby terians themselves; in 1918, after I 1 years' negotiations, io dif ferent missions came together to form the Presbyterian Church in China. The combined community is now the largest Protes

tant Church in China. In Korea the Church, originally founded by American missionaries, has prospered rapidly, and displays a true missionary spirit; it numbers 1,266 congregations, with a Christian community of over 200,000. (W. Y.; J. MOF. ; X.) Presbyterianism in the United States is a reproduction and further development of Presbyterianism in Europe. Excluding the "Reformed" Churches—which also maintain, with minor modifications, the Presbyterian form of church government (see REFORMED CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES and REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA), there are some ten Presbyterian denom inations in the United States. In what follows, attention will be devoted mainly, but not exclusively, to the largest and most in fluential of these bodies—the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. The narrative naturally falls into three periods.

I. The Colonial Period.

The earliest Presbyterian emigra tion from Europe to America was that of French Huguenots who, under the auspices of Admiral Coligny, were led by Jean Ribaut to Port Royal, S.C., in 1562, and to Florida (near the present St. Augustine) by Laudonniere, in 1564. In the latter half of the 17th century there were Huguenot churches at Boston, New York city, New Rochelle, N.Y., and Charleston, S.C.

English Puritanism under the auspices of the Virginia Company established itself in the Bermuda islands as early as 1612 ; and in 1617 a Presbyterian church, governed by ministers and four elders, was organized by the Rev. Lewis Hughes, who used the liturgy of the isles of Guernsey and Jersey. A considerable num ber of the Puritans who settled in Massachusetts were Presbyter ians, and their churches in Connecticut were commonly spoken of as Presbyterian. The early New England churches have been aptly described as representing, in general, "a Congregationalized Presbyterianism, or a Presbyterianized Congregationalism." Later the Congregational elements predominated in these regions, and in the main only those Puritans who drifted west and south of New England became a permanent part of the Presbyterian Church. In New York city, Francis Doughty preached to Puritan Presby terians in 1643, though there was no organized Presbyterian church there before 1717. In 1650 he was succeeded by Richard Denton, who returned to England in 1659. The oldest church on Long Island—of those now under the care of the General Assem bly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.—is that of Southold, established in 1640 by the Rev. John Young. The first Presby terian churches in North and South Jersey—Newark (1667), Elizabeth (1668), Woodbridge (1680) and Fairfield (1692)— were due to Puritan migrations from Connecticut and Long Island.

After leaving New York, Francis Doughty laboured in Virginia and Maryland from 165o to 1659, becoming the pioneer of British Presbyterianism in the Middle Colonies. Likewise, other Presby terian ministers, chiefly from Great Britain and Ireland, began to labour in the Middle Colonies and in the Carolinas during the latter half of the 17th century—Matthew Hill, William Trail, Joseph Lord and Archibald Stobo.