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This Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation Has Been Downloaded from the King's Research Portal At This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The case for democracy in church government : a study in the Reformed tradition with special reference to the Congregationalism of Robert William Dale, Peter Taylor Forsyth, Albert Peel and Nathaniel Micklem. Norwood, Donald W The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 24. Sep. 2021 CORRIGENDA Page 15 Frankfurt to Frankfort as in title of book 27 n 2 Jean Baptiste orly add tt' 27 n 4 Aristole was translated into latin c 1260, not 1215 49 against synods add ' t 75 andf delete 'f' 89 taking assemblies correct to talking assemblies 100 onjected correct to objected 106 delete last and 120 and and delete second and 134 authori is now correct to authority is not 148 Leyland Carleon, correct to Leland Carison 171 n 4 Leyland correct to Leland 189 Laymans' Church correct to Layman's Church 193 Insert footnote 5 BW April 9th 1942 p 17 205 that latter correct to the latter 239 the correct to that democracy means government by 248 close inverted commas after Ganoczy 250 trades unions correct to trade unions 263 Christ and the Controversies add 'of' Christendom 272 Savoy Declaration 1659 correct to 1658 102 of the Chapel correct to if the Chapel had some.. 2 Donald W Norwood King's College, LONDON THE CASE FOR D(OCRACT IN CHURCH GOVERNME1T: A STIIDt IN THE REFORMED TRADITIONI WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE CONGRATIONALISM OP ROBERT WILLIAM DALE, PE'1ER TAILOR FORSITH, ALBT PEEL AND NATHANIEL MICKLL. ATRACP. Many have noted the contribution of the Reformed Churches to political democracy. Few have asked what their spokesmen thought about democracy within the Church. Calvin's use of the classical model of a mixed constitution of Monarcby,Aristocracy and Democracy, and his preference for Aristocracy tempered by Democracy, provoked a debate within the Church as to how each aspect. should be interpreted. The participants include Morély, Viret, Blondellus and Beilarmine as well as many English Independents and Presbyterians. Dale, Forsyth, Peel and Micklem wrote extensively about our subj ect and have become recognised spokesmen for English Congregationalism 1850-1972. The wider contexts of denominational thinking and ecumenical discussion are examined, and links noted with Hatoh, Gore, Maurice, Sabatier, Roland Allen and others. The Minutes of Church Meetings to which Dale, Forsyth and Peel ministered are also studied although the emphasis of the thesis is on theory rather than practice. Dale revived the idea of government by discussion which to Micklem is what democracy is all about. Forsyth rediscovered Calvin and the principle of Christ's authority to check notions of natural democracy. Peel has great respect for Forsyth but reverts to an advocacy of freedom. The four together can present a balanced case for democracy in Church government. The final chapter returns to the opening theme of a debate within the whole Church. Forsyth interpreted the concept of a mixed polity ecumenically. Episcopacy, Presbyterianism and the 'Democratic Churches' are complementary. A study that was spurred on by reading Catholic theologians like Ilewman and Congar ends with brief comments from Ganoozy, Raimer and lUng. The arguments for democracy in Church government are presented and then the debate is adjourned. tTniversity of London September Ph.D. Thesis. 1983 CONTENT 3 Abstract 2 Abbreviations 4 Acknowledgment 5 INTRODUCTION 6 The ecumenical rediscovery of the laity Other studies of Church democracy II REFORMATION DEBATES 14 Calvin and Reformed Churchznanship Morély, Viret and Debates in England. Bellarmine, Blondellus and Owen III ROBERT WILLIAM DALE 1829-1895 58 Dale and Birmingham. Dale and. Political Democracy. Dale's Church Democracy. Church Democracy in Practice at Carr's Lane The Wider Church IV' PE'rR TAYLOR FORSYTH 1848-1921 103 Pastor and Principal Forsyth's Reformed Churchmanship The Two Democracies and. the Question of Authority. Democratic Congregationalism. Aristocracy tempered by Democracy Forsyth in Practice. The Discuzsion of Democracy. V ALBERT PEEL 1887-1949 147 Pastor and Scholar and Editor Peel's Democracy Peel's Church Peel's Church Democracy in Practice Albert Peel and. Roland Allen VI NATHANIEL MICKLEM 1888-1976 19]. The Micklem influence Liberal Democracy Representative Democracy Churchmanship and Democratic Polity Church Democracy in Practice Who influenced Nath Micklem? VII ECUMENICAL DEBATE: ADJOURNED 239 The Case f or Democracy in Church government Anglican Synods and Roman Catholic Questions Orders within the Church and a Mixed Polity BI BLI OGRAPHT 253 ABHEVIATIONS 1. British Weekly Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics CM Congregtiona1 Monthiy Congregational arterly CUEW Congregational Union of England and Wales CW Christian World CTh Congregational Year Book 12(B Dictionary of National Biography ed. editor / edited. ET English Translation ICC International Congregational Council Institution John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559) JEH Journal of Ecclesiastical History JURCHS Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society Loud. Published in London ND No date of publication NP No place of publication TCHS Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society ThHS Transactions of the Royal Historical Society TJRC United Reformed Church WCC World Council of Churches GLOSSARY Church Meeting - the Meeting of the members of a Congregational/ United Reformed Church, exercising authority over the life of a local church. 5 A CKN OWLEDG MT Encouragement is vital to me and. I have received. much more than I can record. I thank my supervisor, Professor Stuart Hall, for very firm but sympathetic questionings that forced my thinking in-to shape, and King's College, London for the benefits of seminars. Financial help has been given by the Ministers' Education ind of the Reading and Oxford. District Council of the United Reformed Church and. by Education Services, a trust established by -the late Jack Bellerby, member of the United Reformed. Church in Summertown, Oxford. To that church I owe more than I can say. The members called me to be their minister in 1974 and helped me find. time to study in order to preach, to lead. and to visit. They not only added -to this a sabbatical term. but people of very different backgrounds wrote to wish me well. Those letters might find. me in the Bodleian Library, whose vast resources are so amiably shared, or at home surrounded by books on overdue loan from Mansfield College. Last, of course, I thank Margaret without whom.... and our children who participate with such zest. I have had a wish to finish this work while my parents were still alive and well. They taught me first to give thanks to God for everybody. I do so gladly. lie Chapter I 6 INThODUCTIII This study grew out of a general interest in lay people in 1 the Church in the days of the ecumenical rediscovery of the laity. I focused my attention on the understanding of the laity in the Congregational Church but s overtaken by events. That Church recovered its Reformed roots with the English Presbyterians and ceased to be. Most of its members became part of the United Reformed Church in England and Wales in 1972. They did so after persuading the Presbyterians that Church Meetings, in which all the members of local congregation have a regular share in the government of the Church, were a gift of God. Other ecumenical experience, both more general and more local, has confirmed the conviction that the case for democracy in the Church can be made, needs to be understood, and. should be heard. The World Council of Churches pioneered a survey of The Layman in Christian History. 2 Despite the commendable anxiety, evident in the 1960's, not to clericalise the laity but to affirm their ministry in the world, it s clear that the layman had also to be seen as Churchman. The question then becomes 'What share do the laity have in the government of the Church?' In 1948, the First Assembly of the World Council of Churches established a committee on 'The Significance of the Laity in the Church'. The Second Assembly in 1954 created a'Department on the Laity'. In 1957 the first English edition of a French Roman Catholic study Jalons pour une Thèologie dii Lai'cat appeared, Lay People in the Church, Yves Congar, ETrevised edition, London 1965. See also Vatican II, the Christian Layman, edited by Jeremiah Nenan, Dublin 1966. A Reformed response to Congaz' is Hendrilc Kraemer, ATheoloy of the Laity, Hulsean Lectures, London 1958. 2 Stephen Neill and. Hans—Ruedi Weber, editors, The Layman in Christian History, London 1963 7 ? 2i The word 'democracy' occurs with surprising frequency In discussions of Church government despite the equally frequent rejoinders that the Church is not a democracy.
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