Journal articles: 'Congregational churches Church' – Grafiati (2024)

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In June 1829 John Angell James, minister of Carr’s Lane Congregational Church in Birmingham, wrote to his friend William Wilson Patton, minister of a Presbyterian congregation in New York, thanking him for his congregation’s interest in the spiritual welfare of the British churches.

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AbstractThis article begins by reviewing ways in which Reformed churches have given expression to the universal dimension of the church within its preference for the church's local expression. The marks of the church, the confession of the church, its church order and its understanding of office all give expression to the universal dimension of the church. The proposal that the universal dimension be more strongly emphasized at the 'intermediate level' will be received gladly by Reformed churches but it also challenges Reformed churches to consider the personal dimension of universality as well as to re-emphasize the universal dimension both in congregational life and at a supra-national level.

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This study reports the results of a survey of forty-four Lutheran Churches in the New York metropolitan area. It describes present and projected services and programs churches offer to the elderly, specifically investigating the impact of changing age strata upon congregations. A significant relationship was found between proportion of the elderly within the congregation and the pastors' interest in developing specialized ministries to the elderly. There was also a significant relationship between the proportion of the elderly within the congregation and the pastors' interest in structural modifications of the church building. However, no significant differences were found between the proportion of elderly with the congregation and the actual programs and services to the elderly. This may be an indication that churches with high proportions of the elderly had less financial and congregational resources.

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GKE Bumi Palangka Congregation Council is the leader of the Church Congregation in Palangka Raya which houses four churches, of course, has a large accumulation of congregations. One of the duties and jobs of the GKE Bumi Palangka Congregational Daily Working Body (BPH MJBP) is to regulate the stewardship of the Church and to collect data on the congregation every year. The problems that exist in the Bumi Palangka GKE Congregational Assembly are the Jamaat's service system and the data has not been computerized and integrated and the lack of media to share or disseminate information that is in the Bumi Palangka GKE Congregational Assembly. In designing the website of the GKE Bumi Palangka Congregational Assembly, themethod is used waterfall with stages, Requirements Definition, System and Software Design, Implementation and Unit Testing, Integration and System Testing, Operation and Maintenance. The software used in building this website is Visual Studio Code, MySQL, and XAMPP. This website has been tested with blackbox testing which results in that the features on the website can run well. This MJBP Website Design was developed with the aim of planning, supervising, directing and delegating work to all service departments that have a relationship or coordination. As well as managing computerized church and congregation data so as to produce congregation information such as recapitulation reports

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The question of LGBTQ+ inclusion in churches is rapidly becoming an open conversation in congregations and denominations seeking answers in policy and practice. As society is engaging the question of LGBTQ+ rights in the courts, denominations are addressing LGBTQ+ inclusion, and as increasing numbers of LGBTQ+ Christians come out in their faith communities, church members and their churches, with their religious structures, are called on to take positions, often in the absence of agreement. In background research and 97 interviews with leaders and members of 21 congregations in three denominations, a research team discovered processes, models for conversation, and resources to address the risks of division and changes in membership and finances. In the following article, the authors include findings and resources from congregations, process models, and suggestions and possibilities for families of faith considering how to move forward in addressing one of the more pressing and divisive issues in the church.

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In 1644 the Puritan lawyer and parliamentary pamphleteer, William Prynne, voiced a question much on the minds of moderate Puritans: Would not Congregationalism ‘by inevitable necessary consequence subvert…all settled…forms of civil government…and make every small congregation, family (yea person if possible), an independent church and republic exempt from all other public laws’? What made Congregationalism seem so threatening? The calling of the Long Parliament encouraged an efflorescence of Congregational churches throughout England. While differing in many other respects, their members were united in the belief that the true Church consisted of individually gathered, self-governing congregations of the godly. Such a Church was answerable to no other earthly authority. The roots of English Congregationalism extended back to Elizabethan times and beyond. Some Congregationalists, in the tradition of Robert Browne, believed in total separation from the Established Church; others, following the later ideas of Henry Jacob, subscribed to semi-separatism, believing that a godly remnant remained within the Established Church. For semi-separatists some contact with the latter was permissible, as was a loose confederation of gathered churches. During the English civil wars and Interregnum, the Church polity of most leading religious Independents actually was semi-separatist.

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Through membership documents, this essay traces the decline in African American affiliation with Massachusetts Congregational churches-from the pre-Revolutionary era, when enslaved blacks, such as Cuffee Wright, routinely joined Congregational churches, to 1828–32, when four African Americans applying to Lyman Beecher's Boston church were among the last wave of blacks seeking membership in northern white churches.

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Congregation-based health program evaluations often rely on surveys, but little documentation is available regarding specific methods and challenges. Here we describe methods used to achieve acceptable response rates (73–79%) in a survey of HIV-related attitudes and behaviors in two African American and three Latino churches in high HIV-prevalence communities in Los Angeles County. Survey participation was enhanced by conducting survey sessions at church-based meetings (e.g., women’s Bible study) and after worship services; employing diverse survey staff; providing participation incentives for pastors, church coordinators, and survey participants; and working collaboratively and respectfully with congregational leaders. Achieving broad participation in church-based surveys on sensitive health topics is feasible when done collaboratively with congregational leaders and with a flexible protocol, which permits tailoring survey approaches to cultural and organizational contexts and leverages available resources appropriately.

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The liveliness of the discipline of ecclesiology depends on the cross-referencing between theological doctrines about the church and actual churches. In an intellectual pincer movement these authors argue that the theological discipline of ecclesiology has to be chastened by consideration of the congregations in order to be credible, and that congregational studies needs the input of the formal discipline of ecclesiology to connect the beliefs and practices of each community to the wider tradition.

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Pastors and church leaders are increasingly using family systems theory as a way to understand normal relationship processes in their churches and to learn how to function within them. The theory helps us to see more clearly how we are emotionally interconnected with one another and the ways this can manifest either for greater personal and congregational health or greater difficulties. This article shows some of the relevance to church ministry of the eight primary concepts in Bowen family systems theory.

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Under the influence of Calvinism, the musical situation in the Protestant churches in the Netherlands was for a long time marked by sobriety, with attention focused on congregational singing. In the 20th century, church music gained importance through a dominant flow of Lutheran influence. Generally, the liturgical movement highlighted the role of music in worship. The Lutheran church musician Willem Mudde successfully called attention to the German church music reform movement. Inspired by the writings of the German theologian Oskar Söhngen, he strived to apply the ideals and practices of this German movement to the Dutch Protestant churches. He succeeded through his zeal and organisational skills, not only in the Lutheran church but also in other Protestant churches. The idealistic character and educational aims of the movement, however, could not offset the growing individualism and the ongoing crisis in the churches.

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The Project for the Preservation of Congregational Church Records collects, catalogs, preserves, digitizes, and transcribes documents that lie scattered in Congregational and Unitarian churches throughout the commonwealth. Cuffee's “Relation,” one slave's spiritual account conveyed in his own words and by his hand, is among the many extraordinary treasures the project seeks to safeguard.

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In this article, the ecumenical heritage of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa is described by the General Secretary of that church. The early history of the UCCSA, related to the London Missionary Society, created a sense of self-awareness that led to the unification of racially divided congregational churches during 1967. This set the ground for the active involvement of the UCCSA in the political liberation processes in Southern Africa. In addition, the UCCSA 's continued exploration of further ecumenical endeavours is traced. The covenental theology of the UCCSA forms a unifying thread throughout these processes.

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The letting of pews was virtually a universal practice in the churches of nineteenth-century Britain. Although letting and private ownership of seats were well known before the 1700s and have continued in the present century, the renting of fixed seats for use during divine service reached its height in the Victorian period. Worshippers paid anything from one shilling to thirty shillings or more to reserve a seat for one person for a year. It thus became a considerable expense to accommodate a large family. By its ubiquity it is clear that the practice was accepted by church-goers as a facet of ecclesiastical life and was accepted by church authorities as a necessary feature of congregational management. But the fact that the system was generally introduced and operated at the discretion of individual congregations or their owners and patrons, with little or no interference from denominational authorities, has meant that comparatively meagre attention has been paid to how it worked in practice and to what its effects were on congregational life.

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IN the dark days of 1662, ‘one of the yeares of the captivity of the Churches, and of the passion of the ministers of Christ’, co*cker-mouth Congregational Church set down an account of its beginnings during the Interregnum, so that people would know ‘in after times, that somewhat hath been a doing in this corner of the earth in a church way’:

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Through the years, people of faith and their congregations have encountered social issues without easy answers. From racism, women’s rights, and poverty to the current divisions over abortion and human sexuality, the church has wrestled with difficult subjects impacting policy and practice. In the United States of America (USA/US), the question of LGBTQ+ inclusion in churches is an increasingly frequent conversation, point of decision, and sometimes point of division in congregations. As these challenging social issues in a politically polarized USA culture impact the church, there is also a focus in the literature on methods for civil conversation. This article reports on models for conversations that provide guidance for congregations engaging in difficult conversations including that of LGBTQ+ inclusion. In this article, congregations and others are provided with resources and models for discernment. Models covered include those developed by individual Christian leaders, those developed in congregational processes, and those developed for public and educational discourse.

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Christ Church United Reformed Church (formerly Congregational), Port Sunlight, and St George’s United Reformed Church (formerly Congregational), Thornton Hough, do not spring to mind as Free Church buildings. There is scarcely one architectural respect in which either announces a Dissenting presence. Each conforms to nationally established tradition. Their quality, however, is as incontestable as it is incontestably derivative. Their role in their respective village-scapes is important, even dominant. As buildings, therefore, they are significant and perhaps suggestive, but do they say anything about ecclesiastical polity? The answer to that question illustrates the interaction between elite and popular religion in Edwardian English Protestant Nonconformity, for the polity to which these two churches give space is in fact successively congregational, Congregational, and Reformed. It is representative throughout but never democratic. Yet can any shade of Congregationalism truly develop in either a squire’s village or a manufacturer’s? And what might be deduced of the man who provided these buildings, created their villages, shaped their communities, and regarded himself lifelong as a Congregationalist even if a masonic lodge were the only fellowship to which he could statedly commit himself? These questions prompt this paper.

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The concept of the synod plays a special role in the Evangelical ecclesiology. In the 20th century, the synod was radically defined as “the personification of the Church.” In the Evangelical tradition, however, there are equal Church management systems: episcopal, synodal-consistory, presbyterian (mainly in the Evangelical-Reformed denomination), and to a lesser extent congregational (especially observed in the so-called free Churches). Reformation theology understands the Church as a community of all saints, where the Gospel is preached purely and the sacraments are properly administered (Augsburg Confession — CA VII). The system of the Church does not belong to the so-called notae ecclesiae. An important theological doctrine of the Reformation is the teaching about the universal priesthood of all believers, which is the theological foundation of the idea of the synodal responsibility of the Church. In the 19th century synods concerned mainly clergy. In the 20th century, in the course of democratisation processes, most Evangelical Churches raised the importance of the synod in the overall management of the Church, and the Polish Lutheran Church introduced a provision into her law which stipulates that the synod is “the embodiment of the Church” and its supreme authority.

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In the midst of the wealth of music available at this year's Aldeburgh Festival, a vintage bus tour around Snape of churches and their organs seemed an unlikely treat. Every church organ is designed for the same purpose – a sacred instrument of the liturgy to accompany congregational and choral singing and, occasionally, to blast from above – but each has a different personality.

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In October 1846, the men and women of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Louis (African Church) met to consider whether they would remain with the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) or align with the recently-formed Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS). Two years earlier, in 1844, amid growing conflict over the question of slavery within the national Methodist Church, its General Conference had adopted a Plan of Separation that provided for the withdrawal of the southern Methodists and the creation of their own ecclesiastical government. The Plan provided that each Border State congregation would have the right to determine for itself by a vote of the majority with which of the two churches it would affiliate.After the southern conferences had organized the new MECS in May 1845, the trustees of the all-white Fourth Street Methodist Church (Fourth Street Church), whose quarterly conference exercised nominal authority over the African Church, informed the black congregants that they could retain their house of worship only if they voted to join the southern Methodists. Throwing caution to the wind, and putting at risk a decade-and-a-half of patient efforts to achieve formal congregational independence within the Methodist Church, the black congregants voted decisively, by a 110 to 7 margin, to remain affiliated with the Northern Conference.

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Megachurches, although differing in terms of denominational affiliation (or relative lack thereof), spatial logic, liturgy, teaching, and congregational demographics, share the common trait of size and are often fast-growing churches as well. This is particularly true of what might be called (following scholarship on the “experience economy”) the “experience megachurch”: those with a broad attractive appeal, large and growing congregations, and relative freedom from traditional Christian spatial-architectural constraints, rituals, and denominational histories. Such experience megachurches share an emphasis on offering their congregations an “inspiring” experience of the reality of God’s existence and presence in the church. Applying theories of pragmatics, semiotics, and bodily discipline, this article examines two experience megachurches (Lakewood in Houston, U.S.A., and Hillsong, headquartered in Sydney, Australia) to offer a taxonomy of megachurch praxis.

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Nova Scotia and Quebec were the only two overseas Anglican bishoprics in 1800, besides the eleven in the USA. By 1900 there were ninety-three overseas Anglican bishops, as well as the seventy-two in the home and missionary dioceses of the USA Church. Rapidly expanding colonial and missionary work was an essential element in the life of all nineteenth-century British Churches. Each by 1900 supported denominational and interdenominational missionary societies and encouraged local congregational missionary activities. Here and in fostering emigration to colonies, each British Church willingly took its part in fulfilling British imperial ideals.

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Through their enthusiastic embrace of the doctrine of the ‘institutional church’, late Victorian and Edwardian Congregationalists demonstrated their commitment to, inter alia, the intellectual development of church members and adherents. Many churches, large and small, sponsored mutual improvement societies, literary and debating societies and programmes of public lectures, as well as ad hoc talks, covering every conceivable subject from the natural sciences to contemporary social and political issues. What motivated Congregationalists to engage in activities of this kind, and to what extent were they seen as an integral part of their religious vocation? In considering these questions, evidence is drawn from initiatives of two Congregational churches in Edwardian Hampshire: London Street, Basingstoke's Mutual Improvement Society and Avenue, Southampton's annual programme of lectures. What emerges is an approach to ministry that blurred the boundary between the sacred and the secular and a gradual weakening of commitment as churches were superseded by secular providers. In reviewing an under-explored aspect of the relationship between religion and education, the article serves as an addition to the limited literature on this subject.

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Moral renewal: a challenge to the churchesThe article addresses the issue of moral formation in the South African society and focuses on the role the Christian churches can play in this respect. It argues that the church can indeed play a vital role, if it succeeds in facing up to at least four challenges. The first one has to do with a stronger emphasis on the moral implications of the gospel on congregational level. Too many churches preach a version of the gospel that lacks clarity about the moral commitment asked of disciples. The second challenge is to get a more focused picture of what an intrinsic Christian lifestyle looks like. A plea is made for the reinstatement of a condensed basic moral code grounded in biblical teaching. The third challenge relates to the vital question of how moral formation is actually being implemented in the faith communities. Attention is given to different ways this question is being answered. The fourth challenge concerns the churches' hesitancy to accept co-responsibility for the public communities we are living in. Congregational and denominational leaders have to realize that churches are called not only to discipleship, but also to citizenship. If the churches are willing to accept these challenges, they can be an important factor in the moral renewal of the South African society.

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It has taken many years for different styles of music to be utilised within Pentecostal churches as acceptable forms of worship. These shifts in musical sensibilities, which draw upon elements of pop, rock and hip hop, have allowed for a contemporisation of music that functions as worship within these settings, and although still debated within and across some denominations, there is a growing acceptance amongst Western churches of these styles. Whilst these developments have taken place over the past few decades, there is an ongoing resistance by Pentecostal churches to embrace Indigenous musical expressions of worship, which are usually treated as token recognitions of minority groups, and at worst, demonised as irredeemable musical forms. This article draws upon interview data with Christian-Māori leaders from New Zealand and focus group participants of a diaspora Māori church in southwest Sydney, Australia, who considered their views as Christian musicians and ministers. These perspectives seek to challenge the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations within a church setting and create a more inclusive philosophy and practice towards being ‘one in Christ’ with the role of music as worship acting as a case study throughout. It also considers how Indigenous forms of worship impact cultural identity, where Christian worship drawing upon Māori language and music forms has led to deeper connections to congregants’ cultural backgrounds.

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Abstract Objectives Hispanics are disproportionally affected by obesity, cancer, and other obesity-related chronic diseases. Building a Healthy Temple (BHT) was a multi-component, faith-based lifestyle intervention implemented in 27 low-income, predominately-Hispanic congregations in San Antonio, TX between 2012 and 2017. One aim of BHT was to assess program effectiveness at improving health-conducive church environment/policy and sustainability of these improvements at follow-up. Methods A key macro-level program component of BHT was the formation of a Health Ministry Committee to initiate church-wide health-conducive environment/policy changes. The Congregational Health Index (CHI) was used to assess church nutrition (17 items) and physical activity (PA, 5 items) environment/policy at baseline, end of program, and follow-up (6 months or more post-intervention). Data were expressed as % of the maximum scores. Friedman test and post hoc analysis were performed with Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and significance of pairwise comparisons, adjusted with Bonferroni correction. Results Eighteen churches completed all 3 CHI assessments. Percentage of total nutrition and PA environment/policy scores for baseline, end of program, and follow-up were 38% (35–45), 64% (53–75), and 69% (64–77), respectively. Post hoc analysis shows significant improvements in nutrition and PA environment/policy scores at end of program (Z = –3.73, P < 0.001) and follow-up (Z = –3.73, P < 0.001) as compared to baseline, as well as significantly higher scores at follow-up compared to end of program (Z = –3.18, P = 0.001). Conclusions Study findings reveal the importance of utilizing congregation-wide macro-level interventions to create health-conducive enviroment/policy changes to facilitate and sustain healthy lifestyle changes in predominately-Hispanic faith community settings. Funding Sources Baptist Health Foundation San Antonio & Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas.

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ABSTRACTScholars of African-American religious history have recently debated the significance of the black church in American history. Those that have, pro and con, have often considered the black church as a singular entity, despite the fact that African Americans affiliated with a number of different religious traditions under the umbrella of the black church. This article posits that it is useful to consider denominational and theological developments within different African-American churches. Doing so acknowledges plural creations and developments of black churches, rather than a singular black church, which better accounts for the historical experience of black religion. In this piece, I analyze four different denominational and theological traditions that blacks followed in the early Republic: the Anglican–Episcopalian, the Calvinist (Congregational–Presbyterian), the Methodist, and the Baptist. Each offered a unique ecclesiastical structure and set of theological assumptions within which black clergy and laity operated. Each required different levels of interaction with white coreligionists, and, although some tended to offer more direct opportunities for reform and resistance, all groups suffered differing constraints that limited such action. I argue that the two bodies connected to formalist traditions, the Episcopalian and Calvinist, were initially better developed despite their smaller size, and thus disproportionately shaped black community and reform efforts in the antebellum United States.

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Many Christian churches in parts of Ghana dominated by Akans do not allow corpses to be brought inside the church during funerals services. Others face constant and vehement objection when it is done. Cultural differences on the subject have fuelled heated disputes that have led in some cases to severe congregational division. Opposition is often sustained by a culturally biased approach to biblical texts concerning sacredness and defilement as related to Old Testament sanctuary and temple ritual. Particularly, the religious philosophy of mmusuo provides the psycho-emotive motivation from which many Akan Christians vehemently oppose the practice as sacrilegious. It also provides an analytical and rhetorical framework for appropriating various biblical passages relating to religious sacrilege. This paper unpacks this framework and proposes effectively contextualized theology as a means of avoiding such erroneous conflations and resolving the disputes that arise at the interface of African culture and Christian religion, especially in multicultural congregations.

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The shape of ordered ministry remains an ecumenical stumbling stone. There is a wide gap between churches ordered by the threefold ministry of bishop-priest-deacon and churches ordered by different patterns of ministry. It may be possible to narrow the gap by detecting a pervasive threefold ministry of episcope/keygma-didache/diakonos in both presbyterial and congregational ordered churches. That recognition can prompt ecumenical exchanges concerning the relationship between office and function. The case of Reformed and Presbyterian churches, among the least open to bishops, is examined, recovering the possibility of personal episcope that can open episcopal, presbyterial, and associational churches to deepening mutuality and forms of reconciliation.

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Abstract: From early in the Reformation, Protestant leaders viewed music as a powerful tool not only for educating their followers, but also for forging unity within diverse and dispersed communities. Such a belief found expression in official and unofficial religious contexts, and left its mark on printed devotional material, congregational hymn books, public policies of church authorities, and the musical activities of individual churches. At the same time, the manner in which a person accessed, experienced and produced music in a Reformation urban environment was conditioned as much by social factors such as age, gender, social station and personal contacts, as by confessional affiliation and policy. Using a corpus of previously unexploited sources from the Protestant city of Heidelberg, this article challenges the rhetorical and outdated binary notions of social ‘harmony’ and ‘discord’. It argues that music in a Reformation city — whether congregational song in churches, secular song in taverns, inns and streets, or domestic devotional song — could function as a powerful platform for emphasizing rather than dissolving a range of meaningful social differences, even as it created new kinds of unity across urban society.

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The events which together finally resulted in a restructuring of the Church of England along Presbyterian lines had been lengthy, complex and exceedingly frustrating for all concerned. Since the earliest days of the Long Parliament, both pulpit and press had been brimming not only with invective against Laudian Episcopacy, but also with a plethora of ideas about church government. After 1643, having accepted the conditions of the Solemn League and Covenant, the Westminster Assembly laboured fitfully to fulfil its responsibility of producing a new polity for parliament's approval. The assembly conducted its work in the midst of independent Dissenting Brethren who argued for a congregational form of gathered churches in the context of toleration, Scottish commissioners who would not be satisfied with anything less than their own rigid model of Presbyterianism, and a parliament that was generally desirous of a Presbyterian settlement but committed to an Erastian structure that would make its own body the highest judicial authority in the Church.

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Purpose: To implement a multilevel, church-based intervention with diverse disparity populations using community-based participatory research and evaluate feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness in improving obesity-related outcomes. Design: Cluster randomized controlled trial (pilot). Setting: Two midsized (∼200 adults) African American baptist and 2 very large (∼2000) Latino Catholic churches in South Los Angeles, California. Participants: Adult (18+ years) congregants (n = 268 enrolled at baseline, ranging from 45 to 99 per church). Intervention: Various components were implemented over 5 months and included 2 sermons by pastor, educational handouts, church vegetable and fruit gardens, cooking and nutrition classes, daily mobile messaging, community mapping of food and physical activity environments, and identification of congregational policy changes to increase healthy meals. Measures: Outcomes included objectively measured body weight, body mass index (BMI), and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), plus self-reported overall healthiness of diet and usual minutes spent in physical activity each week; control variables include sex, age, race–ethnicity, English proficiency, education, household income, and (for physical activity outcome) self-reported health status. Analysis: Multivariate linear regression models estimated the average effect size of the intervention, controlling for pair fixed effects, a main effect of the intervention, and baseline values of the outcomes. Results: Among those completing follow-up (68%), the intervention resulted in statistically significantly less weight gain and greater weight loss (−0.05 effect sizes; 95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.06 to −0.04), lower BMI (−0.08; 95% CI = −0.11 to −0.05), and healthier diet (−0.09; 95% CI = −0.17 to −0.00). There was no evidence of an intervention impact on BP or physical activity minutes per week. Conclusion: Implementing a multilevel intervention across diverse congregations resulted in small improvements in obesity outcomes. A longer time line is needed to fully implement and assess effects of community and congregation environmental strategies and to allow for potential larger impacts of the intervention.

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This paper explores the role music plays in ‘queer-identifying religious youth’ worship, including attitudes to ‘progressive’ and ‘traditional’ musical sounds and styles. It looks at approaches taken by inclusive non-denominational churches (such as the Metropolitan Community Church, mcc), to reconcile different, and at times conflicting, identities of its members. Focusing on ‘spaces of reconciliation’ we bring together the embodied experience of Christian congregational music with the ‘age appropriate’ temporality of modern music, to examine the complex relationship between age, music, faith and sexuality. Young queers did not always feel ill at ease with ‘tradition’ and in fact many felt pulled towards traditional choral songs and hymns. Embodied and affective responses to congregational music emerged in complex and multiple ways: faith infused creativity, such as singing practice, enables queer youth to do religion and Christianity and be a part of ‘sounding religious, sounding queer’.

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AbstractBaptist Theologies allegedly show little interest in formal statements about the ministerial office. Baptist churches commonly share the congregational Church vision, and by definition try to avoid any trace of conformity to hierarchy. In this article we explore the possibility of redefining and broadening the notion of congregationalism by principles of conciliar life, as demonstrated in pre-Nicene Northern Africa, more specifically in Cyprian’s era. Cyprian c.s. carefully tried to listen to singing and praying communal voices (lex orandi, lex credenda), and ‘discerning the mind of Christ’ was indicative of involving the voice of the community (suffragium populi), even in matters of ecclesial election, such as the election of clergy.

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This paper examines the intersection of neighborhood change and parish reconfiguration in Charlestown, MA. The merger of two Roman Catholic churches has unsettled the congregational cultures, just as gentrification is unsettling broader neighborhood dynamics. Based on findings from 28 in–depth interviews and participant–observation, I examine the spatial reproduction of neighborhood segregation in the sanctuary of St. Mary's church. Affluent newcomers and “Townies”–stalwart residents who have weathered earlier waves of neighborhood upscaling–form power alliances that result in the exclusion of the poorest residents in the shared space of this urban church. By paying attention to the seating arrangements and other social interactions of churchgoers, I discover that the new parish vision of the merged church–albeit one that purported to celebrate the diverse residents of the neighborhood–resulted in the cultural exclusion of Latinos. Institutional decisions, the desire to maintain ethnic enclaves, and tacit messages of group exclusion reify the race and class divisions of the neighborhood within the walls of the church. I conclude with an exploration of the strategies of resilience to gentrification and merger evident in this case by attending to the actions of the disadvantaged in relation to the changing institution.

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Recent reforms to English and Scots marriage law faced the United Reformed Church (URC) with two challenges. Its hybrid structure of church government, entwining Congregational and Presbyterian strands, complicated application of the statutory criterion ‘persons recognised by [the membership] as competent for the purpose of giving consent’. Precedent from earlier decisions on human sexuality explains the ultimate identification of the local church meeting as the competent council of the URC in England, and why the ‘enabling resolution’ passed regarding civil partnership formation was not repeated. The very different focus of Scots marriage law posed different questions, less focused on buildings or the churches using them and allowing willing celebrants to be nominated by the synod, as for opposite-sex marriage.Advisers differed on whether the denomination possessed any binding doctrine of marriage which would obstruct implementation of the amended law. The General Assembly decision on polity and how it was reached suggest an implicit ruling in the negative. This article defends that outcome, considering the doctrinal foundation of the URC in the light of concessions made at the formative union. Marriage appears as a topic on which no denominational doctrine exists, letting all councils reach theological conclusions necessary to practical decisions within their remit.

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The phenomenon of early Christian triconchal churches on the Adriatic has already been noted in the scholarly literature. A separate study ‘Le basiliche cruciformi nell’area adriatica’ was published by S. Piussi in 1978, followed by N. Cambi with the 1984 publication ‘Triconchal churches on the Eastern Adriatic’. However, both scholars include triconchal churches in the typological group of ‘cruciform basilicas’ or treat them together with the churches which have three apses with spaces between them placed along the nave. However, because of their specific morphology consisting of the closely placed conchs and a large number of such examples in the Adriatic area, it seems justified to treat them as a separate typological group. These churches had originally been funerary chapels, but many of them subsequently grew into congregational spaces with complex liturgical functions. In addition, among the triconchal churches it is possible to discuss separately the type of a small triconchal cella without a nave, but sometimes provided with a narthex, as form which is different from similar chapels with a long entrance arm in front of the sanctuary. Based on this difference, it is possible to establish a different terminology which classifies cella trichora as the simple trefoil type, and triconchal churches as the more complex type. The latter is relatively numerous in the territory of late antique Dalmatia. The title of this paper stems from those buildings. However, they originate in cellae trichorae. Thus, in the introductory section I am discussing examples of these cellae in the Adriatic and the connection between their appearance and funerary traditions in the Mediterranean in general. The beginnings of Christian funerary architecture in Dalmatia are found in the grouping of round cellae in the cemeteries of ancient Salona, as known from N. Duval’s works, and in the presence of conchs next to the memorial chapel at Muline which was studied by M. Suić. I deem that the early Christian triconchal churches were created through the crystallisation of the forms present in the groups of funerary cellae in such complexes; cella trichora being the simplest form and triconchal church a more complex one. However, both are generically tied to the Roman tradition in pagan and early Christian funerary architecture. On the other hand, early Christian trefoil structures in the majority of examples stand next to the rustic villa which in itself speaks in favour of a private funerary function. Thus, it is important to assume that cellae trichorae and triconchal churches in the beginning represent early Christian memorial chapels, independent of the subsequent development of the complexes which enveloped them.Thus, the memorial chapel at Muline on the island of Ugljan is part of a larger funerary complex. It is still the most thoroughly researched group of early Christian buildings erected next to a Roman rustic villa in Dalmatia. Apart from a similar example at Brijuni, the Muline complex is crucial for the consideration and interpretation of the origins and development of Christianity in late antique rural areas on the Croatian coast of the Adriatic. It reflects the developed Christianity in the urban setting of Zadar. The owner of the villa was obviously a rich citizen who had a memorial chapel erected on his estate for a deceased person about whom we know nothing. The chapel nave is square. Two deep semicircular apses are found at the back; in the southern one was a sarcophagus. The second sarcophagus was buried under the pavement in the nave. Next to the façade was a protyron, a vestibule with a porch resting on two columns. A courtyard was subsequently added in front of the façade and provided with additional cellae around it. According to Suić’s analysis, it seems that the first layer of the memorial chapel was built in the fourth century. At that time it lacked a crystallized form of somewhat later triconchal churches on the Adriatic. Two original conchs at the back stand slightly apart. The third cella next to the back was subsequently added to the north wall. It has a rectangular ground plan similar to those around the courtyard. All this speaks in favour of a gradual multiplication of cellae around the original memorial, a process similar to that at the cemeteries in Salona. In this paper, I am discussing the phenomenon of early Christian and early medieval triconchal churches on the Adriatic. In doing so, I am only considering those which have three conchs along the sanctuary wall. Based on their form, function and date, I classify them into five groups.The first group one consists of relatively early, small cellae trichorae. They had originally been funerary chapels on private estates. The remains of these memorial chapels have been preserved in various locations along the Adriatic coast: from those at Concordia Sagittaria near Aquileia, Betika near Pula, to those at Gata near Salona and Doljani near Duklja. Older examples have been dated to the late fourth or to the first half of the fifth century, which seems to be the date of the formation of this type of Christian memorial.In the second group are somewhat more complex triconchal churches which, unlike the cellae, have a long nave in front of the sanctuary. They are found in the territory of the Roman Dalmatia and therefore referred to by the author as Dalmatian. Unlike the cellae trichorae, which in their original form do not have a long entrance arm preceding the sanctuary conchs like a nave, triconchal churches are characterised by this very element in the front part of the chapel. In this respect they are spatially more developed than the basic, cella trichora type, and thus probably represent a somewhat later variants of trefoil memorial chapels. It seems that the triconchal churches at Dalmatia were mostly built by the late fifth century or in the early sixth century.The third group consists of those churches from the second group which were transformed from the initial funerary chapels into complex triconchal basilicas. Similar to other types of original memorial chapels which were subsequently transformed into congregational churches in Dalmatia, these too were remodelled in mid-sixth century. Thus, by being enveloped by a ring of subsequently added rooms, some triconchal churches were transformed from the original memorial chapels into public congregational churches furnished with liturgical annexes, among which were baptisteries. Baptisteries in particular witness about the nature of the remodelled triconchal churches and newly created complexes, with a trefoil structure at the core. They indicate an increase in conversion of the population which probably caused the building of such structures. Of course, a similar development was shared by other types of originally private chapels in the time when churches were being built after the model of complex basilicas. However, in Dalmatia, there are no examples of such buildings before the age of Justinian i.e. before the second third of the sixth century. It is likely that the mentioned conversion occurred in this period. With it, many older churches, including triconchal churches, became cores of new complexes. Based on the examples of such a development, it is possible to speak convincingly of pre-Justinianic origins of the initial form of Dalmatian triconchal churches.The fourth group is formed by pre-Romanesque triconchal churches. Their morphology differs from early Christian triconchal churches, and they are represented by two subgroups of interesting early medieval churches in Dalmatia. In the first one are numerous centrally-planned buildings while in the second are two longitudinal structures. Both subgroups are characterised by a sanctuary with three semicircular apses. In the centrally-planned buildings they are placed radially and their axes originate at the centre of the rotunda. Thus, they were not arranged in a cruciform way towards the sanctuary as it had regularly been the case in early Christian cellae trichorae or triconchal churches, where the axes of the lateral apses are perpendicular to the axis of the central apse. However, the three conchs grouped at the sanctuary are a crucial spatial feature in the buildings of the first subgroup so, in principle, they can be referred to as triconchal structures. In this group are the church of Holy Trinity at Zadar and a number of Dalmatian hexaconchal churches, as well as the rotunda at Ošlje. In the second subgroup are the longitudinal churches of Holy Saviour at Vrh Rika near Cetina and the church at Lopuška glavica, both near Knin. These two churches have a long nave in front of the sanctuary, and three conchs along the sanctuary wall, as was the case with early Christian triconchal churches. However, the axes of the lateral conchs are not perpendicular to the axis of the main apse but are placed radially. The nave in the church is significantly wider than the diameter of the main apse. The original layout of the church of St Donatus at Zadar, as a free-standing rotunda, was probably created in the in the eighth century. All other pre-Romanesque triconchal churches in Dalmatia have been convincingly dated to the period between the mid-ninth century to the early decades of the tenth century.Finally, the fifth group consist of the Romanesque trefoil churches. These are small, cruciform cellae which have a short entrance arm at the front and three conchs grouped around the core at the back. The front usually rectangular and the conchs are semicircular. They are vaulted with semi-domed vaults. Above the core is a round drum with a dome. Two of those cellae are almost completely preserved and of particular interest due to the intersecting vault ribs below their domes. Stylistic characteristics of these buildings indicate the early Romanesque architectural features of the twelfth century. All other medieval triconchal churches in this group probably also belong to the wider Romanesque period.Finally, regardless of all similar spatial forms in antique and late antique secular buildings, it should be pointed out that the cellae trichorae and triconchal churches originated as Christian memorial chapels, inspired by the gglomerations of the earliest funerary a chapel installed in early Christian cemeteries. The triconchal shape of these chapels originated in these agglomerations and remained related to the funerary and memorial character. It can be concluded that the triconchal churches in Dalmatia were formed with relation to that character and that they persisted from the early Christian time to the mature middle ages. Perhaps it might be naive and mistaken to interpret the morphology of later buildings as being directly influenced by the earlier. Pre-Romanesque rotundas display a variety of triconchal forms which were not known in early Christian architecture of Dalmatia (except the hexaconchal interior of Zadar Baptistery). Nonetheless, polyconchal spaces of early medieval memorial buildings were furnished with a triconchal sanctuary of the same shape as those in early Christian triconchal buildings, and witness about the funerary function in the pre-Romanesque period. The Romanesque trefoil churches, however, recreated the original type, not as direct replicas of early Christian triconchal forms, but through their function, while their shape grew out of the reformation spirit of the great church reform in the Romanesque period. Thus, Dalmatian triconchal churches illustrate a continuous need for private memorial chapels which does not necessarily have to be triconchal but this particular shape has been discussed here because of its peculiarity. Already in the early Christian period, some trefoil structures outgrew their function of a family chapel to become churches for a larger community. That is why they were accompanied by additional liturgical functions and annexes necessary for monastic or parish churches. By this, they were transformed into complex basilicas with additional spaces while the original triconchal structure, situated at the centre, became the church, quadratum populi, sometimes surrounded by a series of interconnected rooms which served as an ambulatory. This might point to the possibility that in some cases the old funerary function of the original memorial chapel could have continued together with the new liturgical rites in the newly formed complex basilica as a congregational church. These changes did not take place in the medieval memorial structures although some hexaconchal churches and the octaconchal church at Ošlje were provided with new annexes soon after the initial building phase, and that added to the rotunda of St Donatus at Zadar included a gallery.

Abstract:

The new millennium has seen increased hostility to Israel among many progressive constituencies, including several mainline Protestant churches. The evangelical community in the US remains steadfastly Zionist, so overall support for financial aid to Israel remain secure. But the cultural impact of accusations that Israel is a settler colonialist or apartheid regime are nonetheless serious; they are proving sufficient to make support for the Jewish state a political issue for the first time in many decades. Despite a general movement in emphasis from theology to politics in church debate, there remain theological issues at the center of church discussion. The Protestant church with the longest running and most well-funded anti-Zionist constituency is the Presbyterian church in the US. In the last decade, its Israel/Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) has produced several increasingly anti-Zionist books designed to propel divestment resolutions in the church’s annual meeting. The most widely debated of these was 2014’s Zionism Unsettled: A Congregational Study Guide. This essay mounts a detailed analysis and critique of the book which documents the IPMN’s steady movement toward antisemitic positions. Among the theological issues underlying debate in Protestant denominations are the status of the divine covenant with the Jewish people, the role that the gift of land has as part of that covenant, and the nature of the characterization of the Jews as a “chosen people”. These, and other issues underlying Protestant anti-Zionism, have led to the formation of Presbyterians for Middle East Peace (PFMP), a group, unlike IPMN, that supports a two-state solution. The competing positions these groups have taken are of interest to all who want to track the role that Christian denominations have played in debates about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Abstract:

Congregational worship among the religious organizations in Africa and Latin America, particularly the rapidly expanding Christian missions, has been of significant consideration in the light of medical recommendations involving social distancing and avoidance of large social gatherings concerning the coronavirus pandemic. This is among recent observations and has attracted more focus following an acute controversy over the role of the Church in Brazil vis-à-vis government policies on the Covid-19 pandemic and the fact that a number of churches in Nigeria were allegedly initially reluctant to respond to the government lockdown declaration and the resultant ban on congregational worship. Simultaneously, the agenda of financial and material assistance to the poor by the large Christian denominations in South Africa as one means of sustaining the lockdown rather attracted criticism, as they were unable to sustain the project. Furthermore, the role of religious bodies came to the fore as global surveys demonstrated that, on average, the masses in these two continents are among the most religiously observant people in the world. As we shall see in the concluding section, this is the major consideration of Idayat Hassan, Director of the Abuja-based Centre for Democracy and Development, in his assessment of the African context.

Abstract:

Abstract Provision of spaces for personal prayer and reflection has become a common phenomenon within historic churches and cathedrals in England and Wales, offering an example of devotional activity that operates largely outside that of traditional gathered congregations, but also in relationship with them. Over the past decade, the apSAFIP (the ap Siôn Analytic Framework for Intercessory Prayer) has been employed to examine the content of personal prayer requests left in various church-related locations, mapping similarities and differences in pray-ers’ concerns. Building on this research tradition, the present study examines whether changes to physical environment in an Anglican cathedral in Wales has an effect on the personal prayer activity occurring within it, with a particular focus on intercessory prayer requests.

Abstract:

In a case study on suburban churches the author describes how religious ideas, material resources and relationships of trust together form capital that enables and limits the civic engagement of the churches. The case study is based on ethnographic research in the newly built suburb of Leidsche Rijn in the Netherlands. The author concludes that a focus on the combination of different forms of capital available in congregational networks helps to obtain a better understanding of the often noted positive relationship between religion and civic engagement. The study shows that capital has an ambiguous influence: it enables and limits civic engagement. Researchers should therefore not be overly positive about the effects of social capital. They should also be aware of the ‘essential contestedness’ of civic engagement. The way civic engagement actually works on an empirical level calls into question any easy definition that researchers may devise.

Abstract:

In ecclesiastical worship activities in the Christian community, singing activities both in the format of 'choir', congregational singing and others are integrated in a series of worship services in the church. It is also found among members of the Runggun Benameriah Protestant Karo Batak Church (GBKP) congregation who also use the choir format in activities to praise and glorify God. For Christians singing is a spiritual need. In both churches there are several types of choirs, both the choir moria (mothers), mamre choirs (fathers) gem choirs or youth / youth and elderly choirs. Each choir has a trainer (amateur) who also acts as choir leader, referred to as Dirigen. The problem is that often the quality of the choir that is displayed is low. This means that there are always a lot of technical errors and un-melodious voices from the choir members during the choir presentation. If this condition continues and occurs continuously, the presence of the choir can eventually interfere with the implementation of worship. Another condition is that almost all Dirigens in the GBKP choir are people who have limited musical abilities, and have no background in formal music education. His managerial ability and technical ability to teach choir is very weak. Dirigen's lack of musical knowledge and technical ability will certainly have a profound impact on the quality of the choir he leads. Therefore this dedication team will improve the choir management ability in vocal material and the ability of conducting to all participants so as to minimize the technical difficulties found in the preparation and presentation of the choir. This community service activity is expected that members and conductors / choir leaders can utilize their knowledge and experience as professionals in the field of choir training among community members in general.

Abstract:

In 1641, the Congregational minister Thomas Goodwin delivered a series of sermons to his independent church in London, expounding the letter to the Ephesians in characteristically meticulous detail. Goodwin had recently returned to England after a brief but formative period of religious exile in the Netherlands, and as the Sundays passed, his auditors were surely moved by the oratory of a speaker so “blessed with a rich invention and a solid and exact judgment.” The minister's breadth was equally impressive. The sermons opened up a cornucopia of Christian themes, flowing from one topic to the next as Goodwin's capacious mind found stimulus in the scriptural text. Seemingly eager to follow every possible digression, application, and excursus, Goodwin's unhurried pace required thirty-six sermons simply to exhaust the epistle's first chapter. And yet, amid this abundance of subject matter, one issue in particular arrested Goodwin's attention. While delivering his thirty-fifth discourse on Ephesians, Goodwin paused to consider what he described as “the Great question of these times” and, alternatively, “the great Controversy of the times.” By the middle of 1641, Goodwin's world was experiencing an unprecedented upheaval—England had been invaded by Scottish covenanters, the archbishop of Canterbury had been arrested and imprisoned, and the king had been forced to call a parliament he would be unable to dissolve. Yet Goodwin's “great Controversy” turned not upon political or cultural convulsion but rather upon a seemingly obscure point of ecclesiastical polity, a question not often considered by modern historians and even less often fully appreciated: “the great Question of these times,” said Goodwin, was “whether yea or no . . . many congregations, many Churches united in one may not be called one particular Church.” What did this strangely worded question mean to Goodwin and his hearers, and why did the future president of Magdalen College and religious adviser to the Lord Protector deem this rather specific query the very hinge upon which the nation's future turned? To answer these questions, we must consider how the early modern English mind understood the idea of a “national church”—for though he does not explicitly invoke the term, it was, as we will see, a concept embedded at the very center of Goodwin's “great Controversy.”

Abstract:

Leonard Bacon, minister of the First Congregational Church at New Haven, preaching before the Foreign Evangelical Society in New York in May 1845, found in the Atlantic Ocean a vivid image of an underlying unity which he perceived in the divided evangelical churches that surrounded it. Separated though they were, still influences upon them operated like ‘the tide raised from the bosom of the vast Atlantic when the moon hangs over it in her height, [which] swells into every estuary, and every bay and sound, and every quiet cove and sheltered haven, and is felt far inland where mighty streams rise in their channels and pause upon their journey to the sea’. The choice of metaphor betrayed an aspiration that the North Atlantic itself should become an evangelical lake. Such hopes, Bacon appreciated, would be worse than fruitless if they were driven by a model of Christianity as ‘one and indivisible’. No, the model should be the American, not the French Republic, e pluribus unum, unity in diversity.

Abstract:

The Swedenborgian Church, also called the New Church, was established in South Africa among English-speaking settlers in 1850. It is based on the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). Swedenborg's "new" Christianity emphasizes, among other things, the internal meaning of the Bible, life after death, and the special spiritual qualities of black Africans. These field notes are based on a trip to South Africa in August 2000, and examine how the two primary types of Swedenborgian churches are adjusting to post-apartheid South Africa today. The English-speaking New Church is associated with the General Church of the New Jerusalem headquartered in the United States. Also affiliated with the General Church are a number of Zulu and Sotho congregations. The General Church has a hierarchical structure, a male priesthood, and primarily white leadership. One of the English-speaking societies has a school from preschool through eighth grade, and a Zulu-Sotho congregation sponsors a preschool. The New Church was established among black Africans independently from the General Church in 1909. Today that group is called the New Church of Southern Africa. It is congregationally structured, has a male priesthood, but a strong Women's League

Abstract:

Abstract Christian ministry amongst homeless people is often characterised by division between the ministry itself as social action by independent voluntary organisations, and congregational life. This is arguably the result of sociological forces, but is also compounded by the prevalence in mainline churches of ethically lacking popular versions of penal substitution that privatise spirituality. We argue that in addition to strengthening the ethical content of such teaching, it is important to offer alternative theological tools that challenge Christian self-understanding. Kenosis is just such a tool. In a brief historical sketch of biblical and theological approaches, we suggest that it is the ethical, narrative understanding of kenosis, rather than preoccupation with philosophically-orientated Christological debates about the locus of the apparent ‘emptying’ of divine attributes, that is central to understanding kenosis. What we label the necessary ethically kenotic dimension to salvation is then explored, an area in which we are influenced by current biblical scholarship on ‘justification’ in Paul by participationist-inclined scholars, particularly the work of Michael Gorman based on the Philippian hymn and his emphasis on justification by co-crucifixion. Kenosis as a ‘selfishness emptying’ that leads to co-resurrection is an integral and ongoing part of the soteriological process of theosis. Relating kenosis to soteriology in this way has implications for church work amongst homeless people, and we suggest that when also taking into account current social work research, churches receive an imperative to offer ministry that is community orientated, relational, self-giving and absorptive.

Abstract:

This case study reflects the congregational practices of members and staff within a congregation in the southwest of the United States which self-identifies as a congregation within the Christian tradition. The congregation has completed processes and procedures that resulted in the congregation self-identifying as a welcoming and affirming congregation to all people. A Master of Social Work intern was embedded for an academic year, as her field internship experience, in the congregation as part of the ministerial staff. The intern examined congregational and denominational processes that included difficult conversations, daily practices, and decisions with specific reference to LGBTQI+ issues as part of a national research study of Christian congregations determining inclusivity in their membership, governance, and leadership functions. The case study included participant-observation by the intern of the lived experiences of church leadership and members as a result of these conversations and decisions specific to the practices of a congregation with membership of approximately 700 people. Findings included a decision for affirmation and inclusion that resulted in the congregation being discharged from the denomination. There was significant impact on the ministry including the loss of membership and finances. Additionally, ministries of inclusion are enhanced as formerly marginalized populations are now central to the congregation.

Abstract:

The Black church in the United States has historically functioned as a bastion for civil rights; however, it may also be a source of pain and suffering for sexual minorities. To examine the influence of individual and congregational variables on attitudes toward same-sex sexuality in the Black church, we collected a sample of 219 participants from 15 randomly selected congregations. Results of three hierarchical linear models indicated that congregation- and individual-level variables emerged as equally important predictors of individuals’ attitudes toward same-sex sexuality. Individual-level religiousness and congregation-level education emerged as significant predictors of hom*onegativity. Our results suggest that congregations may play a role in enacting hom*onegative attitudes. We encourage counseling psychologists working with religious Black sexual minority clients to help clients consider characteristics of congregations (e.g., education) and individual religious practices (e.g., overzealous service attendance) that may signal hom*onegativity. We encourage further work examining the influence of congregational factors on congregants’ attitudes.

Abstract:

Imminent retirement: Pastors’ experience of their congregation, personal well-being and financesThe provisions of pastors to congregations is of great importance to the Dutch Reformed Church and its congregation. To retire is a complex process of transition affecting various aspects – among others psychological, spiritual and financial aspects. According to current estimates, more than half of the full-time pastors in the Dutch Reformed Church could retire within the next fifteen years. A quantitative online survey was conducted amongst pastors who will retire in the near future, their experience of their congregation, personal well-being and financial prospects before and during retirement was taken into account. For the first time research provides insight into what will happen in churches when a pastor retires. The information should provide valid conclusions and recommendations can be made regarding the demand for pastors (and students?) in order to plan for effective ministry within churches.