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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Statement: On the Future of This Church, by 
+John Haynes Holmes
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Statement: On the Future of This Church
+
+Author: John Haynes Holmes
+
+Release Date: March 6, 2006 [EBook #17939]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FUTURE OF THIS CHURCH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Edmund Dejowski
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: Page numbers are indicated thus [3] at the
+end of each printed page.
+
+
+
+
+The Messiah Pulpit
+
+A STATEMENT:
+
+ the Future of This Church
+
+By
+
+John Haynes Holmes
+
+Minister of the Church of the Messiah
+
+Series 1918-1919----No. VI
+
+PRICE, FIVE CENTS
+
+Published by the
+
+Church of the Messiah
+
+Park Avenue and 34th Street
+
+New York City
+
+[1]
+
+NOTICE
+
+The Messiah Pulpit, by tradition and practice, is a free platform,
+dedicated to the ideal of truth. Its sermons, in both their spoken
+and written form, are the utterances of the preacher, who accepts
+for them exclusive responsibility.
+
+The publication of these sermons is made possible by a private fund
+for this purpose. Contributions to this fund are needed, and may be
+sent to Rev. John Haynes Holmes, 61 East 34th Street, New York City.
+
+[2]
+
+A STATEMENT:
+
+On the Future of This Church
+
+On Sunday, November 24 last, as most of you know. I was invited by
+unanimous vote of the people of All Souls Church, Chicago, "to take
+up the work laid down by (their) beloved pastor," the late Dr.
+Jenkin Lloyd Jones. On Thursday, November 28, I received this call
+through the personal visitation of two members of the Chicago
+church, and agreed to give it most earnest consideration. On Sunday,
+December 1, through my associate, Mr. Brown, I announced this call
+to the congregation of the Church of the Messiah, explaining that it
+involved the ministry of All Souls Church, the directorship of
+Abraham Lincoln Centre, and the editorship of the weekly liberal
+religious journal, called "Unity." I stated in my announcement that
+I had asked and been granted ample time for the consideration of
+this call, but that I intended to answer it as speedily as possible.
+On Thursday last, just five weeks to a day after receiving the
+invitation to Chicago, I sent my reply for transmission to the
+people of All Souls Church this morning. I choose this same time to
+announce to you my decision.
+
+At the beginning of my consideration of the problem, I found
+questions of personal inclination and comfort inevitably to the
+fore. For twelve years minus one month, I have lived and labored in
+New York City. Every particle of moral energy which I possess, I
+have invested here. Nearly all of my friends are associated with
+this community. Especially am I bound by ties of deepest reverence
+and affection to this church. Here are memories of joy and sorrow
+and great trial which are more truly a part of me than the voice
+with which I speak, or the hand with which I turn these pages. It
+[3] needed but this single summons to teach me what I had not
+known--how deeply my roots are struck into the soil of this place,
+and how great the pain and hazard of their exposure, removal and
+replanting.
+
+It very soon became clear to me, however, that personal
+considerations could rightly have but little part in the settlement
+of this problem. In no spirit of bravado, but in simplest
+recognition of the truth, I say to you that I believe I would have
+been betraying the profession which I have sworn to serve had I
+permitted conditions of personal affection, however lovely and
+precious, to determine my decision in this case. I take seriously
+the fact of my ordination--that as a minister of religion I have
+been "set apart," as the traditional phrase has it, to the high
+purpose of propagating an idea, championing a cause, seeking the
+best and the highest that I know in terms of God and of his holy
+will. I am here, in other words, not to make or to keep friends, not
+to enjoy pleasant associations of hand and heart, not even to serve
+a particular church, but to serve, perhaps at the cost of these
+other and more personal things, the great idea of which I speak. To
+allow my individual sentiments to fix the place and fashion of my
+professional service, would be to me as dastardly a thing as to
+allow considerations of profit or prestige to make decision. Not
+even my wife or my children could interfere in this case. My problem
+was to determine where I could best advance the ideals to which I
+have given my life--where I could find the weapons or tools best
+fitted to my hand for the doing of my work--and there to stand. To
+remain in this church and city might be infinitely desirable to me
+as a man; but I must decide not as a man but as a minister, and
+therefore if I remained, it must be because I could do no other!
+
+But there was another consideration which held me to this impersonal
+relation to the problem. I refer to the fact that the Great War had
+brought to a focus in my own soul the inward and largely unconscious
+spiritual development of a decade. I had discovered, through [4]
+much tribulation of mind and heart, the ideal which I sought to
+serve, and disclosed to myself at least the picture of the
+realization of this ideal in institutional form. This same Great
+War, however, had distracted my parish, absorbed the energies and
+attention of my people, and in spite of wellnigh unexampled
+forbearance, had introduced elements of misunderstanding and even
+alienation. The conflict, in other words, had no more left our
+church unchanged than the world itself. We had been shaken and
+distressed and tortured and driven, so that we were no longer the
+persons we once were. You knew me, and I knew you, as we were
+yesterday; but we did not know one another as we were going to be,
+or should want to be, tomorrow. It was necessary that we should meet
+not on the plane of the past, nor even of the present, but on the
+plane of the future, and thus find ourselves again, and discover
+what now, in this new world, we wanted, and would be able, to do
+together. Months before the War was ended, it had clearly entered
+into my mind to summon you to conference on our future relations as
+minister and people. This invitation from Chicago but precipitated
+suddenly what was in itself inevitable sooner or later. It
+introduced into a problem already existing between you and me, a
+third element--namely, the people of Abraham Lincoln Centre. The
+problem, however, in its nature, remained the same. I have work to
+do. I have set my hand to the plow, and I must find the field where
+I can best drive this plow through the furrow of my sowing.
+
+In order to make plain the situation, as it has presented itself to
+my mind during the last five weeks, I must turn to the past for a
+moment, and bring to you therefrom some fragments of autobiography.
+Those of you who were present at the meeting on last Monday night,
+have already heard what I am about to say. I beg your undivided
+attention, none the less, that you may note the bearing of this
+recital not on a problem presented, as then, but on a decision made,
+as now.
+
+I entered the Unitarian ministry in the year 1904, [5] under the
+influence of motives not unfamiliar. In the first place, I saw the
+pulpit. I went into the ministry for the same primary reason which
+has held me there through all these years gone by--a desire to
+preach. I think I can say, in no spirit of boasting, that from my
+earliest days I have had an intense interest in the problem of
+truth, and a passion to interpret and defend by the spoken word, the
+truth as I saw it, to other men. It is just this passion, I suppose,
+which makes the preacher, as distinguished from the poet or the
+scientist. So Phillip Brooks would seem to suggest in his famous
+dictum, that preaching is "Truth (conveyed) through Personality."
+Furthermore, the truth which I desired to expound was theological in
+its nature. My whole approach to the problem was along the lines of
+speculation in the field of religious, as distinguished from
+political or social, thought. God, the soul, immortality, the origin
+and destiny of man, sin and salvation--these were the questions that
+held me, even as a boy, partly, I suppose, because of native
+inclination, partly because of careful training in a Unitarian home
+and church, mostly I am convinced because I early came under the
+spell of that prince of liberal preachers, Dr. Minot J. Savage. To
+do what Dr. Savage was doing each Sunday, preaching to eager throngs
+the great truths of the Unitarian gospel--this became the consuming
+ambition of my life. I wanted to stand in a pulpit and preach. I
+decided to do so; and if judgment in such a question can be based on
+experiences of inward joy, I am ready to testify that my decision
+was not unwise.
+
+I entered the church, therefore, primarily because it had a pulpit.
+But other reasons, not so decisive, and yet impressive, persuaded me
+to this same end. Thus I saw in the church not only a pulpit but an
+altar. Indeed, the pulpit distinguished itself in my mind from a
+platform or a teacher's desk, by the fact that it was always
+associated with the presence, visible and invisible, of an altar for
+divine worship. It was easy for me to picture myself as saying all I
+wanted to say in [6] college halls, in theater meetings, in public
+forums, but I craved for my work on behalf of truth the atmosphere
+and environment of spiritual devotion. It was my desire, in other
+words, to be not merely a teacher or speaker, but a preacher; not
+merely a prophet, but also a priest. This does not mean that I am a
+churchman, as such; or that I find any permanent significance in
+rituals or other forms of worship. But there is in me that which
+seeks the stimulus of praise and prayer, the uplift of conscious
+communion with the Eternal, the consolation of appeal to, and trust
+in, God. Not only from habit, but from temperament, I find myself at
+home amid religious rites. Nothing so moved me on my one trip to
+Europe, as the hours I spent under the shadows of the great
+cathedrals. As a quiet place of worship, as well as a high place of
+testimony, the church called me in those youthful years, and I gave
+answer.
+
+A third motive for my choice of the ministry must not be forgotten.
+I refer to the appeal of the church as a place for action, a service
+station on behalf of public causes. My vision of what we mean by
+public causes was strangely limited. It scarcely went beyond the
+Unitarian denomination, and the works of charity and kindly reform
+with which it has always been identified. I was a passionate
+Unitarian in those days. I had read, and been deeply stirred by, the
+story of the achievements which Unitarianism had wrought on behalf
+of freedom, fellowship and character in religion. I reverenced its
+saints and prophets, and longed to follow in their train. Hence the
+eagerness with which I sought preparation for the Unitarian
+ministry--that I might serve the church--advance its glory and
+magnify its work.
+
+It was with such ideas as these in my heart that I was ordained in
+February, 1904. Within two years there came an event which shook my
+life to its foundations, revolutionized my thought, and changed the
+whole character of my interest and work. I refer to what we have [7]
+learned to describe in our time as the social question. This
+question, of course, is nothing new. It has burned at the heart of
+life from the beginning, and at intervals has flamed forth like the
+eruption of a volcano, to the terror and glory of the world. Its
+latest phase, as we know it today in the religious field, made its
+appearance at about the time I entered the ministry. I recall that
+the book, which first revealed the fires so soon to burst upon
+us--Prof. Peabody's "Jesus Christ and the Social Question "--was
+published in 1903, the year before my ordination. I was not
+unprepared for what was coming. My deep-rooted reverence for
+Theodore Parker, the supreme prophet of applied Christianity in our
+time, and my enthusiastic study of his life, had revealed to me the
+meaning of socialized religion. But I had caught only the pure
+essence of its spirit; I had not thought to apply it to the social
+problems of today. Indeed, I was not aware of the existence of such
+problems. My whole approach to the question of truth and experience
+up to that time, had been along the lines of speculation in the
+field of theological, as contrasted with political or social,
+thought. In the second year of my ministry, however, I read Henry
+George's "Progress and Poverty"; then followed the writings of Henry
+D. Lloyd and Prof. Walter Rauschenbusch; then came the deep and
+prolonged plunge into the waters of socialism. For several years
+after I came to this church, I was in a state of intellectual and
+emotional upheaval impossible for me to describe. At last came a
+conviction which was a complete reversal of all my former ideas. I
+was as a man converted; I was as one who had seen a great light.
+Henceforth I was a social radical; and religion, pre-eminently not a
+testimony to theological truth but a crusade for social change. Of
+course, my interest in theology has persisted; but its place in my
+life has tended to become ever more subordinate to other and more
+directly practical interests. You know how the character of my
+preaching has changed since I first entered the Messiah pulpit. You
+know with what [8] waxing intensity of expression I have moved to
+the left of our various divisions on the social question. You do not
+know, hence I must tell you, how this intensity of radical
+conviction is destined to continue in the years that are now before
+us. For the war has accelerated the social crisis beyond all
+forecasting. In two years has transpired what fifty years could not
+have consummated under more normal conditions. Three great
+empires--Russia, Germany, Austria--and several newborn countries,
+like that of the Czecho-Slovaks, have been captured by the
+Socialists; and the British Empire seems promised to the British
+Labor Party in not more than another decade or two. The social
+revolution long prophesied, long hoped for, long feared, is here;
+and this means in countries like our own, still untouched by change,
+such a "sturm and drang periode," as makes even the Great War pale
+into insignificance. Now in these years which are before us, I
+propose to speak and serve for the speediest and most thoroughgoing
+social reconstruction. I am committed both by conviction and
+temperament to the program of the British Labor Party and its policy
+of indirect or political action for the advancement of that program.
+This is my predominant interest at this moment, and through what is
+destined I suppose to be the whole period of my life. This is as
+much the cause of our day as abolition was the cause of the days
+before the Civil War. To this I have given all I have--from this I
+intend to withdraw nothing that I have given. Not in any sense of
+bitterness or violence in method, but in every sense of utter change
+as the end desired, I am committed to the ideal of the complete
+democratization of society.
+
+When the significance of this transformation first broke upon me, I
+felt an impulse to leave the church, and attach myself directly to
+the labor movement. I recall how my soul leapt in answer to the
+great scene at the close of Kennedy's "The Servant in the House,"
+when the Vicar strips off his clerical garb, seizes the dirty hand
+of his brother, the Drain-Man, and cries out, [9] "This is no
+priest's work--it calls for a man!" I was deterred, however, not, I
+hope, by cowardice but by wisdom. On the surface I felt that I
+should miss the services of the church--the prayers and worship with
+my people. Deeper down, and nearer the heart of things, was an
+unshaken trust in the church as a social institution. I loved her
+traditions, reverenced her saints and prophets, believed in her
+destiny--was unconvinced that she must necessarily serve the
+interests of reaction. At-bottom, was a perfectly clear
+understanding that my approach to the social question was a
+spiritual approach, and my acceptance of it the acceptance of a
+religious task. I saw my new position as nothing more nor less than
+the logic of Christianity. Men must be free from all oppression,
+because they are children of God, and therefore living souls. They
+must be equal in opportunity and privilege, because they are members
+of the holy family of God, and therefore brothers. They must be
+lifted up out of poverty, disease, war, because their heritage is
+the life of God, and they must have it abundantly. The material
+aspects of the social question, I would be among the last, I trust,
+to ignore. These are central--but central only as the fetters are
+central to the problem of slavery. Furthermore, the means which I
+recognized to the great end, were also spiritual. I could find no
+place in my thought for the use of violence. The plea of
+class-conscious rebellion never won my acceptance. Only patience,
+persuasion, and much love for humankind, seemed to me legitimate
+weapons of reform. In other words, I was again a victim of the logic
+of Christianity. And where did this logic hold me, if not to the
+church? Where could I make plain my spiritual position, or bring to
+bear my spiritual influence, apart from the church? If this
+institution must hold me altogether aloof from the social question,
+then of course my duty was manifest. But its pulpit was wide open to
+social preaching; its altar a chosen place for social consecration;
+and its machinery of service all at hand to be shifted from the gear
+of [10] charity to the gear of justice. Why not stay, therefore, in
+the church, as Theodore Parker stayed, and fight capitalism, as he
+fought slavery, in the garb of a minister of Christ?
+
+Decision on this point came fairly early, and it was favorable to
+the church. Strangely enough, however, it brought me little peace
+and surety in my church relations. Outside, in the denomination at
+large, I found myself in almost constant conflict with my fellows.
+There were few meetings or conferences in which I did not speak in
+protest and vote with minorities. Here in the Messiah parish there
+was no trouble, thanks to your forbearance, friendship, and
+scrupulous loyalty to freedom; but almost from the beginning there
+was uncertainty, wonderment, at times unrest, on the part of those
+longest associated with this society; and the records show a
+melancholy tale of withdrawals of those, not unable to endure
+differences of opinion, but impelled to turn away when the
+institution, long precious in their sight, no longer presented the
+recognizable attributes of a Unitarian church. That my own
+shortcomings as a man and a minister were responsible for much of
+this disturbance inside and outside the parish, I have no doubt. But
+as I look back over the years, I also have no doubt that there was
+something much more fundamental here, at the heart of the trouble.
+That I was a heretic on the social question was insignificant, for
+Unitarians have long since learned not only to tolerate but to
+respect their heretics. What was infinitely more important, as I now
+see, was the fact that unconsciously through these years, I was
+coming to question not the church itself, as I have explained, but
+the whole order and purpose of the church as it now exists. Every
+ecclesiastical institution today is denominational in character. It
+belongs primarily to some particular sectarian body, and is pledged
+to the service of this body. Sometimes the central body is narrow,
+as in the case of the more orthodox Protestant denominations;
+sometimes it is liberal, as in the case of the Unitarians and
+Universalists. [11] But always there is a distinctive form of
+organization, or type of ritual, or doctrine of belief, or spirit of
+association, which binds these separate churches into a single
+group; and always this distinctive feature is something which had
+its origin, and still finds its vitality, in the thought and
+experience of an earlier age. Every one of our denominations, and
+every one of the churches in our denominations, is representative of
+past controversies, not of present interests and duties. No one sect
+can be distinguished from any other, except by a reference to the
+text books of Christian history.
+
+Now with the intrusion of the social question into religion, a new
+concept of church organization came immediately to the fore. The
+unit of fellowship was now no longer the denomination, but the
+community. The centre of life and allegiance was no longer the
+challenge of ancient controversy, but the cry of present day human
+need. The more I became interested in questions of social change,
+the less I was concerned with questions of denominational welfare.
+The more I became absorbed in the people of New York City, the
+closer became my fellowship with other ministers similarly absorbed,
+and the remoter my fellowship with those who were bound to me only
+by the accident of the Unitarian tradition. More and more my hand
+and heart went out directly to men who saw and labored for the
+better day of which I dreamed; and only indirectly to those with
+whom I was appointed to serve, but who could not or would not catch
+the vision of my dreams. An irreconcilable conflict was here being
+joined--the old, old conflict between a dead and a living
+fellowship. It was my intuitive, although unconscious knowledge of
+this fact, which made me a rebel in every Unitarian gathering of the
+last ten years. It was a similarly unconscious instinct of
+self-preservation which taught my Unitarian brethren, to whom the
+old association was still central, to resent the things I sought. We
+had been born together, and we lived together; our past and our
+present were joint possessions. But when we faced the future, we
+divided; my [12] colleagues, many of them, were content with old,
+familiar ways, while I sought new associations.
+
+What was dimly felt in those days, was suddenly transformed into
+something clearly seen by the impact of the Great War. If this
+stupendous conflict has revealed anything in religion, it is that
+the sectarian divisions of Christendom are no longer to be
+tolerated. In the fusing fires of battle, Presbyterian, Methodist,
+Episcopalian, Unitarian, even Catholic, Protestant and Jew, have
+been melted, and now flow in a single flaming stream into the mould
+which shall fashion them into a single casting. Man after man has
+returned from the front, to tell us that the denominational church
+is dead. A new ordering of Christendom is at hand. The unit of
+organization will be not the one belief, nor even the one spirit,
+but the one field of service. Not the sect, but the community, will
+be the nucleus of integration. We will have groupings not of
+Methodist churches, and Baptist churches, and Unitarian churches, to
+remind the world of ancient differences, but of New York churches,
+and Boston churches, and San Francisco churches, to teach the world
+of present needs and future hopes. Our churches will be related as
+the wards in a city are related, or the cities in a state, or the
+states in the nation. We shall be all Christians together, as we are
+all Americans together. We shall have different religious ideas as
+we have different political ideas. But we shall be organized
+religiously, as well as politically, in a single community. Our
+churches, like our schools, will be the possession, and the resort,
+of all!
+
+This vision of the church as a community, or civic centre, is the
+logical application of socialized religion. It is no accident that
+together these two things have captured my life. For a moment, just
+as the idea of the social question set me thinking of leaving the
+church altogether, so this idea of the community church set me
+thinking of leaving this church and organizing in this city an
+independent religious movement. Indeed, this latter thought has been
+something more than a [13] momentary temptation. To have a church
+has been with me from the beginning a necessity. To have a church of
+the new community order has become a great desire. Last spring I
+seriously considered presenting to you my resignation, that I might
+enter upon the fulfillment of this hope. Last summer I pretty
+definitely made up my mind to lay this problem and prospect before
+you, as soon as peace should come, and the distractions of war be
+gone. Then, at the very moment when peace came, as though to
+anticipate and thus forestall my decision, there came the call from
+Chicago.
+
+Most of you know what Abraham Lincoln Centre is, and many of you by
+what pioneer devotion this church of the future was fashioned out of
+a traditional church of the past. It is not perfect; in some ways it
+is already itself became traditional again. But it stands today as a
+more complete embodiment of what I feel a modern church should be
+than any other institution of which I know in America. The
+invitation from the people seemed to me an instant bestowal of all
+for which I seek. I do not think I could have resisted this call to
+service, had it not been for your rightful claims of loyalty and
+affection, and my own reluctance to abandon the project of
+accomplishing my desires in New York. These considerations made me
+hesitate--and while I hesitated, I thought. Why should I turn
+elsewhere for the fulfillment of hopes which may be as surely if not
+as swiftly realized here? Why should I undertake to build an
+independent church in this city, or accept the leadership of a
+church however remarkably developed in Chicago, when the Church of
+the Messiah, pledged to freedom, and long committed to the idea of
+progress, lies ready to my hand? Why should I seek the easy
+inheritance of another man's completed work, and thus avoid the hard
+labor of building an institution of my own, which, for that reason
+alone, would be moulded nearer to my heart's desire? Above all, why
+should I assume that my people who have loved and sustained me these
+dozen years, are unwilling to move on with me in comradeship [14] to
+the new pathways of the new world which we have entered, or by what
+right make decision involving my future ministry here or elsewhere,
+without taking them fully into my confidence and searching the
+utmost temper of their minds? These were the questions which came to
+me promptly on the receipt of the Chicago call. Should I undertake
+to organize an independent church in New York, should I go to
+Chicago as minister of All Souls' Church and Director of Abraham
+Lincoln Centre, should I stay here as minister of this Church of the
+Messiah--this was my problem. I could not solve it, with fairness to
+myself or to you, until you had spoken. Hence, the meeting of last
+Monday night, called by the helpful co-operation of the Board of
+Trustees, and attended largely by our people.
+
+In addressing this meeting, I stated in some detail the future
+conditions of church work which I proposed to establish or to find.
+I had intended originally not to make these public, at least all at
+once; but rumor has been busy, and exact information, for purposes
+of correction, if nothing more, has now become essential.
+
+First of all, therefore, may I say that I made announcement to this
+meeting, as I would now make announcement to you, that I have left,
+or am planning to leave, the Unitarian denomination, and propose not
+much longer to be known specifically as a Unitarian minister. The
+reasons for this change in my life, I shall make plain at another
+time; this morning I content myself with stating the fact. Almost a
+year ago I resigned the office of vice-president of the Middle
+States Conference of Unitarian churches, which have held ever since
+I came to New York. Two months ago, I resigned from the Council of
+the Unitarian General Conference. Two weeks ago, I resigned my
+life-membership in the American Unitarian Association. Next May,
+when the new list is made up, I expect to withdraw my name from the
+official roll of Unitarian clergymen, and thus sever the last strand
+which holds me to the Unitarian body. Of course, I shall join no
+other denomination, and in [15] this sense shall be independent. But
+to me this action means not isolation, but entrance into that larger
+fellowship which I so long to share. No barrier will then separate
+me from those Episcopalians and Baptists and Methodists and other
+men, who are my real spiritual brethren. I shall be at one with all
+men everywhere--at home with the family of mankind. I shall not so
+much cease to be a Unitarian, as to become a Christian. This matter
+is of course personal; and it thus affected only incidentally the
+problem which was before our meeting last Monday night. It is easy
+to find precedent for the occupancy of a Unitarian pulpit by a
+minister not a Unitarian. At the time of the famous Year-Book
+controversy, Mr. Potter of New Bedford, Mass., and several of his
+colleagues, withdrew from the Unitarian body, but continued to hold
+their Unitarian pulpits. The latest instance of which I chance to
+know was called to my attention by the death last week of Prof.
+George A. Foster, of Chicago University. Dr. Foster was born, bred
+and ordained a Baptist; and yet last year was called to fill the
+pulpit of the First Unitarian Church church in Madison, Wisconsin;
+and died in the service of this church, a Baptist.
+
+Even in orthodox churches, the  denominational tag is losing its
+significance. Thus, when the City Temple London, the most famous
+Congregational church in the world, sought a successor to Dr.
+Campbell, it chose Dr. Joseph Fort Newton, of Iowa, a Universalist.
+We are getting sensible enough these days to recognize that the
+essential thing even about a minister is not his name but his
+manhood. Nevertheless, my contemplated change in denominational
+status might well be regarded as a part of the whole problem before
+us, and I therefore made careful mention of it last Monday night.
+Secondly, and more important, I stated my desire that the church
+which I should serve tomorrow, might itself be undenominational, at
+last to the degree implied by my conception of what I have called
+the community church. By this I meant that the church should
+proclaim [16] as its primary interest and aim identification with,
+and service of, the people of its community, to the subordination,
+and, if necessary, the ending of its connection with persons of
+various and scattered communities who have no other bond of union
+than that of a single denominational inheritance. Was I wrong when I
+ventured the assertion at the meeting of our Society, that in this
+church we have already moved far in this direction? Unconsciously,
+in the last dozen years, it seems to me, we have been moving out of
+the denomination, into the community. Nearly every interest in this
+parish is a community and not a denominational interest. Our natural
+affiliations as a church in this city have not been so much with
+churches of our own denomination, as with churches of various
+denominations distinguished like ourselves as predominantly civic,
+or community, institutions. This congregation is an independent
+congregation. If the Unitarian name adheres to it at all, it is to
+the embarrassment of those whose Unitarianism is their pride, and to
+the confusion of those who, not Unitarians either by birth or
+conviction, desire to join us in spirit and active work. For years,
+like "the chambered nautilus," we have been outgrowing our
+denominational shell, and seeking "more stately mansions." Is it not
+time, now, that we left this "outgrown shell," and became at last
+the full and free community institution of which I speak? Should we
+not at least clear ourselves of ancient entanglements to such degree
+that we may invite people openly and honestly to come into our
+portals not because they want to profess themselves Unitarians, but
+because they want to confess themselves lovers and servants of
+mankind?
+
+Again, I stated at last Monday's meeting my desire that the church
+which I shall serve tomorrow, may have a name which means something
+in the language and thought of our time. The application of this
+principle to our church is obvious. The name, Church of the Messiah,
+is precious to many of us, because it awakens memories and revives
+tender associations. But a name [17] is important not from the
+standpoint of those who know what it means, or ought to mean, but of
+those who do not know. The name of a church, like that of a
+business, is an advertisement. It is a symbol, a slogan, a banner.
+It should tell at once to everybody what is behind it, what it
+stands for; and this is exactly what our name does not do, except to
+the initiate. Dr. Savage tried to save the situation by associating
+with the name, Lowell's familiar line, "some great cause, God's new
+Messiah." I have tried to breathe the breath of life into the
+corpse, by attaching it deliberately to our various activities--as
+the Messiah Forum, the Messiah Social Service League, etc. But all
+in vain! Our name suggests a hope of ancient Judaism, a period of
+Unitarian history, a habit of Episcopalian nomenclature--and that is
+all! It should be changed, to give some adequate expression of our
+ideals. The City Church, the People's Church, the Community Church,
+the Church of the People, the Church of the New Democracy, the
+Fellowship, the Free Fellowship, the Fellowship of Social Idealism,
+the Fellowship of the Kingdom, the Fellowship of Spiritual
+Democracy, the Liberal Centre, the Community Centre,--think of what
+we might call ourselves, if we but had the courage. And after all,
+what courage would it take, save that long since displayed by our
+fathers in this church? How many of you know that for fourteen
+years, this church was known simply as the Second Congregational
+Unitarian Society of New York. Then in 1839, because the name
+Unitarian was open to serious misconstruction, this name, except in
+its strictly legal uses, was dropped, and the highly orthodox name
+we now bear, was substituted. I stated at our meeting that if I
+should remain as your minister, I should hope that this church might
+similarly baptize itself afresh in the language of our own time, and
+in the spirit of our own life!
+
+Again, at this meeting on Monday last, I stated that a modern church
+should have free pews. This statement needs no definition or
+argument. The system of pew [18] rentals is an abomination, already
+abolished in countless churches more orthodox than our own, and a
+scandal in any church claiming to be liberal or democratic.
+
+Lastly, I stated my desire that my church should have a
+non-covenanted membership. On the side of organization, this means
+of course that we make our church and society a single body, and
+thus abolish the present system of two unrelated groups, the one
+business and the other spiritual in character. On the side of
+religion, it means that we abandon the idea of an inner group of
+members, who have reached some spiritual eminence not attained by
+others. Of course, in our body, this sanctification aspect of church
+membership has disappeared from our apprehension. But if this is the
+case, why should we retain the form? What is essential is
+organization and fellowship on the basis of simple brotherhood. Here
+we are, comrades together, worshipping and working to the great end
+of a better world. We must be bound together in some way, for we
+must be an enlisted body, not a mob of unrelated individuals. But
+let it be a Roll-Call to Service--a joining of the church as of the
+Red Cross for the love of mankind. In spirit, our membership is
+already this; but its form is not so much an embodiment of the new
+democracy of the saviors as an echo of the old aristocracy of the
+saved.
+
+It was with these five points that I confronted the members of this
+Society last Monday evening. I stated them much as I have stated
+them this morning, and then asked not that action be taken, but that
+sentiment be expressed. Since that time, I have been assiduously
+collecting information of what took place. Official report of action
+taken, of votes passed, has been laid upon my desk. Friends have
+written or spoken to me their impressions of the gathering. I have
+myself canvassed the members of the Board of Trustees, and have
+received replies to my questions which show such high endeavor to
+convey accurate information and sound advice, quite apart from
+personal opinion on most points, as does [19] abounding honor to the
+persons concerned. From what has thus come to me, I deduce three
+facts about this meeting. First, that the members of this church
+were willing to face without revolt or rebuke, questions which more
+often than not in the past have been the occasion of unseemly
+quarrel and unholy schism. Secondly, that the consideration of these
+questions was carried on for two hours without bitterness of spirit
+as between the members of the church, or as between these members
+and the absent minister. Lastly, that there is a large working
+majority in this church who desire the things that I desire. Taking
+these facts into my own soul, which must be the last court of
+decision, after all, I have become convinced that I am confronted
+here by a situation which I can neither ignore nor evade. My
+challenge to you has been answered by a challenge to myself. To
+refuse this challenge, is impossible. To leave this fruitage of my
+twelve years of plowing and planting unharvested, and thus to wither
+and be scattered, would be a crime. I have therefore declined the
+call to Chicago, and will remain here as your minister!
+
+To this announcement of my decision in this case, may I make, in
+closing, some two or three supplementary remarks?
+
+In the first place, for the benefit of such rasher or more
+enthusiastic spirits as may be present in this place, I would state
+that I have no intention of abusing the confidence thus reposed in
+me, or the power thus granted me, by demanding immediate and final
+action on all the points of my program. We are members here not of a
+political caucus, but of a church; and it behooves us, therefore, to
+observe even the uttermost refinements of good-will and mutual
+consideration. We must respect with scrupulous fidelity the rights
+of each, and seek nothing that falls short of the happiness of all.
+Determination must now yield place to patience, and courage to
+sympathy. Conversion and not conquest is our method. I had rather
+wait years to gain my point with the consent of every heart, than
+carry off the victory [20] tomorrow with some hearts broken and
+thrown away. I have a perfect faith in the power of persuasion--an
+unshaken confidence in the ultimate supremacy of love; and am quite
+willing to leave to these mystic forces the determination of the
+time, the method and the ultimate form of our accomplishment.
+
+On the other hand, lest there be those who think that deeds are not
+to follow upon words, may I state that I take up my ministry in this
+church afresh today with the conviction that I am committed to a
+program, and you committed to its decent and friendly consideration.
+Nay more, I am persuaded that we are ready for unanimous action on
+some points. At the regular annual meeting of this Society, on
+Monday, January 13, I hope, and have every reason to expect that a
+resolution will be introduced, providing for the abolition of the
+pew rental system of financial support, and the establishment of the
+principle of free pews. I shall recommend that certain methods be
+employed for the affecting of this great change: (1) that all
+present pew-holders be invited to surrender their sittings and to
+pay to the treasurer in the form of subscription what they now pay
+in form of rent; (2) that those who may be for any reason unwilling
+to make this change, be protected in their rights and be guaranteed
+their sittings, so long as they may desire this arrangement; (3)
+that all new-comers be invited to support the church by subscription
+payments only, and no pews or sittings be rented anew under any
+consideration after a certain date. By some such procedure as this
+we shall gain our end, protect our present income, and impose
+compulsion upon no single individual.
+
+Secondly, it is my hope, and expectation, that at this annual
+meeting next week, the problem of our name as a church will be taken
+up. I shall recommend that a committee be appointed to consider a
+new name for the Church of the Messiah, and to report back to a
+special meeting of the Society perhaps in the early spring, their
+recommendation on this point.
+
+As regards the problem of non-covenanted membership [21] I propose
+to recommend that this matter be promptly referred to the Advisory
+Board for study; that this body, in turn, report its findings to the
+Board of Trustees for similar study; and that this Board, at such
+time, and in such way, as it and the ministers may deem proper,
+bring the matter before the Society for action. This question is
+complicated, and poorly understood. We shall want to examine the
+experience and precedent of other denominational bodies, and of such
+independent religious organizations as the Ethical Culture Society
+and the Free Synagogue. We must find, or create, a system of
+membership which shall accurately and fully represent the spiritual
+idealism of this church, as well as practical utility, at its best;
+and this is a task calling at this moment not for action but for
+meditation.
+
+There is left the most important of all questions which I have
+raised--the continued connection of this church with the Unitarian
+denomination. It is to me an occasion for surprise that some of you
+should have imagined that I was desiring, or expecting, action on
+this matter last Monday night. I have been still more astonished to
+hear, during the week, that some of you suspect or infer that a
+decision on my part to remain will involve an immediate intention to
+proceed to the capture of the church for purposes not disclosed. On
+Monday night I gave expression to a conviction and a hope, and asked
+you to register opinion thereupon. Beyond that I would not go, and
+could not if I would. Those of you who have been Unitarians for
+years, are Unitarians today, and desire to remain Unitarians, must
+be protected in your rights. The indebtedness of this church to the
+many in generations gone who have served it for the sake and in the
+name of Unitarianism, must not be repudiated. Moral obligation as
+well as legal necessity may make it impossible for this church to
+sever connection with the body of its origin. Above all, I am
+insistent that there shall be no quarrel or schism on this issue.
+There may be place here for change by evolution, but never by
+violence. No faction must presume to dictate what may [22]
+come beneficently by consent alone. What I did on Monday last was to
+plant in your minds the seed which found lodgement years ago in
+mine. What I shall now do is to wait the germination of that seed
+through a period of years which may be less, and may well be more,
+than I endured. And I do this with the more content and confidence,
+that I have little doubt as to what the result will be. I have not
+lived with you all these years gone by, without learning the
+openness of your minds, the instinctive passion of your souls for
+right, the quickness of your sensibilities to all sweet influences
+of progress and good-will. If there be truth in my conviction for
+change, it will in time be your conviction, as it is mine. If this
+be
+
+    "The freer step, the fuller breath,
+    The wide horizons grander view,"
+
+then it will inevitably work enchantment in your hearts as it has in
+mine. And if not, then shall I trust those sweeping tides of change
+which are now engulfing all the world and destined so soon, to
+obliterate the barriers of denomination, so that this issue between
+us must vanish for good and all. And in any case, we may ever have
+the task of making our Unitarianism in this place of so new and
+wonderful a character that this body to which we are bound, may
+itself become transfigured by the service we perform for God and
+man. I am quite content, therefore, to postpone this question for an
+indefinite period. By the inward consent of converted minds, or the
+outward logic of inexorable events, this problem will be settled in
+due time, and with perfect amity and concord.
+
+Lastly, may I congratulate you, as I am congratulating myself, on
+the high adventure of the spirit which we undertake this day; and
+appeal, without apology, in frankness unashamed, for your support in
+this endeavor? I call to my people in this church, to join their
+hands and hearts in this great enterprise of faith. Not to divide,
+but to unite you, am I speaking: for it is the challenge of high aim
+and struggle which alone can hold [23] us to accord. I call as well
+to people outside this church--strangers and friends alike, who
+have turned from the churches of the past, but, still devout in
+expectancy and love, have waited long for the new church of the
+morrow. Our vision may be dim, our purpose weak; but we are trying
+for something higher and better than man has ever known--and we need
+the help that you can give. We need your money--bills cannot be paid
+without it. We need your names--a body cannot exist and labor
+without members. We need your love--our hearts must falter if we
+have it not. To all who hear these words I speak, to all who read
+them when they are printed, to all whom rumor may inform and
+question, I cry out, Come! To go on alone, were not so hard. I can
+do it, if it be necessary. The blazed trail, as well as the broad
+avenue, knows the footsteps of the Lord. The wilderness and the
+solitary place, as well as the crowded city, is the abode of God.
+But better than loneliness is comradeship. The explorer may see from
+afar the Promised Land, the pioneer may spy it out, but it is the
+marching host that enters to conquer and possess. To you all,
+therefore, I lift my cry
+
+    "We have chosen our path--
+    Path to a clear-purposed goal,
+    Path of advance!--but it leads
+    A long steep journey, through sunk
+    Gorges, o'er mountains of snow. . . .
+    Fill up the gaps in our files, Strengthen our wavering line,
+    Stablish, continue our march,
+    On to the bound of the waste,
+    On, to the city of God."
+
+[24]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Statement: On the Future of This
+Church, by John Haynes Holmes
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