User:DonaldRichardSands/Comity (faith groups)

Comity, as used by faith groups, refers to efforts between different missionary endeavors to avoid interfering with one another's activities.

An outline for the article
1. Lead

2. Etymology
 * Terms, Christian Comity, Mission Comity, Church Comity, Partial comity, oral comity agreements,

3. History

3a. Participating denominations

3b. Comity in the United States and Canada
 * Congregationalism
 * 1879, The Home Missionary, American Home Missionary Society

3c. Comity in Africa
 * Government imposed comity
 * Countries
 * Sudan
 * Tanzania
 * Zimbabwe (Rhodesia)
 * Nigeria
 * Ethiopia

3d. Comity in Latin America
 * Countries
 * Guatemala

3e. Comity in Southern Asia

7. Comity thought leaders
 * Robert E. Speer promoted comity as interdenominational policy. See Piper, John F. (2000)Denominalationalism by Geography, p. 192-195 in Robert E. Speer: Prophet of the American Church. Geneva Press. Louisville, KY. ISBN 0-664-50132-X

8. Issues
 * Membership transfer
 * Should be based upon religious conviction
 * Repentance and reformation expectations if discipline by another denomination


 * Employment
 * Consultation with the last society's thinking regarding the transfer
 * Salaries paid by other groups


 * Self-perception of denominational mandate
 * SDA, Revelation 14:6,7 to all


 * Schools


 * Comity and Urban Missions


 * http://books.google.ca/books?id=IwjDfxk4gXAC&pg=PA210&lpg=PA210&dq=%22denominationalism+by+geography%22&source=bl&ots=PXxv2n9vgM&sig=jNR6TJHyEIbE6J7YV2t_osAC4Yk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=v4S7T8-6HYKE8QT46IWrCg&sqi=2&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22denominationalism%20by%20geography%22&f=false

Sources for faith groups comity
Episcopal Church. MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING CO. MILWAUKEE, WIS.
 * THE EASTERN CHURCH IN THE WESTERN WORLD BY WM. CHAUNCEY EMHARDT, Ph.D. THOMAS BURGESS, D.D. ROBERT FREDERICK LAU, D.D. Officers of the Foreign-Born Americans Division, Department of Missions, National Council,


 * Mission and Unity: The Theological Dynamic of Comity In That the World May Believe: Essays on Mission and Unity, eds. Michael W. Goheen and Margaret O’Gara (Lanham: University Press, 2006), 83-91.


 * History


 * (Includes map, 'Guatemala, the Comity Agreement' showing five participating denominations: Presbyterian, Primitive Methodist, Friends, Nazarene and CAM. Also a table of the same and where they located.)








 * 1886, The Presbyterian Monthly Record, p. 326

"Early missionaries to the country, recognizing that the task of evangelizing the country was larger than the resources of any one church body, entered into comity agreements with each other. By these a specific geographical area was assigned to one denomination. Although some denominations declined to participate in such agreements (Roman Catholic, Anglican, Seventh-day Adventist, etc.) government educational policies encouraged a modicum of unity on the local level. By requiring a minimum of three-mile distance between rural primary schools, the government fostered a pattern of one church (and school) for one village. "The comity principle, however, has rarely succeeded in Rhodesia's towns. The deep desire of rural migrants to find a sub-group in which they feel at home thwarts urban attempts to rationalize church extension. Town planners often scatter church sites in African townships, one in each neighbourhood, on the false assumption that residents prefer to attend the nearest church. They have failed to recognize that stronger than proximity is the pull to participate in a group using those familiar patterns of worship, hymnody, organization, and discipline, learned in the rural area." pp 239,240
 * Themes in the Christian History of Central Africa
 * drs (talk) 01:24, 26 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Gambrell, J.B. (1910). "Ten years in Texas," Dallas: The Baptist Standard, p. 159

Also available at:


 * A Texas Baptist History Sourcebook: A Companion to McBeth's Texas Baptists, p. 181
 * Gambrell discusses Baptist congregationalist thinking, the comity that exists among the congregations, and how all the sovereign congregations relate to the "great conventions" of Baptists.


 * Bertsche, James E. (1989). Comity. Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 26 April 2012 drs (talk) 04:24, 26 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Relationships with Other Christian Churches and Religious Organizations
 * This source does not mention the term "comity" but it addresses one of the main issues of faith groups comity, i.e. voluntary restriction of geographical mission. This has been referred to as Mission Comity. drs (talk) 04:58, 26 April 2012 (UTC)




 * A different concept of unity in Africa


 * Maps:
 * Comity agreements in northern Nigeria
 * Sudan: Comity borders prescribed by the colonial government.
 * Comity in Burundi


 * http://books.google.ca/books?id=VtEQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA483&dq=%22mission+comity%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gsyZT9v0HKOK6QH-qf3iBg&ved=0CEMQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=comity&f=false


 * http://books.google.ca/books?id=IwjDfxk4gXAC&pg=PA210&lpg=PA210&dq=%22denominationalism+by+geography%22&source=bl&ots=PXxv2n9vgM&sig=jNR6TJHyEIbE6J7YV2t_osAC4Yk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=v4S7T8-6HYKE8QT46IWrCg&sqi=2&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22denominationalism%20by%20geography%22&f=false


 * Beaver, R. Pierce (1962). Ecumenical Beginnings in Protestant World Mission: A History of Comity. New York, NY. Thomas Nelson.

Related topics

 * Landmarkism
 * Cuius regio, eius religio

I. The Lead
"Since the mid-nineteenth century, cooperation and a sense of shared responsibility had been cast as the ruling principles of Western missionary planning. To prevent competition and the duplication of services in the field, "comity" or an agreed division of labour was introduced. This system remained the cornerstone of mission planning well into the twentieth century."



II. Etymology
"Denominationalism by Geography"

"Comity arrangements were agreements among the mission organisations about where the various missions were to work so as not to compete with one another in the same geographical area. Comity Committees give advice, point to "open" areas, and settle disputes among the participating missions."


 * (This source also discusses the comity arrangements in Ethiopia, lists the participants and briefly discusses the Adventists as not participating. It also mentions the government's preference in dealing with individual missions rather than with comity representative.)