"OUR BROTHERS IN THE DENOMINATIONS"

 "Brethren of all denominations." All these long years most of us in Churches of Christ-Christian Churches have not allowed ourselves to talk like that. Even if we might think it, and most of us probably do, we do not say it. It is our unwritten creed that our sisters and brothers are all in what we call the Church of Christ. While we often refer to ^"the denominations,^" in contrast to "the Lord's church" (meaning us!), we do not refer to our brethren in the denominations. In this short piece I want to show that this sectarian mentality is of recent date, for our founding fathers did not have this narrow view of brotherhood.

The phrase is in quotation marks because it is taken from Thomas Campbell^'s Declaration and Address, which dates back to 1809 and is one of our founding documents. The Address is in fact written "To all that love our Lord Jesus Christ, throughout all the Churches." It is clear that he considers those in all the churches who love the Lord Jesus Christ as his brothers and sisters. Time and again in the document he refers to "our brethren^" and "our brethren in all the denominations," and at least once he refers to them as "Our dear brethren of all denominations." While he recognizes that they are divided into parties, he still refers to them as "our Christian brethren, however unhappily distinguished by party names."

He refers to these brethren in the denominations as both the Christian Church and Church of Christ, such as ^"so that we might return to the original constitutional unity of the Christian Church," and "all the Churches of Christ which mutually acknowledge each other as such." He is not calling any one denomination or even all of them together the Church of Christ, but rather the Christians in all the denominations. What he sees as the Church of Christ transcends any sect or denomination.

That is the basis upon which he set forth in the same document his first great proposition on unity, often quoted by our people through the years: "The Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one."

Thomas Campbell did not suppose he had to refer to "the Church of Christ^" with a lower case c, as our folk are wont to do, supposing that by using "the church of Christ^" they are affirming nondenominational status. In all such references as those above Campbell consistently uses the capital C for church, whether Church of Christ or Christian Church, as I notice most scholars do when they refer to the church universal. It says something about where we^'ve been (or not been) when we fastidiously use "the church of Christ" and refer to less than all Christians, while others use "the Church of Christ" when referring to the universal church made up of all believers.

Campbell also says in the Declaration and Address ,"This, we are persuaded, is the uniform sentiment of the real Christians of every denomination,^" referring to his plea for unity among all believers. This explains why the Stone-Campbell movement was an effort to "unite the Christians in all the sects.^" They were not trying to unite or amalgamate the denominations, but to unite "the real Christians" in the denominations.

It is impressive that Campbell did all this writing about "the Church of Christ" while he yet did not have a single congregation that would eventually wear this name. This means he saw the true church as made up of all his dear brethren wherever they were and whatever party name they might be wearing, and this church has always existed, ever since the Holy Spirit breathed it into existence.

It not only existed, but it was by its very nature one, even if scattered among the sects. Christ's body cannot be divided! And so he wrote in that document, ^"The Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one.^"

It would be wonderfully liberating if we could all, like Thomas Campbell, refer to "our dear brothers and sisters in the denominations," and realize that we are all together the true Church of Christ upon earth. —the Editor

Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope. --Henry Wheeler Shaw