The Formation of the Social Policy of the Federal Council of Churches

Abstract

The Federal Council of Churches was a new phenomenon in American church history. The main stream of Protestantism in America in the nineteenth century ran to division. There was, of course, a counter-current but its intensity varied greatly. It was strong in the early part of the century in the formation of groups like the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and the American Bible Society. It was weak in the years just prior to the Civil War. It gained new momentum in 1867 with the establishment of the American branch of the Evangelical Alliance, again in 1895 with the organization of the Federation of Churches and Christian Workers of New York City, and still again in 1901 with the founding of the National Federation of Churches and Christian Workers. These impulses toward unity did not represent denominational interests directly but were groups of individuals, individual churches, and local church fed erations. The primary limitation of these groups and the source of crisis for most of them, except for those with a single function such as the American Bible Society, was a limitation of power. The men who organized the Federal Council were aware of the need to provide the new federation with power. They believed that it had to be able both to initiate and to effect cooperation among the churches. If it failed to do this, it would fail to make any advance toward genuine church cooperation over the several co operative groups which already existed. As a consequence, the men who organized the Council worked to make it a federation of the official denominational units, hoping thus to give it direct access to the very centers of ecclesiastical authority. The key to the way they accomplished this was their decision to orient