Congregationalism

Among early theorists of congregationalism were the 17th-century clergymen William Ames, John Cotton, and Thomas Hooker. The essential principles, as understood in New England, were codified in A Platform of Church Discipline (1648), commonly called the Cambridge Platform. In England, Independents exercised considerable influence during Oliver Cromwell's rule, but were subject to discriminatory laws after the Restoration (1660). Thus, the greatest influence of the movement was felt in America.

Over the years, the congregationalism of the Cambridge Platform was subject to modification. The restriction of membership to the regenerate was eased after 1662 by the adoption in many New England churches of the Half-Way Covenant, which gave partial privileges to persons who were sympathetic with the congregational church order but who could not give assurance that they had experienced personal conversion. In Connecticut, the adoption of the Saybrook Platform (1708) provided for ministerial associations and consociations of churches, essentially presbyterian in character. In Massachusetts, also, the early fear of the exercise of control by ministerial associations abated. After the Great Awakening, the concept of regenerate membership was further eroded by the spread of Arminianism, a form of liberalism that rejected the doctrine of election. Finally, the nature of the covenant was transformed; instead of a simple agreement to come together for worship and discipline, it often became a creedal test by which the theologically suspect might be excluded.

For the Puritans, the value system of the state was not secular. They argued that piety and sound morals are essential to good citizenship and that the state may therefore encourage the dissemination of religious truth. Hence, in New England (except Rhode Island), the towns were authorized to tax their inhabitants for the support of public worship. Ordinarily, this meant tax support for the ministers of the congregational churches. The Standing Order, as it was called, came under attack in the 18th century by minority groups, particularly the Quakers, Baptists, and Anglicans. With the growth of religious pluralism, tax support for public worship became increasingly hard to justify, and the Standing Order was abolished in Connecticut in 1818; it was abolished in New Hampshire in 1819 and in Massachusetts in 1833.

Denominations as now known, each asserting its separate identity and organized to provide various services to its churches, are a product of the 19th century. In this sense, Congregationalism is only one of the religious bodies derived from the congregational churches of colonial New England. In the years 1805-25, the churches of the Standing Order divided into two groups. The liberal wing became a separate body called Liberal Christians, or Unitarian Congregationalists, and finally just Unitarians (see Unitarianism). The other wing was called orthodox or Trinitarian Congregationalists, and eventually just Congregationalists.

As the population moved westward, it became necessary to support the organization of new churches. At first, the Congregationalists cooperated with Presbyterians from Middle Atlantic states, with whom they had much in common doctrinally, and both denominations supported interdenominational home and foreign missionary societies. In 1801 they agreed on a Plan of Union to avoid competition on the western frontier. By the 1830s, however, these arrangements were breaking down. The Plan of Union was abrogated, and the denominations sponsored their own missionary societies. As a result, the Congregationalists developed an increasing sense of denominational identity that was expressed in a series of conventions—at Albany (1852), Boston (1865), and Oberlin (1871)—culminating in the formation of a National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States. By this time, the denomination had spread far beyond its New England origins, particularly in northern states where New Englanders had migrated.

Congregationalism participated in the organization of the Federal Council of Churches in 1908. In 1931 the denomination merged with a similar body, also congregational in polity, known simply as Christians. In 1961 a merger with the Evangelical and Reformed Church was completed, the resulting denomination being called the United Church of Christ. Since the Evangelical and Reformed Church was presbyterian rather than congregational, the United Church of Christ represents a compromise in which both congregational and presbyterian elements are found. At the time of merger, the Congregational part of the United Church of Christ claimed 1,427,863 members.