Congregational Heritage of the Massachusetts Conference

The 1800s

Did You Know That...?

......DR. NATHANAEL EMMONS (1745-1840), a key founder and longtime first President of the MASSACHUSETTS MISSIONARY SOCIETY held that Congregational churches should be PURE DEMOCRACIES, in which all members have an equal vote in church matters? This contrasted with the aristocratic views of many earlier Congregationalists--particularly in the 1600's--who believed that important church decisions should be left to a church's clergy and officers. Emmons was a very influential Hopkinsian Calvinist, who trained upwards of one hundred Congregational clergy in his home, during his more than fifty years at the Congregational church in FRANKLIN. Emmons was so protective of local church autonomy, that he adamantly opposed the formation of any state-wide clergy groups. Ironically, he refused to join the newly created General Association of Massachusetts Proper, claiming that: "Associationism leads to Consociationism; Consociationism leads to Presbyterianism; Presbyterianism leads to Episcopacy; Episcopacy leads to Roman Catholicism; and Roman Catholicism is an ultimate fact." Deferring to Emmons' unbending view on this, his local MENDON Association of Congregational clergy, patiently waited until after Emmons' death, before they joined the General Association of Massachusetts. By then, the General Association was almost four decades old!

.....The older brother of NATHAN HALE, the Revolutionary War hero, was a very important figure in the early years of the General Association of Massachusetts Proper? Nathan and his older [by one year] brother, Enoch, entered Yale College together. Nathan became a teacher, then a soldier during the war, and was hanged by the British as a spy. Enoch became a Congregational minister, serving the Congregational church at WESTHAMPTON. For twenty years (!), from 1804 to 1824, REV. ENOCH HALE served as the General Association's first Secretary--at that time, the Association's key leadership position and only position, to be served continuously by the same person.

......In 1810, BEVERLY was the site of the FIRST SABBATH SCHOOL held in MASSACHUSETTS? This school was held in the home "on the corner of Davis and Front streets," owned by a Mrs. Prince. The school met both Sunday mornings and after Sunday afternoon church services. Mrs. Prince's daughter, Joanna, and Hannah Hill were the young Congregational women who taught this class. Their class contained about thirty scholars who read and recited scripture. Typical of early Congregationalism, the Westminister Assembly's Shorter Catechism was a primary text used in their religious instruction.This school is said to have moved into Beverly's DANE STREET CHURCH meeting house about 1819. On September 5, 1860, this Sabbath School celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. By 1817, a number of Massachusetts Congregational churches began to have sabbath schools associated with them. Initially, some church families were not in favor of such schools, because they met on the sabbath--the day set aside for rest.

.....At the 1821 ordination of Dr. Benjamin Wisner at the OLD SOUTH CHURCH in Boston, about 31% of the $463 cost of entertaining guests--including the lodging of clergy--was spent on WINE and SPIRITS? Such use of alcohol was generally acceptable at the time. However, within a few short years a dramatic shift toward TEMPERANCE took place in the thinking of many Massachusetts Congregationalists. In 1827, the recently formed SUFFOLK SOUTH CONFERENCE OF CHURCHES, of which Old South Church was a member, called upon its clergy and delegates to inform their churches of the DUTY of ABSTAINING from the use of intoxicating liquors. From this time on, the abuse of alcohol became a primary concern of many Congregationalists, including those in Massachusetts.

.....At an 1836 meeting, the WOBURN ASSOCIATION of Congregational ministers debated this question: "Has the majority of the church a right to change or alter any CREED or COVENANT on which the church was constituted?"? The following year, 1837, this Association debated the question: Is there anything in Scripture to sanction the conferring or the receiving of the TITLE of DOCTOR of DIVINITY? By 1883, the Association's concern turned to this question for debate: "Is there any PROBATION after the present life?"

.....In 1842, a local Association of Massachusetts Congregational ministers, sought to SILENCE their colleagues in the General Association of Massachusetts on the subject of SLAVERY? By unanimous vote, that local clergy group maintained that "slavery is not a subject which comes within the cognizance of the General Association, that all action of the Association tends only to evil among ourselves as well as among our brethren at the South." At their annual meeting the following year in SUNDERLAND, the General Association rejected that view, saying: "...instead of silence or inaction, on the subject of American Slavery, we deem it our duty and privilege as ministers and christians (sic), to speak freely, openly, with earnestness and in kindness, and to act in the same spirit, for the relief of our oppressed and suffering countrymen and christian brethren." At that same meeting, the General Association also expressed its "ardent desire" that clergy and churches everywhere "...will put forth every appropriate christian effort to effect the termination of slavery in all lands."

.....The Conference's CHURCH OF THE PILGRIMAGE in PLYMOUTH initiated a chain of events which led to the creation of the NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES OF THE UNITED STATES in 1871? Compared to some other denominations, Congregationalism was slow to develop a national consciousness in America. This National Council and its triennial meetings was the first continuing body on the national level, to represent American Congregationalism as a whole. It was a forerunner of our modern United Church of Christ and its biannual General Synod meetings. Anticipating the 250th anniversary of the landing of the "Mayflower" at Plymouth, the Church of the Pilgrimage invited Congregational church representatives to a March 1870 meeting in New York, to discuss suitable ways to celebrate that special anniversary. That meeting led to an April 1870 "Pilgrim Memorial Convention" in Chicago, for Congregational church representatives. That Convention called for the creation of a permanent National Council. Thereupon, the General Association of Ohio brought committees representating Congregationalism's state organizations together for a December 1870 meeting in Boston. Deciding that the churches really wanted a National Council, this Boston assembly arranged for its creation. They scheduled the Council's first meeting for November 15, 1871 in Oberlin, Ohio. They also set up a special committee to propose a constitution for this new Council. This committee was chaired by REV. DR. ALONZO QUINT, a highly respected Congregational minister serving in NEW BEDFORD. As it happened, 276 delegates from 25 U.S. states and territories attended this historic, first National Council meeting in Oberlin.

.....In 1876 and 1878, at its annual meetings in LOWELL and FALL RIVER, respectively, the General Association of the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts, recommended that all Congregational churches in the Commonwealth use only the UNFERMENTED JUICE of the GRAPE at the communion table? This was part of the Association's efforts to encourage temperance. In 1882, German scientist, Robert Koch discovered the microbe which caused tuberculosis, giving support to the idea that diseases are caused by germs. Coupled together, these developments soon led Congregational churches in Massachusetts and elsewhere to begin using small, INDIVIDUAL COMMUNION CUPS--for sanitary reasons. Prior to this, Congregationalists often used common cups in this sacrament.

.....Our Conference's ARMENIAN CHURCH of the MARTYRS in WORCESTER, gathered in 1892, is said to be the OLDEST ARMENIAN CHURCH in AMERICA? From this congregation, Armenian Protestantism eventually spread to other Massachusetts communities, such as LAWRENCE and CAMBRIDGE, and beyond. Many of the churches in this movement identified themselves with Congregationalism. The movement is said to have begun in a prayer meeting in the Worcester home of a young Armenian man named Yazijian. He was in the first group of Armenians brought over to America about 1881, to work for Worcester's American Steel and Wire Company.

This page is copyrighted by Rev. Dr. Doug Showalter of Falmouth, who is writing a history of the Conference. You are welcome to use the information above in your personal study and church work, but duplication of the text on this page in any form for distribution requires the author's permission. Comments and corrections are welcomed. Look for updates of this page. You may contact Doug at dougshow@cape.com.

Page last updated December 20, 2002