Saybrook Platform

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SAYBROOK PLATFORM

SAYBROOK PLATFORM, a revision of the ecclesiastical polity of the colony of Connecticut, drawn up by a synod meeting at the call of the legislature in Saybrook, 9 September 1708. Those in conservative circles, fearing that the Cambridge Platform (1648) did not furnish adequate authority for keeping all churches in line, reorganized the church into county associations ruled by a council of ministers and lay delegates empowered to discipline erring congregations and to supervise the choice of new pastors; county associations then sent delegates to a colony-wide regulatory assembly. Governmental support of the platform in Connecticut effectively transformed the eighteenth-century polity into a centrally administered unit, making the church practically a form of Presbyterianism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Walker, Williston, ed. The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism. Philadelphia: Pilgrim Press, 1960.

PerryMiller/a. r.

See alsoCambridge Platform ; Congregationalism ; New England Way .