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<DIV>Huge differences. Both churches hoped to be accepted as the official,
established, Church of the United States. That was a major reason for the First
Amendment to provide that "Congress shall make no law respecting the
establishment of religion..." It was a way for the Presbyterians, Baptists,
Methodists, Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, and Roman Catholics, as well as Jews, to
tell both of them, "You can forget it."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Congregationalists were essentially the Puritans and Separatists who left
the Church of England, and the Episcopalians WERE the Church of England in
America.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Episcopalians had bishops and archbishops, and were generally denounced as
little better than the Roman church. Congregationalists believed in no
ecclesiastical or episcopal rule at all. (Generally Baptists didn't either,
although a few Baptists churches have people honorifically called bishop
today.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>One hundred years later, the Episcoplian Church was known as "The
Republican Party at Prayer."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Siarlys</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>On Mon, 5 Oct 2009 16:44:17 -0700 "Discussion of the Good, Clean Funnies
List" <<A href="mailto:gcfl-discuss@gcfl.net">gcfl-discuss@gcfl.net</A>>
writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 10px; PADDING-LEFT: 10px">
<DIV>Evidently in 1780 there was a huge difference between Congregation vs
Episcopal?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Lance<BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 5:29 PM, Discussion of the Good,
Clean Funnies List <SPAN dir=ltr><<A
href="mailto:gcfl-discuss@gcfl.net">gcfl-discuss@gcfl.net</A>></SPAN>
wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex">I
recently ran across a reference to this tidbit of history:<BR><BR>In 1780,
if a resident of Massachusetts did not wish to contribute to the<BR>support
of the Congregational Church, a certificate was granted to him<BR>which
read:<BR><BR>"The is to certify that _______ has renounced the Christian
religion and<BR>joined the Episcopal
Church."<BR><BR>Siarlys</BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>
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