As we have seen, the Congregation for Reconciliation experienced
difficulty in developing consensus on even such basic statements as
membership requirements and mission. The pastor chose not to promote the
adoption of documents suitable to the Presbytery, but rather allowed the
members themselves to hammer out definitions of the meaning and purpose
of the Congregation and its governance. The members' views on these
matters were so divergent and strongly held that consensus building
necessitated postponing the formal organization of the Congregation for
more than a year. In this chapter, we shall examine the outcome of this
self-definition process vis-a-vis the original goals agreed upon by the
Presbytery in authorizing the establishment of the Congregation two
years earlier.
