What was Colonial Connecticut's religion?

Question

I have to know for a project asap. We are doing a project on Colonial Connecticut and I can't find anything on the religion

Answer 1

The official church of Connecticut was called "Congregational", based on its original form of government (where matters were decided by the local congregation), but that doesn't quite describe its actual form, much less what the church believed.

In 1708 the legislature asked church leaders to draft a new form of church government, which the state then ratified.

The document they produced was the "Saybrook Platform", which set up a system much more like that of the Presbyterians, with "associations" of pastors and elders and "consociations" of churches given the authority to correct errors within churches, to settle disputes between churches, and "license" pastors.

Also note that the New England Congregationalists of the colonial period were Puritan, that is, "Reformed" (or "Calvinistic") in their teachings, accepted a form of the (Presbyterian) Westminster Confession as a summary of their faith.

http://www.colonialwarsct.org/1708_saybrook_platform.htm

The story of the adoption of the Saybrook Platform is found on pp. 119-124 of *The New England History, from the Discovery of the Continent by the Northmen...* by Charles Wyllys Elliott -- see it here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=1acvUPllWIwC&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=legislature+adopted+saybrook+platform&source=web&ots=dO4iEHjIwo&sig=sjtWNKbWC--wTMbZmYlYhDUzYv0#PPA120,M1

Answer 2

Colonial Connecticut Religion

Answer 3

Congregationalism was established by law as the official religion of the Connecticut and New Haven colonies when the colonies were founded in the 17th century. It remained the official religion until the 1818 constitution was adopted. The congregation of each church was its own governing body, and there was nearly complete independence of all outside ecclesiastical control. After 1708 the churches lost their form of self-government and were placed under the administration of the various counties.

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