Religion: Logic in Cincinnati

Some Episcopalians and Presbyterians are fond of talking about a denominational merger—some green and pleasant future day; in Cincinnati, working unions have already taken place. In each case, the union was the result of simple, local logic.

In the new suburb of Indian Hill (pop. 2,090), both the Presbyterians and the Episcopalians (including Senator Robert A. Taft) wanted churches of their own, but felt they were too few to build two churches and support two pastors. Together, in 1947, they organized the Indian Hill Presbyterian Church and the Indian Hill Episcopal Church (joint membership: 404), with an Episcopalian as minister. Fortnight ago, as the seal of their fellowship, Indian Hill’s congregation dedicated a new $300,000 church building—the first U.S. church ever to be built by a combined Episcopal and Presbyterian congregation as a common effort.

In down-at-the-heel West Cincinnati, the members of the West Cincinnati Presbyterian Church and St. Barnabas’ Episcopal Church, faced with similar problems, united in 1945. Now, with a combined membership of 200, they meet in the West Cincinnati church (now called St. Barnabas’) with a Presbyterian, the Rev. Maurice McCrackin, as minister. The church is also interracial; about a fifth of its members are Negroes.

The two congregations function in slightly different ways. Indian Hill holds Presbyterian and Episcopal services on different Sundays; St. Barnabas’ uses a simplified liturgy at all its services. New members are received into both denominations, i.e., the bishop lays his hands on the confirmand in the Episcopal rite of confirmation, and the pastor then extends “the right hand of Christian fellowship,” Presbyterian fashion. Both churches give part of their revenues to Episcopal and Presbyterian church agencies.

Outside southern Ohio, theological conservatives have taken exception to this working-level church union. Editorialized this week’s Episcopal Living Church: “Outright departure from the integrity of [the church’s] faith and life.” But Clergymen McCrackin and Indian Hill’s present minister, the Rev. Luther Tucker, have found that the two faiths can worship side by side and still respect the two traditions. Says Episcopalian Tucker: “The spirit—this something different which people have brushed up against in the partnership in the Gospel in this place—this is Holy Spirit.”