University of Virginia Library

Summary

We have seen that the three historical roots of the experimental social-action congregation were the racial crisis of the 1960s, the Confession of 1967, and the emergence of an official denominational strategy for the development of new nonresidential, issue-centered congregations. Dayton, suffering from the same racial inequities characteristic of most other American cities, and having experienced urban disorders in 1966 and 1967, was a logical setting for the establishment of such an experimental congregation designed to concentrate its energy on the complex problem of racial reconciliation.

The rush to action by the Miami Presbytery, however, produced ambiguities in design and left insufficient time to lay the groundwork to ensure orderly development in keeping with the formally accepted goals of the mission.

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