New Haven · Membership and death references
South Congregational Church history and catalogue, 1852–1865 · scan page 131
Uncorrected OCR. Name spellings, dates, symbols and column order may be wrong. Verify against the original scan. Includes an alphabetical past-member list, death dates and explanations of death and dismissal symbols. Also contains sermons and church history. A dismissal to another church is not a death.
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THE EX-PARTE cpUNCIL. 121 to call a meeting of the Church whenever retinested by a certain number of members But can it be supposed that in adopting- such a rule, the Church intended to make itself liable to be called together every month, week, or day, at the pleasure of the requisite number of petitioners, and thus be kept in a state of constant agitation ? If not, a reason- able discretionary power must be vested somewhere to pre- vent this abuse ] and where better than in the Standing Committee. This discretionary power our Standing Com- mittee exercised in the case before us, and their action was unanimously approved by the Church. And yet, for this irregularity i)rincipally — for this refusal under these circum- stances— we are judged by Council as no longer "to be re- cognized as a Congregational Church ;" and they feel con- strained " to advise their Churches to withhold from us acts of recognition and fpUowship, customary among New Eng- land Churches." "VII. Between the time when the request was made for a Church meeting and the time of preparing the memorial, some of the complain- ants asked and received letters of commendation, in the ordinary form, by which their membership in the Church would be terminated when- ever they might become members of other Churches. But in the me- morial those brethren gave notice to the Church, that upon mature de- liberation they had relinquished their intention of connecting them- selves with other Churches ; and they remained, in the language of the testimonials which had been given them, 'members of the South Congrcgatioual Church.' " Answer. — "Members of the SouthCongregatioualChurch." Why did the Council omit the next clause 1 viz : " and are hereby dismissed at their own request." The fact that those brethren gave notice to the Church that " they had relinquished their intention of connecting themselves with nor well defined. Very often Church meetings were called by a simple announcement from the pulpit, without the intervention of the Clerk at all. There is now a recorded Rule, adopted at the annual meeting of the Church, Nov. 24, 1S63, as follows: " Voted, That the power to call a Churffh meeting for business, shall rest in the Church Committee, together with the Clerk."
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Silent Grounds Collective, Church Burial & Death Records, CH-P004-0131. South Congregational Church history and catalogue, 1852–1865, printed page not verified, PDF page 131. Hallock, Gerard, 1800-1866; digitized copy contributed by University of California Libraries https://archive.org/details/historyofsouthco00hall/page/n135/mode/1up Accessed September 8, 2026.
Historic U.S. publication before 1931; public-domain assessment based on publication date. Internet Archive does not necessarily provide an explicit license. Preserve publication and digitizing credits.