What is Congregationalism?

Congregational Churches are independent churches In which the church members are totally in charge of the church. We don't have priests or bishops and we don't have an area or national body that can tell us how things should be run.

Most congregational churches call a minister to lead them in worship and in spiritual matters, but ministers are there to serve church members not to have authority over them.

Congregationalism goes back many hundreds of years to a time when the church of England brought in the book of common prayer, telling local churches exactly what form their worship should take. A number of ministers, supported by their congregations refused and broke away from all central authority in the church. This was a very dangerous thing to do at the time and many 'non'conformists' suffered terrible persecution for not worshipping in the way the state and the church of England said they should. Perhaps this bit of our history is why we try to be so tolerant of different points of view within congregational churches today.

In 1972 Some congregational churches joined with the Presbyterian Church of England to form the United Reformed Church. But many congregational churches (like this one) voted to carry on being independent. Those churches that have remained fully congregational and independent formed a federation to offer advice and support to individual churches. This is not the same as a national church as it has no power over individual congregational churches who remain totally in charge of their own affairs.

Hillsborough Tabernacle Congregational Church is a member of this body which is called the  congregational federation.  Please visit their website to find out in more detail about congregationalism, its meaning, its history and its beliefs.