Religion: Unity in Pittsburgh

The chief difference between many Protestant churches lies not in theological antagonisms but in mere historical circumstances of establishment and growth. Consider, for instance, the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. (national), the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (southern), the United Presbyterian Church of North America, the Reformed Church in America (Dutch Reformed), the Reformed Church in the U. S. (German Reformed). Not only are the three Presbyterian Churches practically identical in theology and government, and the Reformed Churches likewise, but the Presbyterian are very similar in both respects to the Reformed.

Just how similar they are became manifest last week in Pittsburgh, where some 1,000 delegates from these Churches, as well as certain smaller Presbyterian and Reformed denominations,* met for two days to sound out the possibility of uniting Presbyterian and Reformed Churches. They concluded that union was not only possible but highly probable.

Important among proponents of the union is stalwart, gracious Dr. Robert Elliott Speer, 62, of Manhattan, Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, potent religious statesman and author, sire of pious offspring,* famed among a fond younger generation as “Weeping Bob” for his emotional sermons. Dr. Speer studied for the ministry, was never ordained, but was made a Doctor of Divinity by the University of Edinburgh in 1910. Thus he is still a layman. But at the conference he personified the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., by far the largest denomination present (estimated membership: 1,918,974). Said he: “Unification is right in principle and is not impractical. Is it not expedient that, we should unite now because of the great common task that confronts us? We should preach what we believe to be the gospel, to preach Jesus Christ as we believe in Him, as the greatest and most difficult problem now is true Christian education.”

Dr. John McNaugher, president of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, also found favor with the delegates when he declared: “There will be objections. Differences in administration and ritual will be magnified. There will be suspicions as to one another’s orthodoxy. But be it so, whatever is alleged against organic union must be sifted. There seems to be no determinative reason why we should not get together on a strong and durable basis, concentrating on the fundamentals and weighing lightly the circumstantials.

Said Dr. William James Reid, pastor of Pittsburgh’s First United Presbyterian Church: “The spirit in which the delegates have come makes this conference one of limitless possibilities. This may be one of the historic gatherings in church annals.”

It was a happy band of churchmen that entrained for home when the conference was over. Not a single dissenting vote had been cast on the following resolution: “The committees of the conferring Churches express themselves as approving the organic union of these Churches at the earliest moment.” The denominational committees will soon submit reports to the governing bodies of their respective Churches. If the reports are favored, they will be sent to the individual presbyteries (Presbyterian) and classes (Reformed) for action.* A majority vote of these would make unification a reality, would link some 3,200,000 church members in one Church. Technical ways and means of union, necessarily complicated, will in the mean while be discussed. Suggestions now circulating: that a holding company be formed to control the finances of the United Church; that the various administrative boards be merged in accordance with the four-board plan of the Presbyte rian Church in the U. S. A. (Foreign Missions, National Missions, Ministerial Relief & Sustentation, Christian Education).

* The Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The Associate Synod of North America. Associate Presbyterian Church. The Reformed Presbyterian Church (Old School). The Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod. The Associate Reformed Church (South). The Christian Reformed Church in North America.

* His son Elliott is head of the Dwight L. Moody (religious) Schools in Northfield, Mass. His daughter Margaret is a missionary in China.

* A presbytery or class is a geographical division of the whole Church. It consists of all the ministers and certain appointed laymen within that section.