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Christian Documents Index.
Much ink has been spilt and much water has passed over the dam —it is tempting to mix the metaphors and say much ink has spilled over the dam— in the years between the Westminster Confession and the present. Probably nowhere is the resultant transformation in Protestant thinking more extreme or more concisely visible in documentary form than in the central documents of modern Congregational churches in the United States.
Congregational churches vary tremendously in statements of faith, and individual congregations change them from time to time. Here is an example of the gradual revisions of its "covenant" by a church in Park Ridge, a Chicago suburb. The Center of Park Ridge is about 15 miles from the center of Chicago. It is followed, for comparison, by a similar core "covenant" from a church in La Jolla, California, a suburb about 15 miles from downtown San Diego. Both churches are part of the United Church of Christ, a cover denomination founded in 1957.
The Monroe Congregational Church was founded in 1843 in a rural area then considered to be quite far from Chicago. A brickyard was opened in 1854, and the settlement renamed Brickton. In 1863 the church was renamed Congregational Church of Brickton. When the area was renamed the village of Park Ridge in 1873, the church name was changed to Park Ridge Congregational Church. (The town officially became a "city" in 1910.)
In common with other Congregational churches, the act of creating the new congregation consisted of holding a meeting, endorsing articles of faith, and declaring the congregation to constitute a church. The first and longest of the documents below, Document 1, is the statement of faith adopted in 1843.
The Monroe/Brickton/Park Ridge Congregationalists had been meeting in the local Methodist church, and organized a formal merger with the Methodists between 1913 and 1917, neither side detecting any significant religious reasons to keep them separate, despite different denominational affiliations.
In 1917, however, the merger fell apart when central Methodist authorities insisted upon greater control than the Congregationalist group was willing to tolerate, and the Congregationalists reorganized their spin-off as the Park Ridge Community Church, still operating on Congregationalist principles, but as part of a new movement of independent, non-denominational “Community Church” congregations. (Broad cooperation with the local Methodists continued for decades.)
The 1843 Articles of Faith were superseded (at an unknown date) by an eloquent but far more vaguely worded “Covenant” (Document 2, below), presumably in connection with the 1917 separation from the Methodists. The Covenant, drafted by a lay member, abandoned credal statements as such, while committing each member to seek to follow Christian scriptures and to participate in a church united “for Christian fellowship.” It is remarkably untheological, having shed almost all of the characteristics of earlier credos, and adopting instead a stance that seems to abandon all hope of a unified understanding of most of the theological positions assumed by earlier Christian creeds.
The Covenant did not stand forever, however. It was displaced in 1962 by a “Statement of Purpose” (still in use) (Document 3). In the 1962 statement we see a number of changes:
Although these changes would seem to be substantial, the replacement of the Covenant by the Statement of Purpose had virtually no opposition when the Congregation voted on it in 1962. Clearly, as many sociologists would have predicted, the actual text made little difference to most church members, whose continuing membership in the congregation depended upon church activities or social relations rather than any particular theological concerns.
The Covenant of 1917, in its day, and the Statement of Purpose of 1962 both place the Park Ridge Community Church theologically at the “extremely liberal” end of modern American Protestantism, occupied also by other non-Evangelical “non-denominational denominations,” most conspicuously Unitarianism and the United Church of Christ. Indeed, since the 1962 statement was articulated, the Park Ridge Community Church, like many similar (and often Congregational) churches, has affiliated with the United Church of Christ, an action which required no further change in its Statement of Purpose.
Following these documents, you can compare the "covenant" of the Congregational Church of La Jolla, California, also part of the United Church of Christ (Document 4). It is generally similar to Document 2.
1. We believe that there is but one God the Creator, Preserver and moral governor of the universe. A Being of infinite power, knowledge, wisdom, justice, goodness and truth; the self-existent independent and immutable Fountain of God.
2. We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by Inspiration of God, that they are profitable for doctrine, for correction, for reproof and for instruction in righteousness, and that they are our only rule of doctrinal belief and religious practice.
3. We believe that the mode of Divine exists — is such as lays a foundation for distinction — into three persons; the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost, and that these three are one in essence, and equal in power and glory.
4. We believe that God has made all these things for Himself; that known unto Him are all His works from the beginning; and that He governs all things according to the counsel of His own will.
5. We believe that the divine law and the principles and administration of the divine government are perfectly holy, just and good and that all rational beings are bound to approve of them as such.
6. We believe that God first created man in His own image, in a state of rectitude and holiness, and that he fell from that state by transgressing the divine command in the articles of forbidden fruit.
7. We believe that in consequence of the first apostasy, the heart of man in his natural state is destitute of all holiness, and in a state of positive disaffecting with the law, character and government of God; and that all men, previous to regeneration, are dead in trespass and sins.
8. We believe that Jesus Christ hath made a propitiation for the sins of the whole world so that God can now "have mercy" on whom He will have mercy and be just, and yet freely justify all who believe in Him.
9. We believe that although the invitation of the Gospel is such, that whosoever may come and take of the water of life freely, yet the depravity of the human heart is such, that no man will come to Christ except the Father by the influences of this Spirit, draw him.
10. We believe that those who embrace the Gospel were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that they should be holy and without blame before Him in love, and that they were saved, not by works in righteousness which they have done, but according to the mercy of God through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.
11. We believe that those who truly embrace Christ, although they may be left to fall into sin but never be left finally to fall away and perish, and will be kept by the mighty power of God through faith into salvation.
12. We believe that Christ has a visible church in the world; into which none in the sight of God but believers and none in the sight of man, but visible believers have a right of admission.
13. We believe that there are two sacraments under the gospel, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the former of which is to be administered to believing parents and their offspring and the latter to believers only, which sacraments are to be faithfully observed by the Church, until Christ's second coming.
14. We believe the first day of the week to be the Christian Sabbath, and agreeably to the Fourth Commandment should be kept holy unto the Lord.
15. We believe that there will be a general resurrection of the bodies both of the just and unjust.
16. We believe that all mankind must one day stand before the judgment seat of Christ to receive a just and final sentence of retribution according to the deeds done in the body; and that at the day of judgment the state of all will be unalterably fixed, and that the punishment of the wicked and the happenings of the righteous will be undressed.
Acknowledging Jesus Christ to be our Saviour and Lord and accepting the Holy Scriptures as our rule of faith and practice, and recognizing the privilege and duty of uniting ourselves for Christian fellowship, the enjoyment of Christian ordinances, the public worship of God, and the advancement of His kingdom in the world, we do now, solemnly covenant and agree with each other to associate ourselves to be a church of the Lord Jesus Christ, as warranted by the Word of God.
We agree to maintain the institutions of the gospel, to submit ourselves to the orderly administration of the affairs of the Church, and to walk together in brotherly love.
And this we do depending upon the aid of our Heavenly Father, who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son for our salvation, and of Jesus Christ, who hath redeemed us, and of the Holy Spirit, our Comforter and Guide.
We desire to associate ourselves in a Fellowship of the Christ Spirit and covenant to accept one another in diversity of faith, supporting each other in love and respect. The Fellowship that is our Church grows from and builds upon the tradition of the various Christian Churches of the centuries.
We intend as individuals to grow in our understanding of the true nature of God and the Way of Life taught by Jesus Christ. Unity with God is our Goal, Jesus Christ is our Way, the Bible is our greatest resource and the Church is our visible, sustaining Fellowship.
As members of this Church, we shall go forward together in freedom seeking continually to learn more of the true nature of God and his purpose.
The Congregational Church of La Jolla, California, founded in 1889, and, like the Park Ridge Community Church discussed above, a member of the United Church of Christ, points out on its web site that Congregational churches do not have tests of faith, but do have shared "covenants around which they arrange their common life." It identifies the famous Mayflower Compact of 1620 as such a covenant. Here is the one in use in La Jolla in 2020:
We covenant with God and with one another, promising to join together in worship and the celebration of the sacraments, in the study of the scriptures, in sharing the good news with one another and the world around us, in joining in the struggle for justice for the whole human family, and in welcoming into our midst all who seek God and community, that the love of God, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the communion of the Holy Spirit may be known and acknowledged in the life of our congregation.