ANGLICAN CHURCH. 



17 



Church of England the exclusive control, ac- 

 cording to her own doctrines and discipline, of 

 the use of her own churchyards ; and that this 

 House desires, by this solemn protest, to deliver 

 itself of all responsibility as to any dishonor 

 which may be done to Almighty God by the 

 character of the worship which, in the event 

 of the passage of this bill, may hereafter be 

 offered in her churchyards." A committee was 

 appointed to consider the best method of pro- 

 viding for Episcopal supervision over Anglican 

 congregations in the North of Europe. The 

 Archbishop was deputed to confer with the 

 Government respecting an increase in the num- 

 ber of elected proctors, and a change in the 

 mode of elections and the qualifications of elec- 

 tors. The bishops agreed that they would use 

 all their influence in Parliament to secure the 

 incorporation in the bill for taking the census 

 in 1881 of a provision for taking a religious cen- 

 sus in England. 



The second meeting of the Convocation was 

 held July 13th. A committee of both Houses 

 was appointed to consider how best to provide 

 for Episcopal supervision over Anglican con- 

 gregations in the North of Europe. The com- 

 mittee to whom the subject of the Burials Bill 

 had been referred, made a report suggesting 

 that, if the bill should not be passed, both the 

 Church and dissenters should give up the fu- 

 neral services at the grave, and hold them only 

 at their houses of worship. This clause was 

 struck out by vote of the Convocation, and the 

 report was referred back to the committee. 

 The Convocation of York met at the same 

 time, and took action in favor of securing pro- 

 vision for a religious census of England in the 

 bill for a general census which was about to 

 be presented to Parliament. 



The eighty-first annual meeting of the Church 

 Missionary Society was held in London, May 

 4th. The Earl of Chichester presided. The 

 total amount of contributions given to the So- 

 ciety during the year had been 221,723, and 

 the expenditures had been 200,307. The 

 capital fund had been restored to its original 

 figure of 68,281. The committee had resolved 

 to set apart 60,000 as the permanent work- 

 ing capital of the Society, and to place the re- 

 mainder of the fund to a separate account, to 

 be called the contingency fund. Four hundred 

 and eighty clergymen, of whom 218 were Euro- 

 pean, were engaged in the work of the Society, 

 with 2,686 native and country-born Christian 

 catechists. The number of communicants in 

 the mission churches was 28,510. 



Tiie receipts of the Society for the Propaga- 

 tion of the Gospel for 1879 were: from collec- 

 tions and subscriptions to the general fund, 71,- 

 099 ; from legacies, 10,934 ; from dividends, 

 4,753; total in the general fund, 86,787. 

 Other funds had been appropriated to the 

 amount of 9.943, and special funds amounted 

 to 34,943, making the entire income of all 

 classes, 131,674. The Society had employed 

 593 missionaries. 



VOL. xx. 2 A 



The twelfth annual Conference of the Soci- 

 ety for the Liberation of Religion from State 

 Patronage and Control, was held in London, 

 June 10th. Mr. H. Lee, M. P., presided. The 

 report stated that the receipts of the Society 

 for the year had been 11,398, and the ex- 

 penditures 10,848. Seven million copies of 

 publications had been issued, and nearly two 

 thousand meetings had been held. Resolu- 

 tions were adopted declaring that the Confer- 

 ence viewed with satisfaction the results of 

 the recent elections in Scotland, ;ind the indi- 

 cations that the question of disestablishment 

 was not to remain in abeyance till another 

 election; that it approved of Mr. Roundell's 

 motion affirming the inexpediency of retaining 

 clerical restrictions in connection with any 

 headship or fellowship in any college of Oxford 

 or Cambridge, and also of Mr. Bryce's pro- 

 posal for the abolition of such restrictions in 

 connection with professorships of Hebrew and 

 ecclesiastical history ; that the Public Worship 

 Regulation Act had failed to accomplish its 

 professed object ; expressing the belief that a 

 remedy for the evils which afflict the Church 

 would be found, not in fresh legislation, but in 

 employing the spiritual forces of a free church ; 

 and expressing gratification at the early intro- 

 duction of the Burials Bill, and a hope that it 

 might be satisfactorily amended. 



The twentieth annual Church Congress was 

 held in Leicester, beginning September 27th. 

 The opening sermons were preached by the 

 Archbishop of York and the Dean of Llandaff. 

 The Bishop of Peterborough presided at the 

 Congress. Papers were read and discussed on 

 subjects relating to the foreign missions of the 

 Church, " The Church and the Poor " ; " The 

 Religious Condition of the Nation " ; " The 

 Church in relation to the Organization of La- 

 bor " ; " Upper and Middle Class Education ; its 

 Present Condition, and how to maintain and 

 promote its Religious Character"; "Sunday- 

 Closing and Local Option " ; " The Internal 

 Unity of the Church, and the Influence of the 

 Three Great Schools of Thought in the Church 

 of England upon each other, and upon the 

 Church " ; " The Existing Forms of Unbelief; 

 their Social and Moral Tendencies " ; " The 

 Cathedral System ; how to reform it so as to 

 strengthen the Relations of the Cathedral to the 

 Diocese, and to make each Cathedral a more 

 Efficient Center of Religious Equality " ; " The 

 Duty of the Church as regards Civil Laws re- 

 lating to Marriage and Divorce" ; " The Com- 

 munion of Saints ; how may it be strengthened 

 and manifested " ; *' Popular Recreations ; how 

 to improve them ; Light Literature and the 

 Stage." The Congress was visited by a depu- 

 tation representing the nonconformist minis- 

 ters of Leicester, bidding it welcome to the 

 town. The Bishop of Peterborough responded 

 in a courteous address. 



The Synod of the Episcopal Church in Ire- 

 land met in Dublin, April 20th, and was opened 

 with an address from the Lord Primate. The 



