RAMANAM
In the Name of The Father, and of The Son and of The Holy Spirit, Amen.

Countrymen,

A close friend recently removed themselves from the membership roles of the United Church of Christ. I responded with several notes over a period of days, as follows:

First:

Thanks, and I a UCC ordinand and ECUSA member! Well, at least I knew when to stop participating — UCC in 1973 (ordination in 1970) and ECUSA in 2002 (confirmed in 1976 when it was a traditional denomination).

As you probably know, UCC and ECUSA both derive from the Church of England.

Plymouth folks, the original Congregationalists, were not Puritans, they were Separatists, the difference being those who stayed in the Church of England (Puritans, until late) and Separatists (who separated early and were sponsored by the House of Orange in Holland; their relatives also became Orangemen in Ireland, I believe).

Harvard was originally a Puritan/Separatist Seminary and later became Unitarian.

UCC came from a merger of Congregationalists and a small German Reformed (meaning Calvinist, as opposed to Evangelical, meaning Protestant [Lutheran]) denomination.

Both Puritans and Separatists were Calvinists. The Church of England (CofE) and ECUSA still bear strong Calvinist heritage, although in the central Eucharistic Doctrine they are Lutheran and always have been, even using Luther’s formula (“in, over, under, around and through”).

The next Calvinist movement in the CofE was Methodism, which this writer represents. Methodism was a good thing, also influenced in this country strongly by Moravian (Celtic) Calvinism via Count Zinzendorf, whom John Wesley met on the passage here.

Recent developments — actually devolutions — in both UCC and ECUSA — and also CofE — are due to loss of view of the unconditional element in the structure of reason and reality.

Second:

Really, removing oneself from UCC is the only course possible. Carrying UCC ordination and the doctrinal import of that condition, I cannot separate membership-wise but I did so long ago communicant-wise, in the late 70s or early 80s via formal letter to the denomination head.

I went so far as to renounce my ordination, to make my point, although he and I knew that is impossible. Ordination is indelible and can only be undone by defrocking, a very formal process which no one has ever started towards me and never will.

They laughed at me, verbally, in their response, which was justified in that one cannot renounce ordination. Yet I made my point and have always felt clean since, though sad also, as I expect you will too. None of the churches (denominations) today is untainted. Probably the Lutherans are least tainted, but the spirit of aggression and rebellion is alive there also.

I have noticed — and this may be a useful course to explore — that the conceptual structure of Paul Tillich — Prussian Lutheran, BTW — goes down well in the modern world, especially with Soldiers. I feel this is a consequential phenomenon, specifically an intellectual and even soto voce evangelical — in the proper sense of the word — opportunity for the Church (in distinction from the churches) and her loyal members.

The churches are a corpus mixtum, always have been and always will be. Not all the members of the churches belong to the Church. This means, among other things, that the churches only more or less approximate the Church, sometimes more and sometimes less, though never not at all, interestingly.

The Church is the Presence within existence, fragmentarily and anticipatorily actualized, of Unambiguous Life. The symbols Life of God and Eternal Life refer to that Unambiguous Life and thus are used to expound the meaning of the doctrines of incarnation and salvation.

The symbol, the Body of Christ, describes the Church as the saving love and power of God continuously present within existence since their unambiguous manifestation in, over, under, around and through the Messiah of history, Jesus the Christ.

During some periods, such as today, most members of the churches do not belong to the Church and so it is well to distance oneself from participation, although recognizing that the soteriological promise of God in Jesus as the Christ is absolute — as love is — and so remains in the churches so long as Jesus is called the Christ.

Sometimes, however, the churches leave off calling on Jesus as the Christ — calling him something else, from their own imaginations/wants — and when this happens the churches do cease to bear the promise of salvation — the condition of the synagogue for the last 2000 years — and thus the Church cannot be found in them. Then the Church is no longer the essence of the churches and the churches are mere social clubs, having no soteriological power, nature or mission.

This last condition characterizes the UCC today, which is a strange result given its history from our Separatist and later Puritan forebears.

One would have thought that New England Calvinism would have had more grit, but something happened to it especially after the Great Awakening and Edwards. I do not understand what it was.

First its transformation into unitarianism (at Harvard) and then its creation of transcendentalism and abolitionism, both fanaticisms. The Scottish-and French-sourced Calvinist phylogenetic sheafs held closer to both doctrinal and theological open-mindedness and consistency, interestingly.

I feel you did the right thing! I am aware of the pain, but I also see that you have done it with far more elegance and repose than I did, and that is certainly nice!!

Update 1: Why The American Church Should Go Off The Grid.

AMDG – VICTORY