Wright Congregational Polity Merger (145-214)

This reading takes us from the time of considering merger, through the bumps and bangs of actually getting the merger done to the present day.

Both the Universalists (UGC) and the Unitarians (AUA) were dispirited, having gone through the depression with little life.

Prior "dating" did not work as the AUA was the "stronger and more stubborn" of the two and the UGC got lost in the professional staff.  So, they created the rise-above position of moderator to ensure that professional staff did not overtake either.

They worked to ensure some sort of balance with the AUA suggesting a decentralized administration and the UGC suggesting functional management.

After WWII, other initiatives were put into place, specifically the formalization of ordination/fellowshipping for professional ministers, the Church of the Larger Fellowship and the expansion effort called the Fellowship movement.  They also had been working for a while on some common things such as hymnals, dual fellowshipped ministers, and mergers in the youth movements.

In 1951, they tried "going steady" by merging operations and administration, everything that didn't involve local churches.

In the actual reorganization, they opted for the "association of congregations" format used by the AUA rather than the more hierarchical system used by the UGC.

Then, after the merger was done, right out of the gate there was controversy as some southern churches needed national "backup", they wanted the Assembly to mandate a statement of integration, which of course, everyone took as creedal, so it failed.  There was another controversy over the power of the president (Greeley) which ended poorly and the districts emerged to decentralize "authority".  By 1969, there were debt issues due to mismanagement and a racial conflict which goes into some description and I'm not sure I quite have all the truth on.

The book finishes by walking through some of the more minor changes (UU World, tightening of fellowshipping/community ministry rules, etc).

Generally, my impression is that for a welcoming and open religion, we are pretty opinionated and it seems like the more surly, Unitarian factions are dominating.  This makes sense to me, but its limitations are sad.