Among the priceless benefits of the ecumenical Christian movement has been an increase of interest in the idea of the church. One result of this has been to throw into light the condition of the thought of American Protestantism on this subject, and thus to accentuate what has been observed, the considerable poverty of this thought. An illustration of this appeared not long ago in the work of an interdenominational commission formed to study “The Nature and Meaning of the Church,” whose documents have not been published. One consideration to which the commission paid particular attention was the effect of the American environment in relation to its main subject on forms of organized Christianity transplanted from Europe, as were most of the American Protestant forms. For this commission there were prepared studies of historical developments in most of the principal American denominations, by members of them. It was a striking fact that only one of these studies said anything about the effect of the American environment on the conception of the church. The writers of these reports were as likely as any men in their respective communions to be interested in this. It was to be expected that they would give attention to it, in view of the inclusion in the commission's program of “The Nature” of the church. But the result was as stated. The writers, except one, had much to say about the effect of American conditions on the organization and life and action of the church, but about doctrine, about the idea of the church—no.