Walking in the shoes of the Congregational Griffins

Walking in the shoes of the Congregational Griffins. The Congregational Church played a significant role in shaping Colonial America. In early America the church was the structure around which every day affairs revolved. As more and more people traveled to the new world they brought with them different ideas and sensibilities. The face of America became more diverse. The debate over the role of reason vs. faith became part of the American landscape. A more open debate on the very tenants of religion, an idea previously unthinkable, became commonplace. The message of the Congregationalists became one of repentance and a return to purity of religious life. While in early America church membership was expected, by the mid 1700’s, membership was carefully measured and recorded. Church membership “owning the covenant” was something to be earned and publicly professed. It was not something that was freely granted. Society began to be differentiated between believers and non-believers. In tracing our family history it’s interesting to note how close to the Church most of the Griffin families remained well into the 1800’s. So what was the nature of the Congregational Church that the related Griffin families belonged to? In the 1730’s and 40’s a number of leading ministers took up a call for a return to Congregational ideals. The movement has been called ”The First Great Awakening”. It resonated for the next one hundred years. For the average American it provoked two major ideas, Repentance, and a reconsideration of the idea of, “owning the covenant”. The most recognizable figure in the great awakening was Jonathan Edwards who had received his degree in theology from Yale. Over his lifetime Edwards produced a veritable library of material in taking up the defense of his positions concerning the debates within the religious community. He is most noted for a single sermon he gave. This sermon has become a part of the American literary tradition and is considered the anthem for the First Great Awakening. It is titled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. Edwards was invited by a fellow pastor to preach to his congregation who the minister considered in need of a call to repentance. The most often quoted part of the speech creates the image that we, as sinners, are suspended over the gates of hell by but a slender thread. “O Sinner! Consider the fearful Danger you are in: Tis a great Furnace of Wrath, a wide and bottomless Pit, full of the Fire of Wrath, that you are held over in the Hand of the God, whose Wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the Damned in Hell: You hang by a slender Thread, with the Flames of divine Wrath flashing about it, and ready every Moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no Interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourselves, nothing to keep off the Flames of Wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one Moment”. After an hour of such imagery he ends with, “Therefore let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the Wrath to Come. The Wrath of almighty GOD is now undoubtedly hanging over the great Part of this Congregation; let every one fly out of Sodom: Haste and escape for your Lives, look not behind you, escape to the Mountain, least you be consumed”. The thing I find the most intriguing about the sermon is the account that as he spoke he was interrupted multiple time by cries from the congregation of “what can I do to be saved”. I think this narrative is more indicative of the Congregational mindset than the tone and tenor of the famous sermon. Each congregation carefully recorded and monitored its membership. Salvation was a serious matter. The support, in its varied forms, provided by the church was essential. Joining was an acknowledgement that the person was serious in their resolve to work out their salvation. Membership was granted upon a profession of faith. The process involved a review by a committee and ended with a public proclamation of ones faith. The intent was not to keep the unworthy out but to make sure you were true in your faith because a failure to live up to your covenants was a sure path to hell. In the Blog are documents that show the sinners being publicly called to repentance. These actions were often followed by the imposition of sanctions and then a watchful and hopeful monitoring of the sinner as they worked their way back to full fellowship. Those so named saw it as a sign of apprehension by the congregation who were concerned for their salvation. A needed wake up call to repentance. Working out ones salvation was a major part of life. The Church was very important in that process. To gain an appreciation of that importance take note of the sentiments from the documents that have survived for us to read. Every Will has a sentiment similar to that of Henry Farnam, “I do give my soul into the hands of God’. The names given to the women in the church, who were expected to give strict obedience to both God and their husbands, also reflects the Congregational attitide, Silence, Wait, Mindwell, Prudence, Patience, Freelove, Temperance, Mercy, Comfort, Concurrence, Goodwife called Goody, Thankful, Unity, Hopestill, Faith, Hope, Charity, Deliverance, Experience, Remember, Constant, which became Constance, and the one that provokes the strongest reaction among the women of the 21st Century, Submit. Take note of the church documents on other parts of the blog. The references to, profession of the faith, watch and care withdrawn, church sanctions, review committees. To understand the Congregational mindset is to put your self in the shoes of your ancestors.