Pittsburgh Centennial

The Pittsburgh CententenniaI
R. D. Ice,
FIRM FOUNDATION, February 28,1978

For some years the movement to restore New Testament Christianity did not crystallize around a name for the church. They used indiscriminately the names: Christian Church; Church of Christ; Disciples of Christ. By the end of the "War Between The States,' the undivided movement had grown to be the fourth largest religious group in the country, with only Catholics, Baptists and Methodists being larger. However, the Declaration at Sand Creek, Shelby County, Illinois, August 17, 1889, was the official split in the brotherhood.

If it had not been for the Civil War, such a thing probably could never have happened. From that time on, we who sing without the instrument began using "church of Christ'. exclusively. This did not take place immediately, of course, but over a period of time. The division became irreversible in 1907. J. C. McQuiddy had written in the Gospel Advocate about the things proclaimed at Sand Creek.

"The Sand Creek manifesto was manifest folly and the Advocate emphatically denies any sympathy with Sommerism whatever that is - Sand Creekism, sand lotism, Standardism, or any partyism in religion. The Advocate is for Christ and his church (chosen ones) and is in ardent sympathy with all those who are drawing their life from him who is the true vine..'.

David Lipscomb was a 'moderate,' but 'hot heads' on both sides forced the issue. In June of 1907, Lipscomb wrote in reply to the Census Bureau and made it plain that the churches of Christ no longer had any connection with the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ. History shows both sides paid a high price for this division!

This is important to set the stage for the Centennial celebration of the Restoration Movement, which was planned for October 11, 1909. Even though this was entirely planned and carried out by the Disciples, some from the churches of Christ participated in this also: notably J. W. McGarvey (who was in his eightieth year), F. L Rowe of the Christian Leader paper, and my grandfather, Dr. Kromer C. Ice, MD. Some, like J. W. McGarvey, attempted to continue their connection with both the Disciples and the churches of Christ.

In preparation for the big day, some 208,000 letters were mailed, a million copies of 23 leaflets and tracts were distributed, and the secular press joined in the publicity for the event. Long before October 11, great crowds of people began arriving in Pittsburgh. Every hotel room and tourist home was used to house this mass meeting. The Kansas City delegation chartered a train for the trip and leased the entire Schenley Hotel as their headquarters. The auditorium of Carnegie Hall proved to be too small, and simultaneous programs were provided in nearby church-buildings and with outdoor meetings in Duquesne Garden, Luna Park, and Forbes Field.
Two hundred and fifty churches of all denominations opened their pulpits to leading Restoration preachers on the Lord's Day. An estimated thirty thousand met in Forbes Field to eat the Lord's Supper. Twenty thousand persons were in a three-tiered grandstand. Thousands more filled the bleachers and stood on the ball field to remember the death and suffering of their Savior. The total number who attended some part of the Centennial was thought to be around fifty thousand.

The Centennial at Pittsburgh proved to be the crest of the wave. It seemed at the moment that God was guaranteeing a major new awakening. The celebration had a dramatic effect on the religious community across the nation. Almost immediately all the major Protestant denominations seemed to catch the vision of unity in Christ. Committees were set up to study cooperation and union, by the Episcopalians, the Congregationalists, the Presbyterians, etc.

Yet this was not to be. When the conservatives left in the churches of Christ, they in effect gave the control of the Disciples to the extreme liberal element (and to some degree gave control of the churches of Christ to the extreme conservative element). Men like Peter Ainslee by their radical-liberalism wrecked the opportunities (this is not what they intended to do, though). Religious history might have been different if the conservatives had kept their influence in an undivided movement, and if a David Lipscomb or a J. W. McGarvey could have been on the scene.

[I wrote this when I was living in PA. Dr. Kromer C. Ice, MD, lived in Bethany, WV, in 1909 when his son was born. He named him McGarvey in honor of J. W. McGarvey whom he greatly admired. R.D. is McGarvey Ice's son.].