Religion: Union for Presbyterians?

There are 3,600,000 Presbyterians in the U.S., and they are divided into eleven denominations. Last week members of the three largest took an important step toward eventual merger. At a conference in Cincinnati, delegates from the Northern Presbyterians (Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.), the Southern Presbyterians (Presbyterian Church, U.S.) and the United Presbyterians† put their signatures on a detailed Plan of Union, to be submitted to their respective General Assemblies.

The plan calls for a new united church : the Presbyterian Church of the United States. Its rules of administration would follow the pattern set by the three member churches, and its first officers would be elected by a combined General Assembly of all three churches meeting together. A 50-man commission would then integrate the administrative boards of the three churches. Similarly, mission work and church educational institutions would be turned over to the administration of the new united church.

Theologically speaking, the delegates to the Cincinnati meeting had very little to argue about. All three churches subscribe to the Westminster Confession of 1646 and to the catechisms adopted by U.S. Presbyterians in 1729. Statements of faith of all three churches would be kept as permissible congregational interpretations.

The big obstacles to union lie not in the plan but in the heads of Presbyterians. Many United Presbyterians (membership: 220,000) and Southern Presbyterians (membership: 702,000) fear that their churches would be swallowed up by the Northern Presbyterians (membership: 2,500,000) in any merger. Members of the two smaller churches also hold to more conservative interpretations of Scripture and church law than the Northern church, which includes both conservatives and theological liberals.

Since the present union plan was broached in 1951, its supporters have grown more hopeful. But even if ultimately successful, the next moves toward union will be slow and cautious. If the 1953 General Assemblies of all three churches like the look of the plan, it will be sent to local presbyteries, which will vote on it sometime in 1954. That is where the plan will be put to its severest test: two-thirds of the presbyteries of the Northern and United Presbyterian churches would have to accept it, three-fourths of the Southern Presbyterian presbyteries.

† Other U.S. Presbyterian bodies: Cumberland Presbyterian Church (membership: 80,000), Colored Cumberland Presbyterian Church (30,000), Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (25,000), Orthodox Presbyterian Church (8,000), two Reformed Presbyterian churches (5,000 and 1,500), Bible Presbyerian Church (no statistics available), Associate Presbyterian Church of North America (300).</FOOTENOTE>