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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 77

Appendix III. — Report of Committee on Union of Churches

Appendix III.

Report of Committee on Union of Churches.

Your Committee were instructed by last Assembly to approach the Methodist Conference and the Congregational Union, and to inform these bodies that, in the opinion of the Assembly, the time had come to consider seriously whether a Union of the churches they represent with our own might not be accomplished. In accordance with these instructions the Committee waited on the Congregational Council at its meeting in Dunedin last February, and by delegation on the Methodist Conference at its meeting in Christchurch in the month of March. By both Council and Conference the delegates and the proposals they submitted were received with great enthusiasm, and at later sederunts resolutions similar to that of the Assembly, and appointing committees to co-operate with the Assembly's committee, were unanimously adopted.

Your Committee were further instructed, in the event of the Assembly's proposal receiving a favourable reception at the hands of the Conference and Council, to bring up a report to this Assembly, indicating the main lines of doctrine and polity on which negotiations for a Union of these churches with our own might proceed.

In compliance with this instruction your Committee, in co-operation with the Committees of other Churches, have held several meetings, at which the question of a suitable creed has been under consideration, and a number of Articles of the Faith have been framed. But, being persuaded that if any real advance is to be made in this matter, the advance must be slow, and the mind of the whole Church ascertained at each step, your Committee deems it inexpedient to submit these articles to the Assembly. They ask the Assembly to remit to Presbyteries and Sessions the question if they are agreeable to the Assembly negotiating with the Methodist, and Congregational Churches with a view to Union upon a basis of doctrine and polity to be considered, and in due time sent down to Presbyteries and Sessions.

The movement for the Union of the Evangelical Churches of this colony is happily on a line with similar movements in other parts of the world. In Canada the question is being eagerly discussed. In Australia, at the recent meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, the recommendations of the Committee for a Union of Presbyterianism, Methodism, and Congregationalism were adopted by a very great majority. On every hand there are indications that the Churches of Jesus Christ are drawing together. The time is assuredly not far distant when not only in this colony, but in even land, the Churches that practically hold the same Creed and follow the same methods of work will throw down their denominational barriers, and unite to form one grand victorious body in which the desire page 76 of Christ for the unity of His people shall be realised, and by which the waste and strife occasioned by sectarian competition and rivalry shall be brought to a perpetual end.

James Gibb

, Convener.