770 



UNITARIANS. 



UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST. 



at Leeds, April 24. Papers were read by the 

 Rev. T. W. Freckelton and Mr. John Dendy, 

 Jr., on the best means of commending free 

 Christianity to public favor. Propositions 

 were made for building chapels at Oxford and 

 Cambridge to hold Unitarian students to their 

 faith. An address on " The Organization of 

 our Churches," by Dr. Martineau, attracted 

 much attention. The speaker was not satisfied 

 with the Congregational system, or with the 

 Unitarian name. He proposed a Presbyterian 

 organization, and the name English Presbyte- 

 rian. A committee was appointed to consider 

 the questions raised, and call a special confer- 

 ence to consider its report. 



The British and Foreign Unitarian Associa- 

 tion met in London, May 23, and was opened 

 with a sermon by Prof. Estlin Carpenter, who 

 urged that theology be based on the broadest 

 human experience. The Unitarian churches 

 of the United States, the Reformed Church of 

 France, and the Sadharan Brahmo Somaj of 

 India were represented by visiting delegates. 

 Mr. Harry Rawson, J. P., of Manchester, pre- 

 sided. A diminished income was reported. 

 Papers were read on " Some Special Difficul- 

 ties of Unitarianism To-day, and how to over- 

 come them," in which the character of the re- 

 ligious services in the chapels was discussed. 

 The autumnal meeting of the association was 

 held in Newcastle in October. A paper un- 

 favorable to the scheme of church organization 

 which had been presented by Dr. Martineau, 

 was read by Dr. Glendining. 



The council of the Association issued a pro- 

 test against the proposals of the Education 

 Commission, in which it was affirmed that the 

 only satisfactory scheme of national education 

 is one placing the management of the schools 

 under the control of those who are compelled 

 to contribute to their support. Since the last 

 report till October, 1888, 12,000 tracts had 

 been sent out, and 86 copies of Channing ? s 

 works, with other books, had been presented in 

 answer to applications. 



The Unitarian Sunday - School Association 

 in Great Britain includes 251 schools, with 

 32,244 pupils and 3,989 teachers. It returned 

 an income for the year of 1,067. 



Unitarians in Continental Europe. The number 

 of Unitarian churches in Hungary where 

 Unitarianism was introduced into Transylvania 

 in 1563 is 110, and the number of registered 

 Unitarians is 57,000. The head of the organi- 

 zation is Bishop Joseph Ferencz, who has un- 

 der him eight rural deans and an ecclesiastical 

 council of 350 members. The higher educa- 

 tion is provided for by the college at Klausen- 

 burg, where there are five theological and nine 

 ordinary professors, with assistant professors 

 and teachers; and the middle schools at Thor- 

 da and Szekely Keresztur. The Church has a 

 considerable religious literature, including a 

 periodical organ, " The Christian Seed-Sower." 



The American " Year-Book " mentions sev- 

 eral organizations in other European countries 



outside of the British Empire and Hungary, 

 which, without taking the Unitarian name, 

 are in substantial agreement with the Unita- 

 rian faith. A considerable number of the 225 

 Protestant churches in Austria are liberal in 

 their theology. The Protestanten Verein of 

 Germany has about 40 branches and 27,000 

 members, and supports two missionaries in 

 Japan. The Free Christian Association in 

 Switzerland is active in the Protestant cantons. 

 The Protestant Union of Holland has 13,000 

 members. A minority of the Protestants of 

 France hold liberal views. The Spanish Evan- 

 gelical Church includes a few liberal congrega- 

 tions. The Liberals in Sweden, while having 

 societies similar to the Protestant unions, re- 

 tain their membership in the state church. 

 Services of a Unitarian type are held in Rome 

 and Brussels. The Unitarian faith is repre- 

 sented in Salem, Madras, and Calcutta, India. 

 A missionary is supported in Tokio, Japan, by 

 the American L T nitarian Association, the Brit- 

 ish and Foreign Unitarian Association co-op- 

 operating. 



UNITED BRETHREN Df CHRIST. The follow- 

 ing is a summary of the statistics of this 

 Church, as they are given in the "United 

 Brethren Year-Book" for 1889: Number of 

 bishops, 6 ; of organized churches, 445 ; of 

 itinerant preachers, 1,490 ; of local preachers, 

 560 ; of members, 204,517 ; of Sunday-schools, 

 3,509, with 32,026 officers and teachers and 

 219,846 pupils; of church edifices, 2,609, hav- 

 ing a total value of $3,757,161 ; of parsonages, 

 493, valued at $401,959. Total amount of con- 

 tributions, $1,036,086 ; of which $474,591 were 

 for preachers' salaries, $366,258 for church 

 expenses, $3,566 for bishops, $3,566 for preach- 

 ers 1 aid, $91,134 for missions, $1,964 for church 

 erection, and the remainder for Sunday-school 

 and educational purposes. The property of the 

 Publishing-House at Dayton, Ohio, is valued at 

 $252,987 above indebtedness ; its receipts from 

 business for the year ending April 1, 1888, 

 were $156,198. The educational institutions 

 include 9 colleges, 6 academies and seminaries, 

 and 1 Biblical seminary. The United Brethren 

 Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Soci- 

 ety received during its fiscal year $66,238. It 

 operates missions in West Africa, Germany, 

 Canada, and the United States, with a sta- 

 tion among the Chinese at Walla Walla, Wash- 

 ington Territory, and gives aid to eighteen 

 conferences. The two missions in Africa re- 

 turned 27 stations, reaching 328 towns; 12 

 organized churches, 6 American and 25 native 

 missionaries; 4 ordained and 25 unordained 

 preachers; 4,105 members; 14 Sunday-schools, 

 with 33 teachers and officers and 564 pupils; 

 12 day schools, with 12 teachers and 500 

 pupils; 11 church-houses, 8 mission residences, 

 and property valued at $66,000. The German 

 mission returned 720 members and 345 pupils 

 in Sunday-schools. The society has an inter- 

 est-bearing fund of $85,264, and has expended 

 since its organization in 1853, $2,301,908. 



