Talk:Free Church Federation

This article is seriously out of date and needs updating. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.239.159.5 (talk) 15:25, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Main topic: association or movement ?

The beginning of the article discusses the Free Church Federation as an association that was the result of a movement described as a unifying tendency displayed during the latter part of the 19th century but does not further elaborate. The second part of the article discusses a movement, without giving it a name or description. As a result, it is unclear what the main topic of the article might be. The 1908 Free church year book published by the "National Council of the Evangelical Free Churches" says on page 213: The Free Church Federation Movement is a gigantic network of organisation covering the whole country. so maybe the confusion is not just in the article, but in the sources themselves. The John Clifford article in the 1909 The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Thought volume 4, pages 377-378 parallels Wikipedia's current (23 July 2012) article, and may have been the basis for the 1911 Encyc. Brit. article that was originally imported here. According to G. I. T. Machin in his 1998 Churches and Social Issues in Twentieth-Century Britain, page 201, the name for the "Free Church Federation" was the "National Federation of the Free Churches", but that name generates no other Google hits. The "Free Churches Group" has a legal entity incorporated as the "Free Church Federal Council" which seems to be the current incarnation. The "Free Church Federal Council" is an organization of free churches (i.e, those not part of the Church of England), including Methodist, Baptist, the United Reformed Church in England and Wales (a Presbyterian–Congregational merger), and some other churches of England and Wales. It was formed in 1940 by the union of the "National Council of the Evangelical Free Churches" (founded 1896) and the "Federal Council of the Evangelical Free Churches" (founded 1919) for the purpose of cooperating in matters of mutual concern. The council is presided over by a moderator who holds office for four years. (See Moderator) It works through local councils, which elect representatives to the Group Meeting. The directors of the "Free Church Federal Council" delegate the active work to the Group Meeting, within budgetry constraints. All the work is fulfilled in close partnership with Churches Together in England (CTE), with whom there is a joint operating agreement.(See Free Church Federal Council) CTE fulfills all employment functions for staff serving the Free Churches. Note that in the article International Federation of Free Evangelical Churches neither the UK nor England are mentioned. So are they not members? Anyway, this article needs more research and a complete rewrite. Any takers? --Bejnar (talk) 02:40, 24 July 2012 (UTC)