Congregational Heritage of the Massachusetts Conference

Early 1900s

Did You Know That...?

.....The FIRST FEMALE CONGREGATIONAL MINISTER to be ordained by a Congregational council in NEW ENGLAND was AMELIA ADELAIDE FROST? Amelia was ordained on February 14, 1894 at the Congregational church of LITTLETON. Amelia was initially ordained to serve as Assistant Pastor in the church, to help her husband, the Pastor, who was ill. After he returned from time away overseas, with no improvement in his health, Amelia was installed as Pastor of the church. Amelia served in that position for five years and was very well respected by her parishioners. As she prepared to leave them in 1900, they commended her highly, saying: "Her influence has been of the highest nature and we feel will remain with us..."

.....At the 1900 Annual Meeting of the General Association held at the FIRST CHURCH in AMHERST, it was reported, on the basis of a survey, that many Massachusetts Congregational clergy were now more interested in CHRISTIAN EDUCATION and NURTURE, than in securing conversion experiences? This signaled a significant and growing change in the Commonwealth's Congregationalism, which in the past had often stressed the importance of CONVERSION EXPERIENCES of GOD'S SAVING GRACE and the value of REVIVALS to help facilitate such experiences. By the 1640's, Congregational churches in the Massachusetts Bay Colony had taken the step--then innovative for Congregationalists--of requiring such a conversion experience for church membership. Down through the centuries, many Congregational churches in the Commonwealth had set up such an entrance requirement for their members. This was especially true of Congregational churches which were more Calvinistic and conservative in their faith understanding. It's been said that 1680, 1727, 1740, 1755, 1790, 1800, 1811, 1823, 1843, and 1858 were remarkable years for revivals in Massachusetts. In 1860, the General Conference of Congregational Churches in Massachusetts [which soon after merged with the General Association] created a "Committee on Home Evangelization" to "more thoroughly evangelize every portion of the Commonwealth." As this committee evolved, it encouraged local Conferences [Associations] of Congregational churches, to assist their own churches in sponsoring revivals. One result of this encouragement, was that in 1887 the MENDON CONFERENCE employed an EVANGELIST to conduct revivals in ten of its Conference churches, located in: NORFOLK, FRANKLIN, MANSFIELD, FOXBORO, MEDFIELD, WALPOLE, MEDWAY VILLAGE, WEST MEDWAY, MILFORD, and MILLIS. About 300 conversions were said to have come out of these revivals, including the conversions of a number of young men, which was celebrated. Horace Bushnell's stress on Christian nurture, Charles Darwin's "Theory of Evolution," "Higher Criticism" in biblical studies, the "Social Gospel" movement, and other factors then emerging, contributed to the dramatic decrease of interest in revivals and conversion experiences, which was now evident in 1900, among many of the Commonwealth's Congregational clergy.

.....Up to the turn of the 20th century it had long been the practice in Massachusetts [as well as throughout New England] for the MINISTERIAL STANDING of Congregational clergy to be held by local groups of Congregational clergy [known then as Associations], not by groups which represented the Congregational churches [then known as Conferences]? However, outside New England, ministerial standing was usually held by the local Congregational groups which represented the churches. In 1886, the National Council of Congregational Churches of the United States, meeting in Chicago, resolved that "Congregational ministerial standing should be lodged in our associations or conferences of churches." This resolution affirmed the practice outside New England, which many believed was more in keeping with the spirit of Congregationalism. In response to the National Council's call, the BROOKFIELD ASSOCIATION OF MINISTERS took a dramatic and unique step within Massachusetts Congregationalism. In 1888 they freely and completely transferred their "duty of certifying to the ministerial standing of Congregational ministers within our bounds" to the BROOKFIELD CONFERENCE OF CHURCHES--the local group representing their Congregational churches. A similar thing was done in this period, by the Congregational clergy groups in New Hampshire. Finally, at its 1901 Annual Meeting held in ANDOVER, the General Association of Congregational Churches of Massachusetts passed a resolution urging all Congregational ministerial Associations in the Commonwealth to make such a transfer. Some of these clergy groups made this transfer relatively quickly; a few held onto their ministerial standing responsibility for years, before finally transferring it.

.....In Massachusetts Congregationalism, our Conference used to be an "ASSOCIATION," and our Associations used to be "CONFERENCES"? This complete REVERSAL in NAMES came about, following the 1907 meeting of the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States, in Cleveland, Ohio. This national meeting called for the standardization of terminology in American Congregationalism--a sign of its growing "national consciousness." Up to this time, there was considerable variety in the names of Congregational bodies, from region to region. Thus, in 1910 our General Association changed its name to the Massachusetts Congregational Conference. And over time, all the local Conferences in Massachusetts took on the name "Association" [which they still use today], instead of "Conference."

.....Massachusetts Congregationalists were among the last to form a STATE CONFERENCE? Such conferences were legally incorporated bodies. They usually had a general superintendent and cared for all self-sustaining churches and missionary churches in their region. Congregationalists in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Michigan, Northern California, and Ohio were the first to form such state conferences. Beginning in 1900, efforts were made to bring the loosely organized General Association of the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts together with the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society. In 1906, members of the General Association were made voting members of the Missionary Society. In its work of aiding struggling Congregational churches in Massachusetts, the Missionary Society handled considerable amounts of money; it had long had its own Secretary. In 1925, the Society's Secretary was made an executive president and given the responsibility of protecting the denomination's religious interests in the Commonwealth, as well as representing the Commonwealth's Congregational churches, particularly in national Congregational circles. Finally, in May 1927 at the FIRST (OLD SOUTH) CHURCH in WORCESTER, both groups voted to merge under the charter of the Missionary Society. In 1928, the MASSACHUSETTS CONGREGATIONAL CONFERENCE and MISSIONARY SOCIETY was finally formed as a legal entity. At the time of this merger, the Missionary Society had $1.4 million in permanent funds, of which about $900,000 had come from the estate of JOSEPH M. and SUSAN F. STONE. The Stones apparently came to appreciate the Society's work, when their own church in NORTH ANDOVER received Society aid over the course of nine years.

.....The CRAIGVILLE CONFERENCE CENTER on Cape Cod, eventually came to be used by the Massachusetts Conference, partly as a result of the 1931 MERGER of Congregationalists with the CHRISTIAN DENOMINATION? The Christian Camp Meeting Association which oversees Craigville was first organized in 1872. At first, this campground was primarily used by members of the Christian Church denomination, which had some churches in Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. In 1960, the Massachusetts Conference gladly accepted that Association's offer to use Craigville. At the time of the 1931 merger, there were about 100,000 Christian church members and 900,000 Congregational church members. These two denominations had tried to merge before, but that effort was rejected in 1898, by members of the Christian denomination---particularly by those members outside New England.

.....The merger of the Congregational and Christian churches and their respective youth departments on the national level helped stimulate a strong youth movement, which came to be known as PILGRIM FELLOWSHIP? This movement's name was chosen in 1934; its statement of purpose was adopted in 1935. In 1936, Congregational young people attending the Christian Youth Conference in Lakeside, Ohio, organized the NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PILGRIM FELLOWSHIP. Soon afterwards, numerous Conferences, including the Massachusetts Conference, developed their own Pilgrim Fellowship departments. By April 1, 1938, about 40 church youth groups had enrolled in the Pilgrim Fellowship Department of the Massachusetts Conference. In some ways, Pilgrim Fellowship was an outgrowth of the international CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR youth movement, founded in 1881 by Congregational minister DR. FRANCIS E. CLARK in the Williston Congregational Church of Portland, Maine. In 1939 the NATIONAL EMBLEM of Pilgrim Fellowship was adopted. According to the March 1940 edition of the Conference's Pilgrim State News, that emblem, created by Willard Purchase of the Michigan State Pilgrim Fellowship, symbolizes the following: "Youth stands with the world in his hands, looking at the cross in the light of eternity, and influenced by the church, the home, the school and the factory. Around the central symbols is a circle of blue...[which] stands for the unbroken character of our Fellowship, and for the fact that we are Pilgrims in life, ever seeking to know God better and to serve Him more fully."

.....About 1936, the Trustees of the Massachusetts Congregational Conference created the position of WESTERN SECRETARY of the CONFERENCE? This position served about 180 churches in the four western counties of the Commonwealth. It was created to "bring the churches of Western Massachusetts into closer touch with the Conference and, particularly, to help undergird the work of aided churches." Rev. George Tuttle served for a decade, as the Conference's first western secretary. This position was the forerunner of today's ASSOCIATE CONFERENCE MINISTER of the WESTERN AREA of the MACUCC.

.....In May 1937, a bill was finally passed in the Massachusetts State Legislature to EXEMPT CHURCH PARSONAGES from STATE TAXATION, up to the amount of $5,000? Representative Fred Willis of SAUGUS was responsible for this bill. In October of that year, he presented both the bill and the quill pen used to sign it, to the Congregational church of CLIFTONDALE.

This page is copyrighted by Rev. Dr. Doug Showalter of Falmouth, who is writing a history of the Conference. You are welcome to use the information above in your personal study and church work, but duplication of the text on this page in any form for distribution requires the author's permission. Comments and corrections are welcomed. Look for updates of this page. You may contact Doug at dougshow@cape.com.

Page last updated December 20, 2002