American Church?

Prayers for the union of all the Presbyterian and Reformed organizations in the land (TIME, Feb. 10; June 9) were answered at Pittsburgh last week. Representatives of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (Northern), Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (Southern), United Presbyterian Church of North America, Reformed Church in America (Dutch), and Reformed Church in the U. S. (German) agreed on the principles of such union. The five bodies will each vote on the matter at their next general assemblies and synods.

Under chairmanship of Dr. William James Reid Jr. of Pittsburgh, a United Presbyterian, the delegates urged a unified theology based on their several standards -the Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter catechism, doctrinal statement of the U. P. Church, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of the Synod of Dort and the Belgic Confession.

The new Church's goal would be "the establishment of the Kingdom of God in all the Earth." It would shun "all political alliances and entanglements and other associations that would tend to lower its spiritual tone and to subtract from its spiritual power."

Simple are the merging of educational and missionary equipment. Not so simple is the merging of church organizations. The Pittsburgh conferees urged time and latitude for this process. The Presbyterian subsidiaries of the new Church might retain their "sessions," the Reformed subsidiaries their "consistories." Consistories and sessions differ more in name than in function. Presbyteries or "classes" (larger groupings which include sessions and consistories, respectively) in a particular region need merge organization, equipment and endowment only if they wish.

A remaining impediment to the union, more ethical than actual, is the merger negotiations which the Reformed Church in the U. S. has been conducting with the Evangelical Synod of North America. Those negotiations might be dropped, as similar Reformed dealings with the United Brethren in Christ have been dropped, or, what seemed more likely last week, the United Brethren and the Evangelicals might be assimilated into the Presbyterian-Reformed association.

Greatest question of all, of course-for the wealth of these five or seven churches is vast-is: Who shall manage the new, unified Church, and how? A special committee will try to have an acceptable answer ready by next spring.

Name of the amalgamated Church is another undecided problem. There are two existing bodies whose unwieldy names might be adopted or simplified-"Alliance of Reformed Churches Throughout the World Holding the Presbyterian System," and "The General Council of the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches in America." But pat, handy, attractive was a name suggested last week: the American Church, a term not yet appropriated by any worshipping band.

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