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HomeMy WebLinkAbout431"CHRISTIAN ""The name Christian is not taken in any invidious or presumptive sense but merely as the most expressive, and most promotive of true fellowship and unity. We answer to the names ""The Christians"", ""The Christian Church"" and we are sometimes called ""The Christian Connection"", We are an entirely different body from the ""Christian Alliance"" and from ""The Disciples of Christ"" or the ""Church of Christ"" and came into existence before those bodies."" taken from Centennial of Religious Journalism (1808 - 1908) edited by Rev. J. Pressley Barrett D.D. Christian Publishing Association Dayton, Ohio. page 28. CHRISTIAN CHURCH HISTORY In 1794 James O'Kelly of Virginia, U.S.A. and his followers took the name Christian, they had left the Methodist Conference in 1792. O'Kelly had been greatly influenced by John Wesley of England. O'Kelly wrote that ""Wesley's writings magnified the Bible, and gave it preference and honor; he declared he regarded the authority of no writings but the inspired. He urged the sufficiency of the Scriptures for faith and practice saying, we will be downright Bible Christians"" Centennial of Religious Journalism page 19 About this time Abner Jones and his followers withdrew from a Baptist Church in Vermont. Barton Stone and his followers withdrew from the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky and Tennessee. These groups of men became aware of each other through the publications that Elias Smith had founded, The Christian Magazine in 1805 and the Herald of Gospel Liberty in 1808. The Christian Church which started in the eastern states, spread until it reached most of the U.S. states. In the summer of 1817 Mary and Solomon Stogdill left Greenville, New York State and came to Upper Canada settling in Newmarket. Mary had been baptized in the Christian Church and wanting a church of that denomination in the area, wrote many letters to the New York State urging preachers to come. Brother Allen Huntley of Porter, New York came to her door. Visiting her at that time was Darius Mann of Lake Simcoe who urged Brother Huntley to come, with him. Brother Huntley preached, baptized ten, and organized a church consisting of forty three members in the home of Darius Mann on the shores of Lake Simcoe, October 21, 1821. The first ordination - Brother Allen Huntley, - The first baptism, and the establishment of the first Christian Church in Canada took place on this date. This church became known as Keswick Christian Church, which is still worshipping today in Keswick, Ontario. On the 20th of November 1822 a church was formed in East Gwillimbury (Newmarket) which was the second Christian Church formed in Canada. On October 21, 1824 a church was formed in Whitchurch Markham now known as Ringwood. This church is still worshipping as a Christian Church in Ringwood. These and other newly formed Christian Churches met in September 1825 for the first Annual Christian Conference of Upper Canada which was held in Darlington, in their newly finished church. From these humble beginnings the Christian Church has progressed. In 1830 there were sixteen churches. On March 17, 1845 we were recognized as the ""CHRISTIAN"" denomination, and our ministers could now perform marriage ceremonies. " "2 In 1848 there were twenty four churches; in 1865 our constitution was revised; in 1867 there were nineteen churches. In 1870 we hosted the American Christian Conference at Oshawa. In 1877 we received our incorporation papers from the government of Canada and were now known as the ""CONFERENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN CANADA"". In 1885 there were thirty churches. In 1898 there were 25 churches with a membership of just over twelve hundred, also we hosted the American Conference this time at Newmarket. In 1925 there were twelve churches. Since then some of our Christian churches have withdrawn to become Baptist or Associated Gospel; some have also joined with the United Church, taking with them valuable property. Some churches ceased because of lack of members. The Christian Church in Canada is not now, nor has it ever been part of the ""Congregational"" denomination. The ""Congregational"" denomination in Canada ceased in 1925 when it joined with other denominations to form the United Church of Canada. In 1933 the Christian Church began to use the word congregational in order to differentiate its form of government from other churches.. When the word congregational is used in reference to the Christian denomination it is used descriptively, referring to the method in which the churches are governed. In 1965 we became affiliated with the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference of Churches in the United States. On July 18, 1968 the word ""Congregational"" was legally added. The number of Christian churches in Canada had dropped to five in the 1970's. We were privileged to host the American Conservative Congregational Christian Conference in 1980 at Waterloo University, the first such joint conference since 1898 when it was hosted by the Christian Church in Newmarket, Ontario. In 1988 two new churches joined our Christian Conference. The Congregational Mission Church of Kingston in Kingston, Ontario and the St. Lawrence Community Church in Lansdowne, Ontario. In 1989 many like minded people from independent churches as well as those who had left the United Church of Canada, joined with us at York University in Toronto to celebrate our 164th Annual Christian Conference. Our name was registered as the CONGREGATIONAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN CANADA. In March 1990 the total churches in our Conference across Canada is sixty two. In July 1991 we will host the American Conservative Congregational Christian Conference this time in London, Ontario. OUR CHRISTIAN NAME ""Indeed the name itself was not taken for the sake of separation but for the purpose of identification. They held that the object of a name was not so much to distinguish one Christian from another, as to distinguish the real character of every one in contradiction from the unbelieving world. Human names would do the former, but only the divine name would do the latter. In their Guide book (the Bible) they found no such names as Presbyterian, Methodists, Roman Catholic, Shakers, Episcopalian, Congregational. Quakers, Reformers, Baptists, Tunker, Unitarian, Trinitarian, Universalist, Mennonite, Swedenborgian, Holy Rollers, or any other one of a long list of human names now given to the multiplied parties of Christiandom"" " "3 ""In their Guide Book they did find that the followers of Christ were called disciples, believers, brethren, saints, children, but they also found that each of these names set forth some particular trait or relation: as believers showed their faith: saints showed their holiness, disciples showed them to be learners, children showed them to be related to their infinite Father. And they found the word Christian embraced all these and therefore they discarded all human names, that they might be known as Christian only, not the only Christian, but Christian only."" ""Although the Christians have never been dogmatic in their teaching, they are yet quite uniform in doctrine, and have for all their years grouped their teaching and practice around the following named principles."" THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 1. Jesus Christ the sole Head of the Church. 2. Christian the only name. 3. The Divinely inspired Scriptures otherwise known as the Bible, the sole rule of faith and practice. 4. The privilege and duty of each member to interpret, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Bible for himself. 5. Christian character - that is the experience of the new birth in Christ expressing itself in daily living - the sole test of fellowship. 6. The unity of all believers our aim, as a witness to Christ's Atonement for sin, to the end that all may be saved by faith in Him. ""Summerbell said;"" ""It is the representative Church of the Christian World: its name needs no changing, its creed needs no mending, its fellowship needs no extending; its charity needs no expanding: we ask not for union, for we are on our part in union with all; nor for fellowship, for we on our part in fellowship with all; and though we cannot go to them, we know they will come to us, for we hold to the only form of religion which will pass into Heaven."" John Franklin Burnett Christian Vanguard June 11, 1921 pages 13, 14 In essentials Unity In non essentials Liberty In all things Charity The CHRISTIAN Church is the name of our denomination, congregational is only an adjective to describe our type of church government. " "4 STATEMENT OF FAITH 1. WE BELIEVE that the Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testament, is the only divinely inspired and infallible revelation of God. It is our only guide and final authority in matters pertaining to faith and life. 2. WE BELIEVE that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 3. WE BELIEVE in the diety of the Lord Jesus Christ, His conception by the Holy Ghost, His birth of the Virgin Mary, His real but sinless humanity, His voluntary humiliation in life as a Man of Sorrows culmination in His substitutionary and atoning death as a sacrifice for sin, His bodily resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven as the only eternal mediator between God and man and His coming again in power and glory. 4. WE BELIEVE in the personality and diety of the Holy Spirit through whom man is born again to saving repentance and and faith, and by whom the saints are sanctified and enabled to live a godly life. 5. WE BELIEVE that the salvation of man is solely by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, that the saved partake of eternal life now and will share in that glorious resurrection which to come. 6. WE BELIEVE that man in consequence of the fall is utterly sinful and therefore lost, and the unsaved will be raised for final judgement. 7. WE BELIEVE in the spiritual unity of all who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is. the only holy universal church, which is the body of Christ. Compiled by Udelle V. Wood 416-640-3457 4129 Front St. Box 5 Goodwood Ontario LOC 1A0 Stouffville Christian Church Historian "