CONGREGATIONALISM. A term used in two signifieations at present. It designates a pe culiar system of church organization and govern ment, and as such is rightly claimed by a great family of religious bodies, of which that popu larly called 'Congregational' is only one. In this usage, the word appropriately describes the polity of the Baptists, the River and the Plym outh Brethren, the Christians, the Disciples of Christ, the Unitarians, and the Hebrew syna gogues. It properly describes the organization of considerable groups of Adventists. American Lutherans, and less numerous religious corn nmnions, as well as of those churches specifically called by the Congregational name. But the term 'Congregational' is employed no less ap propriately in a second signification, to denote a particular group of churches in Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia, which are 'Congregational' in their government and 'Evangelical' in their type of Protestant doc trine, and stand in recognized relations of de nominational fellowship one with another within the bounds of the respective countries of their location, and to some extent in international fraternal union. In this sense it is proper to speak of the Congregational denomination of the United States, or of England and Wales.
The Congregational polity, in its modern his tory, had its origin in the Reformation age, and was due to the belief that the Bible contains an authoritative revelation of the will of God con cerning church organization, no less than a God given revelation of religious truth. In working out the details of the Congregational system, its early expounders conceived that they were simply reproducing the divinely appointed model of the Apostolic churches. Few modern Congregation alists hold, however, that the minutiae of church government are matters of revelation, or that any one form of church organization was divinely appointed for all times, countries, and stages of civilization; though Congregationalists generally believe that their polity embodies the broad scriptural principles of fraternal equality, indi vidual responsibility, and full-rounded independ ent Christian manhood. They deem it, also, pe culiarly consonant with the democratic tenden cies and high individual intelligence of modern civil society. As indicated in the name, Congre gationalism believes the basic element in the visible organized Church to be the local congrega tion of Christian disciples. It holds that con gregation competent to designate its own offi cers, admit members to communion, discipline the erring, state its faith in language of its own choosing, and order its worship as seems best suited to its needs. Each local congregation, modern Congregationalism regards as a democ racy, where affairs of concern are decided by the votes of the membership, normally under the of the pastor—if there be a pastor in office. Like all democratic bodies, however, a Congregational church makes large use of committees, which report results rather than processes for the consideration of the body as a whole, and act as the executive arms of the con gregation.
Congregationalism holds to the autonomy of the local church. It rejects the judicial sys tem of Presbyterianism, or the supervision of any form of episcopacy, as an undue interfer ence with the rights of the local body. But Con gregationalism in America, and increasingly in Great Britain, rejects pure independency. Though one church or body of Christians has no judicial authority over another, each owes fraternal counsel to its neighbors, and no act of large im portance in any single congregation should be done without seeking the advice of the repre sentatives of sister churches. Illustrated in
various ways in different countries, mutual re sponsibility and helpfulness are distinguishing . features of the Congregational polity.
The Local Church.—The local church is held by Congregationalists to be a company of pro fessed disciples of Christ, who have some intelli gent acquaintance with Christian truth, and per sonal experience of the saving work of Christ. Hence admission to church-membership is based on evidence of intelligent determination to lead a Christian life. Such a company of Christians is knit together into a church by the covenant which they make with God and one with an other, to live as those who have God for their Father and Christ for their Saviour, and to join in the worship, seek the welfare, and submit to the discipline of the particular local body of believers of which they are members. In early Congregationalism, and in American practice to the present day, this covenant, which each local congregation may express in whatever way seems best to it, was written; in Great Britain written covenants are now rare. In addition to a written covenant, it is usual for American Congregation al churches of the present day to have a brief confession of faith, assent to which is required of would-be members. Such local confessions, though not unknown, are unusual in Great Brit ain. Examination of candidates for membership as to their knowledge of Christian truth has pre vailed since the beginnings of Congregational ism; but the local confession of faith, though occasionally exemplified in New England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, at tained general use in America during the doc trinal discussions of the opening years of the nineteenth century. Each local church is free to express its faith in its own language, and such confessions, like the examination of candi dates for church-membership, have steadily tend ed toward greater catholicity and simplicity. While Congregationalism recognizes no creed statement as binding on a local church save that which the church may itself adopt, Congrega tionalists have never hesitated, in their repre sentative gatherings, to adopt confessions of faith. These have the value of a testimony to the common faith of the churches, and have never been regarded as creed-tests. Thus, the exiled London Congregationalists put forth a confession in 1596; the Cambridge Synod, rep resenting the churches of New England, ap proved the doctrinal parts of the Westmin ster Confession in 1648. Ten years later, a meeting representative of the Congrega tional churches of England put forth a modi fied form of the Westminster Confession, known, from the place of their assembly, in the Savoy, in London, as the 'Savoy Declaration'; and meetings of the delegates of the Alassachn setts churches in I6S0, and of those of Connecti cut in 170S, set their approval, save for slight changes, on this work of the Savoy Synod. The 'Congregational Union of England and Wales' put forth a statement of 'Principles of Reli gion' in 1833; the 'National Council of the Con gregational Churches of the United States' adopted the 'Burial Hill [Plymouth, _Mass.] Declaration' in 1865; and in 18S3 a commission appointed by the 'National Council' three years before reported a creed that has had wide accept ance Among American Congregationalists, and has been adopted as their statement of faith by many local churches.