CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 88, 13 March 1934, Page 6

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.

The Congregational Church has its roots firmly implanted in the British Empire. It is one of the most important of the Free Churches 'in the United Kingdom, and in the United States it occupies ah important position among the Protestant non-Epis-copal Churches. The principles of Congregationalism had a very gradual development in their original home in England. The movement was a separatist one from the Church as under the supreme headship of the Crown. In the middle of the sixteenth century secret congregations met to give voice to their principles, and as the years passed the meetings grew in number. But the birth of such principles was fraught with great difficulty, persecution, and martyrdom. Robert Browne, the most arresting figure in the movement, at last was compelled, together with those members of his congregation who were able to do so, to emigrate to Zeeland in Holland. Toleration was granted them there, but the community suffered from domestic differences which at last. caused its dispersal. Persecution inEngland, it is recorded, gave them extra strength, and during the Civil War the Independents, as they began to be called, grew and established themselves widely and firmly. Cromwell was a follower and supporter of them, especially in their political views, and the Protectorate saw them firmly established. So developed a Church whose history, as Rev. Mr Heighway stated last week, is woven into the textui'e of English life, and for whose birth and principles men died, men “we still honour who, in the face of armed civil power, remained unswervingly true, faithful to their consciences, and went forward against hatred,, ridicule, and antagonism.” _ To-day the Congregational Union in the Mother Country is one of the principal members of the Free Church Federation established towards the close of last century. It takes a deep and sympathetic interest in home and foreign missions and is in the forefront of social betterment. Its _ churches and mission stations in Great Britain number in round figures 5000, and in the Dominions there are more than 1000 churches. The Congregational Church in New Zealand, whose Union is now at the close of its annual assembly in Palmerston North, rejoices in the depth and richness of its religious work, in the zeal for social welfare, and in the .many organisations associated with it at home and abroad. Its ministry is notable for its deep thinking and scholarly membership, men eminently fitted for the . divine calling they have made their own. It has been a privilege for the city to welcome the assembly, and its conclusion wall be associated with the wish that the Church will benefit richly from the delegates’ deliberations.