Congregational church

The mission to Argentina was the second foreign field tended by German Congregationalists. The work in South America began in 1921 when four Argentine churches urgently requested that denominational recognition be given to George Geier, who was serving them. The Illinois Conference licensed Geier, who worked among Germans from Russia who were very similar to their kin in the United States and in Canada. The South American Germans from Russia had learned about Congregationalism in letters from relatives in the United States. In 1924 general missionary John Hoelzer, while in Argentina for a brief visit, organised six churches.

Elsternwick Congregational Church (1894–1977); Orrong Road, Elsternwick, Victoria, Australia[22][23]

In 1977, most congregations of the Congregational Union of Australia merged with all Churches of the Methodist Church of Australasia and a majority of Churches of the Presbyterian Church of Australia to form the Uniting Church in Australia.

Those congregations that did not join the Uniting Church formed the Fellowship of Congregational Churches or continued as Presbyterians. Some more ecumenically minded Congregationalists left the Fellowship of Congregational Churches in 1995 and formed the Congregational Federation of Australia.

Congregationalists (called "Evangelicals" in Bulgaria; the word "Protestant" is not used[24]) were among the first Protestant missionaries to the Ottoman Empire and to the Northwestern part of the European Ottoman Empire which is now Bulgaria, where their work to convert these Orthodox Christians was unhampered by the death penalty imposed by the Ottomans on Muslim converts to Christianity.[25] These missionaries were significant contributors to the Bulgarian National Revival movement. Today, Protestantism in Bulgaria represents the third largest religious group, behind Orthodox and Muslim. Missionaries from the United States first arrived in 1857–58, sent to Istanbul by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). The ABCFM was proposed in 1810 by the Congregationalist graduates of Williams College, MA, and was chartered in 1812 to support missions by Congregationalists, Presbyterian (1812–1870), Dutch-Reformed (1819–1857) and other denominational members.[26] The ABCFM focused its efforts on southern Bulgaria and the Methodist Church on the region north of the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina, or "Old Mountains"). In 1857, Cyrus Hamlin and Charles Morse established three missionary centres in southern Bulgaria – in Odrin (Edirne, former capital city of the Ottoman Empire, in Turkey), Plovdiv and Stara Zagora. They were joined in 1859 by Russian-born naturalized America Frederic Flocken in 1859.[26] American Presbyterian minister Elias Riggs commissioned, supported and edited the work of Bulgarian monk Neofit Rilski to create a Bible translations into Bulgarian which was then distributed widely in Bulgaria in 1871 and thereafter. This effort was supported by Congregationalist missionary Albert Long, Konstantin Fotinov, Hristodul Sechan-Nikolov and Petko Slaveikov.[26] Reportedly, 2,000 copies of the newly translated Bulgarian language New Testament were sold within the first two weeks.

Congregational churches were established in Bansko, Veliko Turnovo, and Svishtov between 1840 and 1878, followed by Sofia in 1899. By 1909, there were 19 Congregational churches, with a total congregation of 1,456 in southern Bulgaria offering normal Sunday services, Sunday schools for children, biblical instruction for adults; as well as women's groups and youth groups. Summer Bible schools were held annually from 1896 to 1948.[26]

Congregationalists led by Dr James F. Clarke opened Bulgaria's first Protestant primary school for boys in Plovdiv in 1860, followed three years later by a primary school for girls in Stara Zagora. In 1871 the two schools were moved to Samokov and merged as the American College, now considered the oldest American educational institution outside the US. In 1928, new facilities were constructed in Sofia, and the Samokov operation transferred to the American College of Sofia (ACS), now operated at a very high level by the Sofia American Schools, Inc.[27]

In 1874, a Bible College was opened in Ruse, Bulgaria for people wanting to become pastors. At the 1876 annual conference of missionaries, the beginning of organizational activity in the country was established. The evangelical churches of Bulgaria formed a united association in 1909.[26]

The missionaries played a significant role in assisting the Bulgarians throw off "the Turkish Yoke", which included publishing the magazine Zornitsa (Зорница, "Dawn"), founded in 1864 by the initiative of Riggs and Long.[28] Zornitsa became the most powerful and most widespread newspaper of the Bulgarian Renaissance.[26] A small roadside marker on Bulgarian Highway 19 in the Rila Mountains, close to Gradevo commemorates the support given the Bulgarian Resistance by these early Congregationalist missionaries.

On 3 September 1901 Congregationalist missionaries came to world attention in the Miss Stone Affair when missionary Ellen Maria Stone,[29] of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and her pregnant fellow missionary friend Macedonian-Bulgarian Katerina Stefanova–Tsilka, wife of an Albanian Protestant minister, were kidnapped while traveling between Bansko and Gorna Dzhumaya (now Blagoevgrad), by an Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization detachment led by the voivoda Yane Sandanski and the sub-voivodas Hristo Chernopeev and Krǎstyo Asenov and ransomed to provide funds for revolutionary activities. Eventually, a heavy ransom (14,000 Ottoman lira (about US$62,000 at 1902 gold prices or $5 million at 2012 gold prices) raised by public subscription in the USA was paid on 18 January 1902 in Bansko and the hostages (now including a newborn baby) were released on 2 February near Strumica—a full five months after being kidnapped. Widely covered by the media at the time, the event has been often dubbed "America's first modern hostage crisis".

The Bulgarian royal house, of Catholic German extraction, was unsympathetic to the American inspired Protestants, and this mood became worse when Bulgaria sided with Germany in WWI and WWII.[30] Matters became much worse when the Bulgarian Communist Party took power in 1944. Like the Royal Family, it too saw Protestantism closely linked to the West and hence more politically dangerous than traditional Orthodox Christianity. This prompted repressive legislation in the form of "Regulations for the Organization and Administration of the Evangelical Churches in the People's Republic of Bulgaria" and resulted in the harshest government repression, possibly the worst in the entire Eastern Bloc, intended to extinguish Protestantism altogether. Mass arrests of pastors (and often their families), torture, long prison sentences (including four life sentences) and even disappearance were common. Similar tactics were used on parishioners. In fifteen highly publicized mock show-trials between 8 February and 8 March 1949, all the accused pastors confessed to a range of charges against them, including treason, spying (for both the US and Yugoslavia), black marketing, and various immoral acts. State appointed pastors were foist on surviving congregations. As late as the 1980s, imprisonment and exile were still employed to destroy the remaining Protestant churches. The Congregationalist magazine "Zornitsa" was banned; Bibles became unobtainable.[31] As a result, the number of Congregationalists is small and estimated by Paul Mojzes in 1982 to number about 5,000, in 20 churches. (Total Protestants in Bulgaria were estimated in 1965 to have been between 10,000 and 20,000.)[32] More recent estimates indicate enrollment in Protestant ("Evangelical" or "Gospel") churches of between 100,000 and 200,000,[33] presumably reflecting the success of more recent missionary efforts of evangelical groups.

In Canada, the first foreign field, thirty-one churches that had been affiliated with the General Conference became part of the United Church of Canada when that denomination was founded in 1925 by the merger of the Canadian Congregationalist and Methodist churches, and two-thirds of the congregations of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. In 1988, a number of UCC congregations separated from the national church, which they felt was moving away theologically and in practice from Biblical Christianity. Many of the former UCC congregations banded together as the new Congregational Christian Churches in Canada.

The Congregational Christian Churches in Canada (or 4Cs) is an evangelical, Protestant, Christian denomination, headquartered in Brantford, Ontario, and a member of the World Evangelical Congregational Fellowship. The name "congregational" generally describes its preferred organizational style, which promotes local church autonomy and ownership, while fostering fellowship and accountability between churches at the National level.

The Congregational Union of Ireland was founded in 1829 and currently has around 26 member churches. In 1899 it absorbed the Irish Evangelical Society.[34]

The London Missionary Society preaching to native peoples of Oceania

The Congregational Christian Church of Samoa is one of the largest group of churches throughout the Pacific Region. It was founded in 1830 by the London Missionary Society missionary John Williams on the island of Savai'i in the village of Sapapali'i. As the church grew it established and continues to support theological colleges in Samoa and Fiji. There are over 100,000 members attending over 2,000 congregations throughout the world, most of which are located in Samoa, American Samoa, New Zealand, Australia and America. The Christian Congregational Church of Jamaica falls under the constitution of the Samoan Church.

Congregational churches were brought to the Cape Colony by British settlers.

In 1972, about three-quarters of English Congregational churches merged with the Presbyterian Church of England to form the United Reformed Church (URC). However, about 600 Congregational churches have continued in their historic independent tradition. Under the United Reformed Church Act 1972[35] that dealt with the financial and property issues arising from the merger between what had become by then the Congregational Church of England and Wales and the Presbyterian Church of England, certain assets were divided between the various parties.

William Ellis preaching to the Natives, Hawaii, c. 1823

In England, there are three main groups of continuing Congregationalists. These are the Congregational Federation, which has offices in Nottingham and Manchester, the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches, which has offices in Beverley, and about 100 Congregational churches that are loosely federated with other congregations in the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, or are unaffiliated. The unaffiliated churches' share of the assets of the Congregational Union/Church of England and Wales is administered by a registered charity, the Unaffiliated Congregational Churches Charities,[36] which supports the unaffiliated churches and their retired ministers.

In 1981, the United Reformed Church merged with the re-formed Association of Churches of Christ and, in 2000, just over half of the churches in the Congregational Union of Scotland also joined the United Reformed Church (via the United Reformed Church Act 2000[37]). The remainder of Congregational churches in Scotland joined the Congregational Federation.

Wales traditionally is the part which has the largest share of Congregationalists among the population, most Congregationalists being members of Undeb yr Annibynwyr Cymraeg (the Union of Welsh Independents), which is particularly important in Carmarthenshire and Brecknockshire.

The London Missionary Society was effectively the world mission arm of British Congregationalists, sponsoring missionaries including Eric Liddell and David Livingstone. After mergers and changes of name, the Society was succeeded in 1977 by the worldwide Council for World Mission.

A Congregational church in Middlebury, Vermont

In the United States, the Congregational tradition traces its origins mainly to Puritan settlers of colonial New England. Congregational churches have had an important impact on the political, religious and cultural history of the United States. Their practices concerning church governance influenced the early development of democratic institutions in New England,[38] and many of the nation's oldest educational institutions, such as Harvard and Yale University, were founded to train Congregational clergy.[39] In the 21st century, the Congregational tradition is represented by the United Church of Christ, the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches, and the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference.

• Coffey, John; Lim, Paul C. H., eds. (2008). The Cambridge Companion to Puritanism. Cambridge Companions to Religion. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-67800-1.
• Cooper, James F., Jr. (1999). Tenacious of Their Liberties: The Congregationalists in Colonial Massachusetts. Religion in America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195152875.
• Craig, John (2008), "The Growth of English Puritanism", in Coffey, John; Lim, Paul C. H. (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Puritanism, Cambridge Companions to Religion, Cambridge University Press, pp. 34–47, ISBN 978-0-521-67800-1
• Jefferson, Charles Edward (1910). Congregationalism. Boston: The Pilgrim Press.
• Jenkins, Daniel T. (March 26, 2019). "Congregationalism". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
• Peel, Albert (1920). The First Congregational Churches: New Light on Separatist Congregations in London 1567–81. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316633427.
• Von Rohr, John (1992). The Shaping of American Congregationalism, 1620-1957. Pilgrim Press. ISBN 9780829820775.
• Youngs, J. William T. (1998). The Congregationalists. Denominations in America. 4 (Student ed.). Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. ISBN 9780275964412.

• McConnell, Michael W. "Establishment and Disestablishment at the Founding, Part I: Establishment of Religion" William and Mary Law Review, Vol. 44, 2003, pp. 2105
• Swift, David Everett. “Conservative versus Progressive Orthodoxy in Latter Nineteenth Century Congregationalism.” Church History 16#1 (March, 1947): 22–31.
• Walker, Williston. “Changes in Theology Among American Congregationalists.” American Journal of Theology 10#2 (April 1906): 204–218.
• Walker, Williston. The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism. 3rd ed. Boston, MA: Pilgrim Press, 1960.
• Walker, Williston. “Recent Tendencies in the Congregational Churches.” The American Journal of Theology 24#1 (January, 1920): 1-18.

• Argent, Alan. The Transformation of Congregationalism 1900-2000 (Nottingham: Congregational Federation, 2013)
• Duffy, Eamon. The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, c.1400 to c.1580 (Cambridge, 1992)
• Dale, Robert William, History of English Congregationalism (London: Hodder & Stoughton / New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1907)
• Hooper, Thomas. The Story of English Congregationalism (1907)
• Larsen, Timothy; Barkley, Stephen (6 May 2007). "The Congregationalists". The Victorian Web (www.victorianweb.org). Retrieved 27 June 2018.
• Ottewill, Roger Martin. "Faith and good works: congregationalism in Edwardian Hampshire 1901-1914" (PhD. Diss. University of Birmingham, 2015) Bibliography pp 389–417.
• Rimmington, Gerald. “Congregationalism in Rural Leicestershire and Rutland 1863-1914.” Midland History 30, no.1 (2006): 91-104.
• Rimmington, Gerald. “Congregationalism and Society in Leicester 1872-1914.” Local Historian 37#1 (2007): 29–44.
• Thompson, David. Nonconformity in the Nineteenth Century (1972).
• Thompson, David M. The Decline of Congregationalism in the Twentieth-Century. (London: The Congregational Memorial Hall Trust, 2002).

• Congregational Martyrs. London, 1861, intended to form part of a series of 'Historical Papers,' which, however, were not continued; 2nd ed. 1861
• Congregational Church History from the Reformation to 1662, London, 1862, awarded the bicentenary prize offered by the Congregational Union
• Surrey Congregational History, London, 1866, in which he dealt more particularly with the records of his own congregation.
• Congregational History, 5 vols., London, 1869–1880