The call to unity; the Bedell lectures for 1919 delivered at Kenyon college, May 24th and 25th, 1920

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Preface

These lectures, delivered some months ago, were put in form for publication before the recent meeting of the Lambeth Conference. That gathering of the Bishops of the Anglican Church has issued a Declaration on Reunion which will challenge the attention of Christians everywhere, and will give new impetus to the movement towards unity.

To the author of these lectures it is reassuring to find that what had been written is wholly in accord with this latest pronouncement by those entitled to speak for the Anglican Communion. Especially it is interesting to find that the suggestion, in the fourth lecture, as to mutual acceptance of added authorization for the work of the Ministry, is definitely put forth in the Lambeth Declaration.

Among the volumes consulted in connection with these lectures there are two to which I feel under special obligation. One of these is The Church and Religious Unity, by the ,Revd. Herbert Kelly, a masterly and most truly helpful discussion of the subject from the Catholic point of view; the other is Pathways to Christian Unity, by six distinguished Free Church writers, a volume so earnest in its plea for unity, and so Christian in its spirit, that it is a refreshment to one's faith and hope to read it.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I The Call to Unity I

II The Present Outlook for Unity 27

II

There are few, to-day, who will defend the divisions among Christians. Not often do we hear the argument, once common enough, that competition is needful for religion, and that sectarianism is ordained of God. It is now generally recognized that the divisions among us are a sin in themselves and a source of untold injury to the cause of Christ. But there are still many who doubt whether the ideal of unity can be realized. The obstacles in the way of its realization are indeed great. From the human point of view we may admit that they seem insuperable. But this is not a question to be considered merely from the human point of view. It is Jesus Christ Who calls us to unity, and with Him the impossible is possible. The difficulty of bringing men and women into fellowship with each other in Christ is no greater now than it was when the Gospel was first preached. That which God the Spirit was able to accomplish in human lives in the first age He is equally able to accomplish in this later one. The reunion of the Church in this twentieth century would be not one whit more

*7 wonderful, or surprising, than was the appearance of the Church in the first century. The difficulties to-day are, in fact, far less than those which St. Paul faced when he proclaimed the Gospel of visible fellowship in the one Christ. " What a strange medley it was, that Corinthian Church of his ! Jew and Gentile, master and slave, cultured and unwashed, were welded into the closest unity by their baptism into this new society. History could produce nothing like it. Slaves had suddenly found themselves on a spiritual level with their owners; emancipated women had begun to prophesy in the common assembly, to the scandal of old-fashioned disciplinarians; there was a babel of tongues as each individual claimed priority for the exercise of his spiritual gift. How could such a conglomerate hold together ? Only, St. Paul said, as they recognized an organic life which duly related part with part, only as they were dominated by the truth of the one Body. . . . The body is Christ. That is the true unity. It unites all classes, and all nationalities. It finds a place for everyone, and keeps everyone in his place. It destroys not individuals, but individualism. It transmutes self-assertion into self-devotion. It counts charity, that is the spirit of membership, above all other spiritual gifts. It creates an efficiency and generates a force which transcends all efforts of all individuals, and which in the end will be irresistible. It presents a living Christ to the world — a living and

TlHE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY 29

growing Christ, embodied in the lives of His members, gathering up in one all the individuals of humanity into the ultimate unity of God's One Man. And so it offers a new philosophy of human life, and with it a new human hope, as certain of fulfilment as is the purpose of God/' 1 As we consider the practical possibility of unity, and the steps necessary for its achievement, we must keep in mind the fact that unity is far from meaning uniformity. A mechanical uniformity would be as untrue to the New Testament ideal of the Church as is an individualistic disunity. The one would be as far from the true unity of the Spirit as the other is. The one would be as spiritually sterile as the other is spiritually disintegrating. The method of a unity maintained by authority from without has already been tried on a great scale, and our present disunity is the reaction from it. Uniformity in the details of faith and worship there neither can be, nor should be, in the Church. God has created men with widely differing temperaments, gifts, and spiritual capacities. Our gifts and capacities are not to be repressed, they are all to be developed and fulfilled in fellowship with Christ. A true unity must provide for great diversity of spiritual apprehension, experience and expression. Unity requires uniformity only in the things which are essential to common

1 J. Armitage Robinson, D.D. The Vision of Unity, pp. 9, 10. Longmans, Green and Company.

faith and life in Christ. Unity means a oneness in the essential things so real that we shall dare to differ freely in lesser matters, as men and women do who live in real fellowship, without their differences causing, or even suggesting, separation and division. We do not need separated and rival sects to give room for proper freedom. If complete agreement in matters of faith were a prerequisite for unity we might indeed despair, but unity imposes no such condition. While it is obvious that those who are to live and work together in Christ must have a common faith in Him, it is certain that unity cannot be based only on agreement upon questions of doctrine. We need to recognize more clearly that it is not so much agreement which produces unity as it is unity and fellowship which produce agreement. It is the Spirit which maketh men to be of one mind in an house. Our Lord Himself acted upon this principle. He based the unity of His followers on a foundation far deeper than mere intellectual agreement. He did not formulate a creed. He founded a Household, a Church, in which all were to become sharers of His life. It was the living of their common life in Him which was to keep them in the unity of the common faith. It was in the fellowship of the one household that they were to grow together in knowledge of the truth. Right apprehension of truth is important, and necessary. But unity lies more fundamentally in our sharing the life that is in

Christ than in our apprehension, or explanation, of it. And this fundamental unity of life given, and shared, is already ours. What is needed is that this shall be realized and made manifest.

While it is true that the difficulties to be overcome are beyond estimate, the present outlook for unity is full of encouragement. Within the past few decades an astonishing change has taken place. A short time ago few Christians were seriously concerned about unity. Now the desire for it is manifested in all parts of the Church, and in every quarter of the world. A new spirit of fellowship is showing itself. Prejudices are breaking down. Misconceptions are being removed. Mutual respect is taking the place of suspicion and misunderstanding. Scholarship is at work and under its impartial searchlight some of the old difficulties wear a changed aspect. There is a new freedom, a new interchange of thought, a new readiness to compare ideas, and to consider opposing views, among scholars and leaders, in all Communions. Roman Catholics and Protestants, Anglicans and Nonconformists are found sympathetically and open-mindedly studying each other's religious life and teaching. The old, bitter style of controversy has almost disappeared. Of this changed situation, as it appears in England, Canon Goudge says, " If any member of our own body preached about Nonconformists in the style of Dr. South, or wrote about them in the style of the poet Crabbe, we should soon make him understand how deeply we were shocked by his words. It is rare indeed to hear from one of our own pulpits an unkind word about those separated from us, and we may hope that the same is widely true of Nonconformist pulpits. Moreover, the old aloofness is giving way. We ourselves no longer affect to regard Nonconformity as negligible, either at home or abroad; the work done by Nonconformists for our common Master is far too great and too successful for that. There is much personal friendliness especially among the ministers of the different Communions, much mutual appreciation, a far greater humility and desire to learn one from another." *

Christians to-day are realizing that the things which unite them are greater than the things which separate them. They are asking why the separations should continue. This spirit is especially strong among the younger people who will soon be the leaders in the various Communions. From the Student Christian Movement of England comes this declaration : " We feel that the divisions of the church in our country are no longer tolerable, because they obscure that unity in Christ which we know to be more real than our differences. We ask for instant and courageous action. We want to serve a church which stands as one in fearless love of truth." And this utterance is

1 The Catholic Party and the Nonconformists, p. 4.

not exceptional. It is typical of the new spirit and attitude. This spirit was already at work before the war. But the experiences of the war have greatly accentuated and strengthened it. The war brought about on an unprecedented scale, contact between Chaplains of all kinds and men of all faiths. The comradeship in a great cause, the fellowship in a world emergency, revealed them to each other as brothers in spirit, whatever their religious names. They saw that true Christian character, was the product not of any one of the different Religious Communions, but of all of them. And if they were disposed to regard this as the acid test, there is the highest of all authority for such a judgment. " By their fruits ye shall know them." An Army Chaplain of the Church of England writes, " Remove a man from the aura of femininity which surrounded his ministry; compel him to think in a secular medium; pitch him into a world where rations have an inordinate value ; compel him to become independent of externals in the spiritual life; surround him with pals who want no phrases but the naked truth ; give him God the Spirit for his Teacher, and the Gospel for his tool; and it is not surprising if in these surroundings his style changes, his needs simplify, he develops new affinities, and jettisons a certain amount of lumber out of his theological valise." ..." It is one thing to accept the presence of the Roman Chapel in your parish as part of your normal experience ; and another to see the soldiers of an Irish regiment laboriously erecting two wooden altars in the camp, at a safe distance from one another, lest the Church of Rome should suffer contagion from the Church of England. It is one thing to acquiesce in the lack of sacramental fellowship with the Nonconformist minister over the way, between whom and you there is a series of border raids and minor sheepstealing operations ; and another thing when you know him as a friend — when you have shared your experience of Christ with him, and worked by his side in the presence of wounds and death." *

Some of the approaches to unity at " the Front " may have been such as trained theologians could not approve. But we may remember that the forward rushes of the " inexperienced " American troops, though disapproved, no doubt rightly, by the military experts, helped greatly to shorten the war.

Out of all this fellowship in a common crisis has come an increased sense, if not of the sinfulness, at any rate of the needlessness and futility of the divisions among Christians. The soldier at least sees the folly of trying to fight the Devil with divided forces. Those who have passed through these experiences will be less than ever content with a divided Christianity. Great as was the crime of its originators, the war

1 The Rev. T. Guy Rogers, Essay on " Reunion and the War " in Towards Reunion, Macmillan and Co.

has made powerfully for the unity of the world. It has also worked mightily towards the unity of the Church.

Looking at the Christian world as a whole, we see most important developments in process, and conspicious among them is the changed situation of the ancient Churches of the East. These great Churches, which in our western provincialism we have too little considered, are now coming into a new relation of fellowship with the world, and with the Church at large. For centuries content to live apart, with little desire for contact with the rest of Christendom, they are now stirred with a new spirit and are manifesting a strong desire for unity. Speaking to us from the home and cradle of our religion, out of a Christian life which antedates that of any of the Churches of the West, these Eastern Christians have a great part to play in the life of the United Church, and in the work of bringing together its sundered portions. Their unquestioned antiquity, their steadfastness in the Faith, which none dispute, their experiences of suffering and martyrdom, their deep insight into spiritual truth, all give unique value to the testimony which they bring to us. They have a special witness to bear as to the essentials of an evangelical, historic, catholic, Christianity. Even out of the present chaos in Russia the message comes that the Church of that land is finding new life in the day of her visitation. Bishop

Bury, who has just been among us, and whose work as Bishop of the Anglican Churches in Central and Northern Europe has given him unusual opportunities for knowledge of the situation, predicts that the Russian Church will come out of her fierce ordeal purified, spiritually strengthened, and with new names added to the roll of her martyrs and confessors. One of the most trusted religious leaders of our own land, and of Protestant Christianity the world over, a layman, whose position of leadership has kept him in close relation with Russian affairs, makes the statement that " the Russian Orthodox Church is the one institution in Russia out of which the cement has not fallen." " It should," he says, " be the work of Protestants not to plant their own communions there, but in any way possible to aid the Russian Church to do its work. It will be the great power in the recovery and restoration of the Russian people." The emergence of the Eastern portion of Christendom into the affairs of the Christian world is already showing its effects in practical ways. It is compelling people to see the problem of unity in its true perspective. It is obliging all to recognize that Christians cannot be classified simply as Roman Catholics on the one hand or Protestants on the other. It is making plain to the wayfaring man the fact that the title Catholic cannot, with fidelity to history, or to fact, be claimed as the exclusive property of those in communion with

THE PRESENT OUTLOOK FOR UNITY tf

the see of Rome. In this great Communion of the East, with its hundred and fifty millions of Christians, we see a Christianity which has lived largely apart from our controversies, which is deeply Evangelical, but not Protestant, which is undeniably Catholic, but in no sense Roman, which is as clear and emphatic in its rejection of the claims of the Papacy as it is in its witness to the Catholic Faith. The relations between the Eastern and Anglican Churches have long been most friendly in character. There is indeed nothing which need hold them apart. Their relations have been still further strengthened by recent events, and the time seems now to have come for full inter-communion and fellowship between these Communions.

The deputation representing the World Conference Commission of the Episcopal Church which visited the Churches of the East in 19 19 declares, in its report, that these Churches now seem ready for definite steps towards unity. This report says, " A desire for contact with Western Christianity is beginning to find frequent expression throughout the East. Their theological students are being encouraged to go to England and America for part of their education. An interchange of lectureships on Church history and doctrine is being seriously considered in many places. Many progressive reforms are being inaugurated wherein contact with the more active form of western Church life will exercise a stimulating influence. A fresh missionary determination is overtaking the Eastern Churches as they look forward to such an era of political peace and religious freedom as they have not enjoyed for centuries. It is along such lines as these that the pragmatic West can help the more conservative East. In many particulars it can be truly said that the West lacks what the East has, and the East lacks what the West has. Only in union can the fulness of truth and beauty be found.''

At present the chief barrier to progress in the direction of world wide unity is the position taken by the Roman Catholic Church. The official position of this Communion in regard to unity seems still to be that which, years ago, in connection with a famous discussion, a representative organ declared it to be " The Church apostolic, undivided, and universal stands alone among all other religious communities, with everything to bestow, nothing to receive ; her call whether to individuals or communities, is a summons not to treat, but to surrender. She sits as judge in her own controversy, the only plea she admits is a confiteor, the only prayer she listens to a miserere/'

We may have confidence, however, that this will not always be the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church. A far different spirit is found in the utterances of many of her wise pontiffs, in the lives of her great saints, and in the negotiations in which she has at times engaged with those not of her own fold. Her system is in fact far more flexible than it appears to be, and she has shown remarkable power of adaptation to changed conditions. The growth of a world wide spirit of fellowship, and Christian democracy, will affect Rome as it is affecting all of us. Some new Hildebrand will come to the Papacy who will see the vision of unity as St. Paul did, and will find the true spiritual power of his high office by voluntarily laying aside whatever hinders the Roman Communion from Catholic fellowship with the Church of Christ as a whole. As to the possibility of approach between the Roman Catholic Church and those Communions which seem furthest removed from her, no less interesting a witness than Professor Harnack says, " If one objects to it that at this time no one can imagine how and under what forms Catholicism and Protestantism can ever draw near one another, it is to be remembered that three hundred years ago no one could have conceived beforehand how Lutheranism and Calvinism could have been fused together. And yet we have to-day, the Evangelical Union, and thousands know themselves as Evangelical Christians without any suspicion of that opposition which once bade Lutherans and Calvinists contend more bitterly than Lutherans and Catholics. " 1 It should go without saying, in this day, that no countenance should be given to the old

1 See quotation in Passing Protestantism by Newman Smyth, p. 193.

bitterness against Rome, and that no right-minded Christian can desire anything but what is best for this great Communion, and for her work among men. We must all recognize the spiritual excellences of the Roman Catholic Church; her fearless witness to the supernatural and sacramental truth of the Christian religion; her power to produce saints and spiritual heroes; her appeal to the poetic, and the aesthetic, in the human soul ; the devotion with which she reaches and ministers to all classes of men, the unlettered as well as the learned. We see, and we rejoice to see, the zeal and loyalty which she arouses in her people; their living faith and readiness to make sacrifices for their religion; their recognition of the binding duty of worship; the sacredness in which they hold the marriage bond. All this, and more, we see and we thank God for it. These spiritual fruits are a strength to the whole Church of Christ, and, in spite of our divisions, they are the common possession of all of us, for " whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it." *

But we shall not make progress towards unity by ignoring, or glossing over, real difficulties. As Christians, we owe it to ourselves, to each other, and to Christ Our Lord, to bear clear witness to the truth as we have learned it in Him, and unity reached by any

1 1 Corinthians xii, 26.

other method than this could result only in disappointment.

There are elements in the Roman Catholic system to which the rest of Christendom can never assent. The present claims of the Papacy cannot be reconciled either with the history, or with the spirit, of the Christian Religion. Unity will not come by way of submission, or absorption of others into any one of the existing Communions. It will come by concord, not by conquest; by mutual and equal fellowship, not by " unconditional surrender." Properly constituted authority there must of course be in the Church, but the day of autocracy has gone, whether in temporal or spiritual affairs, and its spirit is foreign to Christ's Religion. It is, in fact, Christianity itself which by its Gospel of liberty and human brotherhood has destroyed this principle of government. The Papacy, and also the monarchical idea of the Episcopate in so far as this has obtained in the Anglican Communion, or elsewhere, must be modified and brought into full accord with that spirit of freedom and brotherhood which is alone reconcilable with the Gospel, and which the Gospel has itself produced.

Not only will the way to unity be opened, but all the excellences which the Roman Catholic Church possesses will be strengthened, her spiritual power will be incalculably increased, when she relieves herself of her present encumbrances. We must believe that, in time, this change will take place. Already the demand is heard within the Roman Church for " a constitutionalized Papacy/' For the present it is repressed, but it will be heard again, and in time it will prevail. The laity of this Communion will exercise larger power, and the influence within it of the Roman Catholic Church of the United States seems certain to increase. No one can say what form the constitution of the United Church will take. Who shall say that there may not prove to be in it a place for " a constitutionalized Papacy " ? This is by no means beyond the limits of possibility, and it is a thought which is already finding expression. With a largeness of view which all of us may well emulate the Free Church authors of Pathways to Christian Unity say " somehow the Church has to solve the question which is also plaguing the political world : how to combine central authority with local freedom and representation with true leadership. That leads us to make the daring suggestion that the whole Church needs to embrace in one comprehensive system the different types of Church Government which have been historically developed : Papacy, Episcopacy, Presbyterianism and Congregationalism. This might be found to be other than a wild dream if it was recognized that here was really a place for honorable compromise, which could be secured by the delimitation of authority, by agreement as to what things ought to be bound and what ought to be left free, and especially by discovering the real nature of Christian authority to consist in the persuasion of love, and to rest upon the enthusiasm of loyalty, instead of borrowing the notions of coercion and the oath of absolute obedience upon which the secular State and military discipline rely. Indeed this may prove to be something much better than compromise — a real experiment in combining principles hitherto supposed to be contradictory. Episcopacy, for instance, which the Free Churches are sometimes asked to swallow as a comparatively harmless concession to Catholic prejudice, or a prudent insurance against possible, but unproved, defects in their ministry, might come to be accepted with genuine enthusiasm if it were rightly presented as signifying the mystical Communion with the Church of the past, which is the Church now triumphant in heaven ; as conveying recognition by the whole Church now militant on earth; as a valuable means of maintaining personal fellowship between the local and the central officers of the Church. This, however, would require an Episcopate not only in the historic succession and in unbroken Communion, but also democratically elected and truly representative/' x

Among the Protestant Communions in all parts of the world the desire for unity is expressing itself with increasing force. The differences between the Protestant Churches have, in fact, in large measure ceased to exist. The burning questions upon which the separations took place have many of them burned themselves out. The differences which remain are most of them as to matters acknowledged not to be vital to the Christian Faith. The divisions have outlived their causes, and it is felt widely that there is not sufficient reason for their continuance. The impulse towards closer fellowship among the Protestant Communions has been much strengthened by great interdenominational agencies and movements such as the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., and the Student Christian Movement.

In this country the " Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America," which includes representatives of thirty different denominations, is doing much to draw these Communions nearer to each other, to unite them in combined action and expression so far as this is possible, and to promote among them the spirit of Christian fellowship. While " Federation " does not in itself accomplish unity, and cannot be accepted as a substitute for it, the contact and cooperation which it brings about tend strongly in this direction.

The movement towards unity in the Protestant world is, however, going far beyond desires or tendencies. In a number of cases definite steps have been taken, bodies closely akin to each other have become united, and others are preparing for like action.

The three most important Lutheran Churches in the United States, heretofore sharply divided, have come together as the United Lutheran Church of America.

Hopeful negotiations are in progress between the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church in that country. The Congregational, Methodist, and Presbyterian Churches in Canada are considering the possibility of uniting and the same Churches in Australia are making similar efforts. In England a movement is under way to bring together the Free Churches under the title of " The United Free Church of England/'

In May, 191 8, most important action was taken by the General Assembly of the " Presbyterian Church in the United States of America/ ' An invitation was extended to the Evangelical Communions of this country to participate in a meeting " for the purpose of formulating a plan of organic union," and, in December of that year, a preliminary " Interchurch Conference on Organic Union " was held. At this meeting an Ad Interim Committee was appointed with instructions to invite the Evangelical Communions of the United States to send representatives to an " Interdenominational Council on Organic Union/' In February, 1920, a meeting of the proposed Council assembled, with representatives of eighteen Communions attending. A plan of organic union was adopted which is to be submitted to the governing bodies of the several Communions, and when six of them have signified their assent the Council will convene and the plan will go into effect. The plan adopted provides that each Communion shall have " autonomy in purely denominational affairs " reserving the right to retain its credal statements, its form of government in the conduct of its own work, and its particular mode of worship, but the Communions unite in a common declaration of faith, and the Council is to " harmonize and unify the work of the United Churches " and to bring about, so far as may be possible, consolidation of their religious work both at home and abroad. This is the most important and promising action yet taken toward uniting the Protestant Communions.

The plan contains the significant statement that " in taking this step, we look forward with confident hope to that complete unity toward which we believe the Spirit of God is leading us." In connection with this movement full consolidation has been effected between the Welsh Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and plans are now in hand which there is good reason to hope will bring into union shortly the United Presbyteries, the Reformed Church, the Presbyterian Church South and the Presbyterian Church North. The fear is sometimes expressed that such unions of kindred Churches may tend to strengthen them in their present position and so prove a hindrance instead of an advance towards the full realization of unity. There seems, however, to be little ground for this fear. The fact seems to be that fellowship begets the desire for still further fellowship, and that every local movement, every effort to bring together related groups of Churches, gives added momentum to the movement for unity and hastens the day when our Lord's prayer shall find its full answer. More and more as these consolidations take place the spirit of unity will grow, the conviction will increase that unity is possible, it will be felt that we cannot stop short on the road, that the way must be found to bring together all who are in Christ in the visible fellowship of his Church. In China the " Nanking Church Council " has been formed including in its membership six Communions, with a central executive committee, in order to avoid overlapping and rivalry.