Liberty, Tyranny, and Ethnicity: The German Reformed "Free Synod" Schism (1819-1823) and th eAmericanization of an Ethnic Church
Reading, Pennsylvania, for the annual synodical meeting of the German Reformed Church.' The atmosphere was tense. The normal routine of orderly business-licensing and ordaining ministers, listening to sermons, and transacting ecclesiastical correspondence-would not dominate the agenda. Instead, the group faced the prospect of schism. A proposal to establish an American-style theological seminary threatened to tear the synod apart. As the day progressed discussion became more animated and angry "until the feelings of several were wrought up to a high state of exasperation." Participants denounced one another and one synod member publicly insulted a visiting Dutch Reformed clergyman-observer who symbolized the distant, ecumenical influences rocking the synodA By the end of the day, threats and counterthreats bad filled the air, and within several months the synod had divided. What had caused the "reverend synod" to lose its decorous composure