Leaven Volume 7 Issue 1 Missions and the Church Article 21 1-1-1999 Stone-Campbell Biography Edwin R. Errett: Martyr to a Lost Cause Henry Webb Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Webb, Henry (1999) "Stone-Campbell Biography Edwin R. Errett: Martyr to a Lost Cause," Leaven: Vol. 7 : Iss. 1 , Article 21. Available at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol7/iss1/21 This Biography is brought to you for free and open access by the Religion at Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Leaven by an authorized editor of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Webb: Stone-Campbell Biography Edwin R. Errett: Martyr to a Lost Cause 48 Leaven, Winter, 1999 Stone-Campbell Biography EDWIN R. ERRETT: Martyr to a Lost Cause Henry Webb Edwin R. Errett, editor of the writer of Bible school materials, and a conservative institution for ministe- Christian Standard from 1929 until his in the latter year he was made editor- rial education, the Cincinnati Bible death in 1944, is known primarily for in-chief of all Bible school publica- Institute. When that school was merged the leadership he provided to Christian tions. In 1929 he was named editor of with McGarvey Bible Institute in 1924 Churches/Churches of Christ during a the Christian Standard. For the next to form Cincinnati Bible Seminary, critical period in their history. A de- fifteen years, despite heavy speaking Errett served as a trustee and offered scendent of the distinguished family of agendas, every issue of the journal save his services as a teacher of classes at Henry Errett, he was the son of Will- one contained at least one of his edito- night. iam Russell Errett, who was a cousin rials. In 1919 three missionary agencies of Isaac Errett, one of the founders and Edwin Errett maintained a prodi- were merged with some of the other the ultimate owner/publisher of the giously heavy speaking and travel agencies to form the United Christian Christian Standard. schedule. He loved the brotherhood Missionary Society. At the time there Edwin Reeder Errett was born near that had nurtured him, and he worked were serious misgivings in the broth- Carnegie, Pennsylvania, on January 7, diligently to promote its interests. He erhood over what appeared to some 1891. After graduating from high lived in turbulent times and was grieved observers to be too much centraliza- school in 1907, he studied for a year at to see the dissension that erupted in his tion and concentration of power. Those Western Pennsylvania University (now day. During his student days at misgivings were exacerbated by the University of Pittsburgh) before trans- Bethany, the great Centennial Conven- disclosure in 1922 that some of the ferring to Bethany College to study for tion met in Pittsburgh (1909), and he missionaries in China and the Philip- ministry. Following graduation from was very much aware of the contro- pine Islands were bringing members Bethany (A.B., valedictorian) in 1911, versy that raged over the H. L. Willett into the churches who had not been im- he entered Yale University Divinity and Samuel Hardin Church speeches. mersed.' The brotherhood was en- School. The next year he accepted a He was at Standard Publishing in 1917 gulfed in bitter controversy over the position at Standard Publishing (then during the turmoil over the introduc- matter, and the annual International owned by Russell Errett, a distant tion of theological liberalism at the Conventions were arenas of conflict. cousin) to become office editor of the College of the Bible in Lexington, Ken- The liberal faction suffered a resound- Christian Standard. From 1917 until tucky. He was involved in the effort in ing defeat in the convention in Okla- 1925 he was commentator and lesson 1923 to establish a counterinfluence in homa City, Oklahoma, in 1925, only Published by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 1999 1 Leaven, Vol. 7 [1999], Iss. 1, Art. 21 Missions and the Church 49 to regroup and completely outmaneu- first and subsequent North American forts to avoid a second tragic rupture ver the conservatives in Memphis in gatherings. That continued to be the within the ranks" is seen in his consis- 1926. Errett called Memphis "a con- case until 1951.3 The point of conten- tent promotion of agencies reporting vention of bad faith.'? Opponents of the tion was the mission policies of the to the International Convention; in- new developments concluded that the UCMS; that issue had no impact on the deed, one finds regular coverage of the existing organizations functioned to other agencies that had served various convention in the Standard. Reports entrench unacceptable positions and needs of the churches for decades. from many state conventions are also put their proponents beyond the reach Edwin Errett clearly understood found. Why not? They were all part of of brotherhood accountability. The fol- the Disciples to be a movement within the one brotherhood. It was "us." The lowing year the dissenters held the first Christendom at large that sought to problem was with one agency; why North American Christian Convention unite the followers of Christ on the should that one agency alienate broth- in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Christian basis of restoring the faith and prac- ers and sisters from the useful and valu- Standard gave this move unqualified tices found in the New Testament. His able services of other agencies that had support and endorsement. interests were not confined to the Dis- served the cause well for many de- It is important to keep clearly in ciples movement, which he viewed cades?"Open membership" (the objec- mind the motivation of those who against the background of Christendom tionable practice of receiving the called the first North American Con- at large. He believed that the Disciples unimmersed into membership) was a ventions. The assembly was not in- had a contribution to make to the con- theological/ecclesiological issue and tended to be divisive; rather, the hope temporary efforts toward Christian had nothing to do with benevolence, was that it would be unitive. The Inter- unity and that it was important to in- church loans, or pensions for retired national Conventions had been scenes ject that insight into efforts on behalf and needy ministers. of bitter conflict. The NACC was to be of Christian unity. Those wider inter- The matter of pensions was of par- a convention open to all, and its focus ests led him to serve as a delegate to ticular interest to the editor, who was a was to be on the historic aims of the the World Conference on Faith and vigorous advocate of the moral obli- movement and on the unitive forces in Order in Denmark in 1935 and in gation of the churches to provide for the life of the brotherhood. Divisive Edinburgh in 1937. Clearly, he did not elderly ministers whose lives had been issues were to have no place on the share the parochial outlook of some of spent in the service of the church. Pro- agenda. In retrospect that goal appears his contemporaries. Late in 1943, when motions urging congregations to enroll incredibly naive, but at the time it the Allies in World War II became in the Pension Plan pointed out that promised welcome relief from the ac- aware of the plight of the Jewish people thoughtful and bright young men rimony that had marked International in Nazi territories, Errett was asked to would turn away from the ministry on Conventions for too many years. serve as chairman of an Emergency discovery that there was no provision Edwin Errett and the Christian Stan- Committee in Cincinnati to extend help for their later years when their services dard were dedicated to the preserva- to the Jewish people in Europe. were no longer in demand. Thus it was tion of the unity of the Disciples. Edwin Errett was involved in a in the best long-term interest of the Evidence of the unitive hopes of number of other causes. He served as church to make such provision through the organizers of the convention is seen a trustee of Butler University and of the Pension Plan.Errett was also a vig- clearly in the fact that almost all of the the Christian Foundation in Indianapo- orous advocate of "independent" mis- agencies of the brotherhood (except the lis. The latter, a fund of several mil- sions, but in all other respects he saw United Christian Missionary Society lions of dollars created to underwrite himself and the churches as "brother- [UCMS)) were invited to have repre- educational agencies and institutions of hood." Under no circumstances was sentation in the display area of the con- the Disciples, was established by support of and participation in the vention. The Christian Board of Pub- Gurnie L. Reeves and Will 1. Irwin, UCMS to be a mark of "brotherhood." lication, the Pension Fund, the National close personal friends of Edwin Errett. A prime example of Edwin Errett's Benevolent Association, and numbers Errett's commitment to the contin- commitment to the unity of the Dis- of the colleges were represented at the ued unity of the Disciples and his ef- ciples is seen in his efforts on behalf https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol7/iss1/21 2 Webb: Stone-Campbell Biography Edwin R. Errett: Martyr to a Lost Cause 50 Leaven, Winter, 1999 of the Commission on Restudy of the heresy.