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

Comity is a term that loosely refers to all forms of agreement and cooperation on the mission field, but more strictly it refers to the mutual division of territory into spheres of mission work and to agreement not to interfere with the converts or affairs of other missions. Its purpose was to prevent wasteful duplication, competition, and a confusing diversity in the presentation of the gospel, but it produced "denominationalism by geography" (Beaver, 1971:123a). It also increased the likelihood that individual missions would have de facto responsibility for a specific community or caste group even though such ethnic exclusiveness went against the better judgment of some missionaries....

Williams, Raymond Brady (1996). Christian Pluralism in the United States: The Indian Immigrant Experience. Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions, Volume 9. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 75. ISBN 0-521-57016-6.

An outline for the article

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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

Comity is a term that loosely refers to all forms of agreement and cooperation on the mission field, but more strictly it refers to the mutual division of territory into spheres of mission work and to agreement not to interfere with the converts or affairs of other missions. Its purpose was to prevent wasteful duplication, competition, and a confusing diversity in the presentation of the gospel, but it produced "denominationalism by geography" (Beaver, 1971:123a). It also increased the likelihood that individual missions would have de facto responsibility for a specific community or caste group even though such ethnic exclusiveness went against the better judgment of some missionaries....



Williams, Raymond Brady (1996). Christian Pluralism in the United States: The Indian Immigrant Experience. Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions, Volume 9. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 75. ISBN 0-521-57016-6.

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

Sources for faith groups comity

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  • 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,

Episcopal Church. MOREHOUSE PUBLISHING CO. MILWAUKEE, WIS.

  • Garrard-Burnett, Virginia (1998). Protestantism in Guatemala: Living in the New Jerusalem. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. pp. 29–31, 37–40, 85–86, 126, 177. ISBN 0-292-72816-6. (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.)


"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

drs (talk) 01:24, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Also available at:

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

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"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

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"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."