The American Missionary — Volume 37, No. 9, September, 1883Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Volume 37, No. 9, September, 1883
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
At the recent annual meeting of the American Missionary
Association, held in Cleveland, O., a petition was presented
requesting the appointment of a committee to report on the policy
of the Association in regard to race or color prejudice in the
support of schools and churches. As the Executive Committee, to
whom that petition was referred, are entering upon enlarged church
work in the South, they feel called upon to take early action on
this petition, and make the following announcement:
1. That in accordance with the New Testament doctrine upon which
the Association was founded, and by which it has from the beginning
been governed, that God has made of one blood all the nations of
men, we reiterate the rule, which we believe that fidelity to
Christ requires, that all our churches and schools shall open their
doors impartially to persons of every class, race and color.
2. That in obedience to the same New Testament doctrine, we shall
require that all churches aided by us shall unite with neighboring
churches of the same faith and order in Christian fellowship in
the same conferences or associations, and in church councils,
and in other usual means of fraternity and fellowship, making no
distinctions on account of race or color.
3. That this Association will not enter upon any new church work
in any city or town where the American Home Missionary Society has
already established a church work, without previous conference with
the officers of its sister society.
* * * * *
The American Home Missionary Society is taking steps to enlarge
its work in the Southern States. Recent statements and inquiries
having been made which show a misapprehension, on the part of
some, of the methods of its work in that part of the country, the
Executive Committee deem it proper to state: That the American Home
Missionary Society still adheres to its long-established usage
in declining to aid in the support of a missionary to serve any
church, whether in the South or North, which refuses to receive
to its membership any applicant, solely on account of color.
That it still expects, as it has from the beginning, that any
church, wherever situated, that receives its aid in supporting a
minister, will unite with the association, convention, or other
ecclesiastical body of the denomination within whose bounds he is
appointed to labor; and by participating in councils, conferences
and other customary gatherings for mutual help and edification,
will show its Christian fellowship with other Congregational
churches. And that, in case of proposals to form or aid churches
in cities or towns where the American Missionary Association has
organized missionary operations, this society will not enter on
such work without first corresponding or conferring with its sister
association.
A MISTAKEN POLICY.
BY REV. W. HAYNE LEAVELL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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