A DIRECTORY of STATE and LOCAL FEDERATIONS in the UNITED STATES COMPILED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMISSION ON STATE AND LOCAL FEDERATIONS and THE COMMISSION ON FEDERATED MOVEMENTS 19 14 Reprint September, 1915 Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America 105 East Twenty-second St. New York V \ I. / \ \ Y i % COMMISSION ON STATE AND LOCAL FEDERATIONS. Rev. Alfred Williams Anthony, Chairman. Lewiston, Maine. Members of The Commission. Rev. Clair E. Ames. Rev. A. W. Anthony. Rev. E. C. Dixon. Rev. Edward C. Fellowes. Rev. Walter Laidlaw. Rev. George Logie. A. W. McAlister.. Rev. W. H. Mathews. Prof. William North Rice Rev. E. T. Root. Rev. Edwin P. Ryland Paul Super. Pres. John M. Thomas. ... *Rev. F. P. Wigton. Rev. E. R. Wright. ..St. Louis, Mo. .Lewiston, Me. .Madison, Wis. .Buffalo, N. Y. . .. .New York City .. . Phoenix, Arizona .. Greensboro, N C. Grand Forks, N. D. .. Middletown, Conn. .Boston, Mass. ... Los Angeles, Cal. . .Honolulu, Hawaii .Middlebury, Vt. .Lincoln, Neb. .Cleveland, O. ^Deceased. COMMISSION ON FEDERATED MOVEMENTS. Rev. Roy B. Guild, Exec. Sec., 105 E. 22nd Street, New York City. / PREFACE. This Directory of Federations is the first ever published. Subsequent editions may be made more comprehensive and more perfect. Definitions. At the outset it was needful to fix upon cer¬ tain definitions in accordance with which organi¬ zations should be, or should not be, included in the list. The following definitions have been in mind:— (1) A State Federation is an inter-denomina¬ tional body, the members of which are elected, or otherwise officially appointed, as representa¬ tives of the denominational organizations within a state. Emphasis is here placed upon the official and denominational character of the membership. A voluntary organization, composed of persons who assemble on their own initiative, is not a federation, even though those persons should all be officials of different denominations. It is needful that the denominational organisations by some act of their own create, or authorize, their representation. (2) A Local Federation is an inter-denomina¬ tional body the members of which are ejected by the membership of several local churches, or are appointed by Committees or Officials of these respective churches, duly authorized, as repre¬ sentatives of the entire church. In this case the entire church is emphasized. A combination of Men’s Clubs may be called a Federation, and may exercise the functions of a federation; but it should not properly be included in the list of church federations. The church in¬ cludes male and female, young and old; and any organization, or union of organizations, the membership of which is limited, as to sex, or age, or special function, narrower than that of the entire church, is not included in the list of feder¬ ations. They are partial federations. At a later time it may be desirable to assemble and publish 5 the names of such bodies. A few are now given in the Appendix of this Directory. (3) Local Churches, under the spirit of feder¬ ation, have now taken on four distinct forms:— a. The Denominational Church. Because of its connection, through its denominational organizations, with world-wide tasks of evangelization, this church alone fully meets the New Testament ideal of a church equip¬ ped to carry out the Master’s plan of preach¬ ing the Gospel to every creature. b. The Multi-Denominational Church, or The Federated Church. This is a church in which two or more denominational churches, without sacrificing their separate existence and denominational connections, unite for the maintenance of common worship in one congregation with one pastor, and in the maintenance of other church services and affiliated societies. ,, c. The Inter-Denominational Church, or The Church of Federated Christians. This is composed of individuals united for local church purposes who do not sever their membership in denominational churches else¬ where, but maintain a dual church member¬ ship. d. The Undenominational Church, com¬ monly known as The Union Church. This is purely a local church, sustaining no de¬ nominational connection itself, the members of which also are without denominational connection. Number of Federations. This Directory contains the names of one hun¬ dred and thirty-four federations, twenty-one .of which .are State Federations; ninety-seven, City Federations; and sixteen are County Federations. Massachusetts has more federations than any other state, twenty-five in number, including the State Federation. New Jersey has six city fed¬ erations and seven county federations. Pennsyl¬ vania reports six city federations and six county 6 federations. New York has a state federation, eight city federations, and one county federation. California and Ohio are next in order each re¬ porting six city federations and a state federa¬ tion. One federation is here listed in the city of Honolulu, Hawaii. Thirty-three of the forty- eight states of the Union, or two-thirds, have federations within their borders, and at least five other states have federations in process of for¬ mation. Dates of Organization. The oldest federation is the Christian League of Methuen, Massachusetts, dating from 1887. The oldest state federation is the Interdenomina¬ tional Commission of Maine, initiated in 1890. Of one hundred and seventeen federations which give the date of their organization, ninety-six, or 82%, were organized in the years 1909 to 1913, the five years immediately following the organiza¬ tion of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. In the year 1912 thirty-five federations were organized, twenty-one are dated 1913, nineteen in 1911, eleven in 1910, and nine in 1909. One is included which was organized in January, 1914. Names. A great variety of names appears in the list. League occurs twice, Union twice, Association once, Commission three times, Council seventeen times and Federation one hundred and one times, while seven times the simple, word “churches” is used preceded by a qualifying ad¬ jective such as Federated, as “The Federated Churches of— -”. The following adjectives and nouns used as adjectives, are employed:— Comity, social service, general, protestant, united, provisional state, civic and cooperative once each;. Christian three times; the qualifying phrase “of churches and Christian workers three times; and “and religious organizations” three times; “of churches” is used fifty-two . times; “church,” qualifying some other noun, is used 7 twenty-two times; “inter-church” occurs thirty- eight times; “inter-denominational” four times; and “federated” ten times. The adjective and noun of most frequent occurrence, therefore, are, “Inter-church” and Federation.” Denominations Federated. Denominations appear in the following number of federations:— Number of Dif- Denominations ferent Federations Methodist Episcopal Church, North.... 117 Baptist Churches, North.. 113 Congregational Churches .. 98 Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. (North) .. 90 Protestant Episcopal Church. 71 Christian Church .. 52 Lutheran Church, General Synod. 44 United Presbyterian Church.. 42 United Brethren Church. 37 Disciples of Christ..... 30 Evangelical Association . 27 Friends ....\ 25 African. Methodist Episcopal Church... 20 Methodist Protestant Church. 20 Methodist Episcopal Church (South)... 18 Free Baptist Churches. 16 Reformed Church in America. 16 Reformed Church in the U. S. 16 German Evangelical Synod. 15 African Methodist Episcopal Church (Zion) .. 14 National Baptist Convention (Colored). 10 Primitive Methodist Church. 10 Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (South) 9 Reformed Episcopal Church. 9 Welsh Presbyterian Church. 9 Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod . ....?, . 7 Moravian Church . 5 Seventh Day Baptist Churches. 5 Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America . 2 Mennonite Church . 1 8 All of the above named churches are national, denominational organizations, or related to them, which are constituent bodies of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. The following bodies, not members of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, and in many instances not eccclesiasti- cal organizations, are represented in various federations as follows:— Number of Different Bodies Federations Unitarian Churches . 24 Universalist Churches .. 20 The Young Men’s Christian Association 15 The Salvation Army. 11 Advent Christian Churches. 9 Swedenborgian Churches . 6 Swedish Lutheran Churches. 4 “Pentecostal” .... . 4 Norwegian & Danish Lutheran Churches 3 English Lutheran Church. 2 Volunteers of America. 2 “Dunkards” . 2 Church of the Brethren. 2 Roman Catholic . 2 Young Women’s Christian Association. 2 German Methodist Episcopal Church... 2 Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church... 2 “Nazarene” . 2 Anti-Saloon League . 2 “Union” Church . 2 Free Methodist Church. 1 Welsh Calvanistic . 1 Cumberland Presbyterian . 1 Calvinistic Methodist . 1 “Holiness” ... 1 Catholic Apostolic . 1 Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.. 1 Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church.. 1 United Norwegian Lutheran Church.... 1 Greek Orthodox . • Lutheran Missouri . '.... 1 Protestant Methodist . 1 Norwegian & Danish Methodist Epis¬ copal . 1 9 “First Brethren” .. “Gospel Tabernacle” ... “Swedish Tabernacle” .. Federation Club ..*. State Sunday School Association Bible Institute .. • “Olivet Memorial” . “Federated Church” . Charity Organization Society.... Lutheran General Council. Lutheran Synodical Council. Lutheran Slovak Synod. Rescue Mission . Jews (in an advisory relation)... 1 1 1 1 ■ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Undoubtedly an injustice is done in this list to the Disciples of Christ, as they are not dis¬ tinguished in many sections of the country from the Christian Connection. Probably their num¬ ber should be larger, and that of the Christian Church smaller. These figures represent the returns. Dormant, or Defunct Federations. In several instances the federations in this list are reported as inactive. Their names have been included if they still have a Secretary, or other officer, who answers correspondence. The history of federations, thus far made, in¬ dicates that failure, where failure has occurred, has been due to one or more of the following causes:— (1) Original organization by outside appeal without local responsibility and leadership. (2) Imitation of an ideal organization, with numerous committees, successful in some other place, but not adapted to the local community; (3) The adoption of a plan too elaborate and of objects too numerous for the numbers and resources available; (4) An effort to absorb or supplant organiza¬ tions and agencies already usefully active; (5) A too heavy budget of expense; This Directory of Federations makes it plain that an effort at Standardization is futile. There 10 / need be uniformity neither in name, membership, objects sought, nor results actually accom¬ plished. There is no such uniformity. Classification. , The list of Federations is arranged alphabeti¬ cally by states; and city and county federations are arranged alphabetically after the state fed¬ eration. In each case the following facts are given:—the name of the place, the name of the Federation, the name of the Secretary and ad¬ dress, date of organization, denominations in¬ cluded in the membership, the number of churches and denominations represented, other bodies which may be included, the objects of the organization, and the work reported as al¬ ready done. Both the objects and the work done are re¬ ported in a somewhat formal and stereotyped manner, due to the fact that the^ Questionaire, which elicited the information, presented sug¬ gestive clauses which in many cases were simply checked up, without fuller statement. It must be borne in mind that these federations are but the formally organized federations in states, counties and cities of more than twenty-five thousand population, save in a few cases where federations are well-known in smaller communi¬ ties. This list does not touch at all the large number of local federated churches and combin¬ ations of churches of villages and rural districts. The arduous work of gathering these statistics has been done with patience and earnest effort for accuracy and completeness, by the Clerk of the Commission, Rev. Edward M. McConoughey. Doubtless a considerable number of federations are not included because their officers have neg¬ lected to respond to repeated requests for the necessary information. « / • • > Alfred Williams Anthony, Chairman of the Commission on State and Local Federations. ll ALABAMA. No State Federation. Mobile: —The Church Federation of Mobile, May, 1912. H. A. Lockwood, 10 Water St. Baptist, Christian, Methodist Episcopal (South), Presbyterian in the U. S. (South'), Protestant Episcopal. 18 churches; 5 denominations. Object: Denominational cooperation for community uplift. Work done: Cooperation among churches, recommendation of denominational enter¬ prises, promotion of public health, civic righteousness, Sabbath observance, extension Bible classes, teacher training, education in sex hygiene, training in citizenship. ARIZONA. Arizona: —Inter-Church Federation of Arizona, October 11, 1910. Rev. Geo. Logie, Box 291, Phoenix. Baptist, Congregationalist, Methodist Epis¬ copal, Methodist Episcopal (South), Presby¬ terian in the U. S. A., Protestant Episcopal (Cooperates, but is not formally in mem¬ bership). 125. churches; 5 denominations. Object: A real cooperation of denomina¬ tions and promotion of fellowship. Work done: Cooperation among churches, consolidation of churches, pastoral supply and supervision of weak churches, district¬ ing for church responsibility, reciprocal ex¬ changes between denominations. CALIFORNIA. California: —California State Church Federa¬ tion, February, 1913. Rev. E. Guy Talbott, Y.M.C.A., Sacramento. 12 Baptist, Christian, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal (South), Presbyterian in the U. S. A., United Brethren, United Presbyterian. Number of churches not known; 9 denomi¬ nations. A provisional organization, to be followed by a permanent organization. Work already done; civic righteousness, training in citizenship, prevention of vice, legislation. CALIFORNIA. Berkeley: —Berkeley Federation of Churches and Christian Workers, 1902. Rev. Richard White, 2683 Orange Ave. Baptist, Christian, Congregationalist, Friends, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal (South), Presbyterian in U. S. A., Protestant Episcopal, Unitarian. 25 churches; 9 denominations. Y. M. C. A. Object: The cooperation of denominations, and emphasis upon Christian Unity above de¬ nominational lines. Work done: Cooperation among churches, districting for church responsibility, recom¬ mendation of denominational enterprises: civic righteousness, Sabbath observance. CALIFORNIA. Los Angeles: —Church Federation of Los An¬ geles, October 23, 1905. F. D. R. Moote, 1101 Wright & Callendar Building. Baptist, Christian, Congregational, Friends, Evangelical Association, Lutheran General Synod, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Epis¬ copal (South), Holiness, Presbyterian in the U. S. A., Protestant Episcopal, Reformed Presbyterian, United Brethren, United Pres¬ byterian, Welsh Presbyterian, German Metho¬ dist Episcopal, Free Methodist, Norwegian aad Danish Methodist Episcopal, Swedish 13 Methodist Episcopal, First Brethren, Gospel Tabernacle, Swedish Tabernacle, Swedish Lutheran, Norwegian and Danish Lutheran, Advent, Nazarene, Dunkers. 208 churches; 27 denominations. Y. M. C. A., Federation Club, State S.S. As¬ sociation, Bible Institute, Anti-Saloon League, Salvation Army, Volunteers of America. Object: Cooperation for moral and civic betterment. Work done: Cooperation and consolidation of churches, readjustment of religious forces in accordance with changes in population, in¬ vestigation and recommendation of denomina¬ tional enterprises, reciprocal excha'nges be¬ tween denominations, juvenile protection, civic righteousness, Sabbath observance, pre¬ vention of vice, legislation betterment of working conditions, adjustment of relations between labor and capital, protection of women and child workers, removal of mis¬ conceptions of church and industry, wider use of church equipment. CALIFORNIA. Oakland:—Oakland Church Federation, March 1908. John Fechter, Y. M. C. A., Box 756. Baptist, Christian, Congregationalist, Friends, Lutheran General Synod, Metho¬ dist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal (South), Presbyterian in the U. S. A., Protestant Episcopal, United Brethren, United Presby¬ terian, Welsh Presbyterian. 26 churches; 12 denominations. Object: Fellowship, moral and civic better¬ ment, evangelism and cooperation between denominations. Work done: Cooperation among churches, districting for church responsibility, recipro¬ cal exchanges between denominations, civic righteousness, Sabbath observance, extension Bible classes, teacher training, public recrea¬ tion, prevention of vice, legislation, adjust¬ ment of relations between labor and capital. 14 CALIFORNIA. Palo Alto: —Inter-Church Federation of Palo Alto, May 20, 1912. Rev. Lewis A. Pier, 602 Cowper Street. Baptist, Christian (Disciples of Christ), Congregational, Methodist Episcopal, Pres¬ byterian in the U. S. A., Protestant Episcopal. 7 churches; 6 denominations. Object: Fellowship, moral and civic better¬ ment, evangelism, and co-operation between denominations. Work done: Cooperation among churches, civic righteousness, and removal of miscon¬ ceptions of church and industry. CALIFORNIA. Riverside:— The Riverside Church Federation, October 18, 1909. Mrs. A. J. L. Irwin, 657 Lemon St., Riverside Cal. Baptist, National Baptist (colored), Chris¬ tian, Congregational, English Lutheran, Methodist Episcopal, African M. E., Pres¬ byterian in the U. S. A., Seventh Day Bap¬ tist, United Brethren, and United Presby¬ terian. 17 churches; 14 denominations. Object: “Its object shall be the concen¬ tration of the religious forces of the city on questions of public morality and to pro¬ mote church fellowship and inter-church activity in Riverside.” Moral and civic bet¬ terment, and 'evangelism. Work done: Cooperation among churches, reciprocal exchanges between denominations (union services in July and August, pastors alternating as preachers), civic righteousness, Sabbath observance, public recreation, legis¬ lation (for Sunday closing of pool-rooms), adjustment of relations between labor and capital, removal of misconceptions of church and industry. 15 CALIFORNIA. Sacramento:—Sacramento Church Federation, March 1, 1914. Rev. E. Guy Talbott, Care Room 208 of ^ Y. M. C. A. See Appendix, pages 9, 7, 4. CALIFORNIA. San Francisco:— \ I \ r . / \ \ 9 \ For Further Information or for Literature, Communicate with Rev. ROY B. GUILD, Executive Secretary 105 East 22nd Street, New York City L 59 A I