Robyn Lebron During the Evangelical revival, men such as Wesley and Whitefield preached across the land, and this enthusiasm touched the Congregationalists By 1811, there were some 799 Congregational churches In the years 1805–1825, the Congregational churches of colonial New England divided into two groups The liberal wing became a separate body called Liberal Christians or Unitarian Congregationalists and, finally, just Harvard University, founded by Congregationalists, became a center of Unitarian training Prompted by a controversy over an appointment in the theology school at Harvard, in 1825 the Unitarian Churches separated from Congregationalism…This group had dissented from Calvinist orthodoxy on the basis of their belief that all persons could find salvation4 (as opposed to the Calvinist idea of predetermination excluding some from salvation) The other wing was called orthodox or Trinitarian Congregationalists and, eventually, just Congregationalists As a result, the Congregationalists developed an increasing sense of denominational identity that was expressed in a series of conventions culminating in the formation of a Ǥ By this time,the denomination had spread far beyond its New England origins, particularly in northern states where New Englanders had migrated The church spread wherever New Englanders migrated, including significant numbers in the Great Lakes region of the Midwest (including Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc.) For the Puritans, the value system of the state was not secular They argued that piety and sound morals are essential to good citizenship and that the state may, therefore, encourage the dissemination of religious truth Hence, in New England (except Rhode Island), the towns were authorized to tax their inhabitants for the support of public worship Ordinarily, this meant tax support for the ministers of the Congregational churches ǡas it was called, came under attack in the eighteenth century by minority groups, particularly the Quakers, Baptists, and Anglicans With the growth of religious pluralism, tax support for public worship became increasingly hard to justify, and the Standing Order was abolished in Connecticut in 1818Ǥ 100