An American Religious Movement : A Brief History of the Disciples of ChristGarrison, Winfred Ernest
History
An American Religious Movement : A Brief History of the Disciples of Christ
Garrison, Winfred Ernest
Disciples of Christ -- History
Sunday school work had an undenominational aspect at its very beginning,
early in the nineteenth century. Disciples took part in the
International Sunday School Association, organized in 1872, and adopted
its uniform lessons. B. B. Tyler was its president in 1902. Other
organizations arose to develop more modern phases of religious
education. Robert M. Hopkins was prominent in the Sunday School Council
from the start, and he was chairman of the executive committee of the
International Council of Religious Education for eleven years after its
formation by the union of the old International Association and the
Sunday School Council in 1922. Roy G. Ross is now executive secretary of
the International Council. Many other Disciples, experts in various
phases of this work, have borne heavy responsibilities in these
organizations, especially in the latest and most comprehensive one.
In brief, no communion has been more active in all the cooperative
enterprises of the churches in recent years, or more sympathetic with
the ecumenical trend toward thinking less of the churches and more of
the Church.
The bitter experiences of World War II have accentuated the common
responsibilities of all the churches in the face of a resurgent paganism
and world-wide suffering. Disciples have participated in the counsels of
Christians on the problems of war and peace and have not shunned their
special burdens. They raised a million-dollar emergency fund, furnished
their quota of chaplains with the armed forces, made provision for their
conscientious objectors. The Drake Conference on “The Church and the New
World Mind” was part of their contribution to the study of postwar
problems.
Rethinking the Disciples
The central body of opinion among Disciples cherishes the watchwords
“union” and “restoration,” about which the whole movement has developed.
But it recognizes that changed conditions and widened horizons may
require a reconsideration of the program of union and of the meaning of
restoration. It is not the impatience of youth but the voice of
experience that rejects a static and unchangeable system. J. H. Garrison
was editor and editor emeritus of the _Christian-Evangelist_ for sixty
years. In the last contribution written with his own hand, published on
April 11, 1929, being then in his eighty-eighth year, he wrote:
Are we Disciples, who started out a century ago to plead for Christian
unity, losing our zeal for this holy cause, or are we losing
confidence in ourselves as fit instruments of our Lord for promoting
it? I think it would be a good move for the president of our
international convention to appoint at once a committee to study and
report on the question: What changes in the way of addition or
subtraction are demanded among the Disciples to make their plea more
efficient, either in its substance or in the manner of its
presentation to the world?
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