FEDERATION OF CHURCHES. 



in i nil. against which there is no protection except 

 ab.-olute extermination. 



Resolved, That we regard the prevalence of 

 this insect in Massachusetts as a menace to the 

 entire country, and feel that \ve may properly 

 urge the authorities of that State to destroy it 

 utterly, on the same principle that justifies the 

 public in expecting every householder to extin- 

 guish a conflagration on his own premises." 



An amendment to the constitution, providing 

 for an increase in the number of delegates that 

 constitute the congress, was submitted by W. L. 

 Ames, ot Wisconsin. Under the constitution the 

 proposed amendment lies on the table until the 

 next annual meeting, when it will be acted on. 

 At present the number of regular delegates ap- 

 pointed by the governors of the various States, 

 which constitutes very nearly all the voting mem- 

 bership of the congress, is limited to one from 

 each congressional district and two from each 

 State at large. The proposed amendment will 

 make it possible for the governors to appoint as 

 many as ten delegates from each congressional 

 district. 



The attendance at this meeting was not so large 

 as it has been at some previous meetings. Every 

 delegate present was a farmer, and the proceedings 

 were characterized throughout by unusual earnest- 

 ness, carefulness, and patriotic feeling. The sen- 

 timent of the congress was that the next meeting- 

 place, which is to be selected by the executive com- 

 mittee, should be Richmond, Va., or some point 

 in North Carolina. 



FEDERATION OF CHURCHES. A confer- 

 ence of persons interested in federated action 

 among churches and Christian workers met in 

 Philadelphia, Pa., Feb. 5 and 6, under the call of 

 the National Committee, and was attended by 

 lepresentatives of about ten denominations from 

 New England and the Middle States, including 

 Ohio. Accounts were given of an interdenomina- 

 tional commission in Maine representing the five 

 leading denominations of the State; of the promo- 

 tion of cooperation by the Evangelical Alliance 

 in Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Erie, Pa., and 

 other places; of the federations established in 

 Hartford and New Haven, Conn., New York, Jer- 

 sey City, N. J., Cleveland, Ohio, and Syracuse, 

 N. Y.; of the organization of a new federation in 

 Chicago; and of the work of the State federation 

 in New York. A National Federation of Chris- 

 tian Churches and Workers was formed, of which 

 Mr. J. Cleveland Cady, of New York, was chosen 

 president, and for which an executive board of 

 15 clergymen and 15 laymen was constituted. 



The federation in New York city performs a 

 part of the work of a home missionary society, 

 for the purpose of which the city is systematically 

 divided into districts corresponding with the As- 

 sembly districts, each of which is represented by 

 an auxiliary cooperating with the federation in 

 making a canvass of its territory in order to 

 ascertain the religious relations and social, eco- 

 nomical, and civic conditions of the people. The 

 plan in operation calls for an annual canvass of 

 one-fifth of the enlarged city. A review of the 

 work accomplished by the federation since its 

 formation in 1890 was published in the periodical 

 Federation for January, 1901, by the executive 

 secretary, the Rev. Walter Laidlaw. One of 

 the results of it was the establishment of sev- 

 eral denominational enterprises through interde- 

 nominational induction and suggestion. Among 

 the enterprises enumerated as thus started were 

 3 Protestant Episcopal, 2 Lutheran, and 1 Baptist. 

 In a sociological canvass much attention had been 

 given to facts of importance on the problem of 



tenement-houses, and one of the addresses made 

 at the annual meeting, Jan. 29, was on Federa- 

 tion from the Tenement-House Improvement 

 Standpoint, by Dr. E. R. L. Gould. The expenses 

 of the work of the federation were, in 1896, 

 $2,502; in 1897, $4,421; in 1898, $4,820; in 1899, 

 $6,874; in all, including odd cents, $18,618. The 

 receipts during the same time were $18,418. The 

 literature of the organization had been requested 

 in 26 States of the American Union, in places in 

 Canada, in Glasgow, Scotland, and in London. It 

 was represented at this meeting that 110 places 

 in the United States had become interested in 

 the plan; that State federations had been organ- 

 ized in Maine, Connecticut, Vermont, Pennsyl- 

 vania, and New York, and the formation of sev- 

 eral city federations and the national federation 

 was mentioned. 



In 1901 the canvasses of Greater New York 

 had resulted in turning over to church care more 

 than 20,000 unchurched families, enlisting the co- 

 operation of more than 20 religious societies, and 

 promoting several benevolences and material im- 

 provements. 



A State board of federation has been formed 

 in Massachusetts. 



The second annual Conference of the Federation 

 of Churches and Christian Workers of the State 

 of New York was held in Rochester, Nov. 12 and 

 13, and was attended by representatives of the 

 Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Protestant 

 Episcopal, Congregational, Lutheran, Reformed, 

 Unitarian, and Universalist Churches, and a 

 Jewish rabbi. Reports were made of what had 

 been accomplished in the different towns and 

 cities; work that took the various shapes of re- 

 pression of civic unrighteousness, restraint of the 

 saloon, of Sabbath desecration, and of the degra- 

 dation of the young; and evangelistic labors. 

 Thorough cooperation had been effected, and all 

 the enterprises engaged in had been carried on in 

 harmony and with practical efficiency. Several 

 addresses were made, bearing upon the purposes 

 of the federation and the fields of work open to it. 



At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the 

 proposed Federation of Evangelical Churches and 

 Christian Workers in Ohio, held at Colmnbus, 

 June 3, Dr. E. B. Sanford reported that in his tour 

 of the State as representative of the committee he 

 had found great interest manifested in the move- 

 ment, and that federations were formed or being 

 formed in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Springfield, Co- 

 lumbus, Xenia, Chillicothe, Toledo, Findlay, Lima, 

 Mansfield, Oberlin, Marietta, and Steubenville. A 

 convention for perfecting the full State organiza- 

 tion was appointed, to be held at Columbus, Dec. 

 3, each local federation to be represented by two 

 delegates. 



National Council (English) of Evangelical 

 Free Churches. The Free Church Year-Book for 

 1901 gives statistics showing that the Evangelical 

 Free Churches in England making returns report 

 1,910,302 communicants, 384,632 teaqjiers and 

 3,283,600 pupils in Sunday-schools, 9,114 ministers 

 at work, 50,919 local preachers, and 8,100,652 sit- 

 tings. Tables in the same book represent that 

 the Anglican Church provides 6,979,150 sit- 

 tings and has 1,941,760 communicants and 207,539 

 teachers and 2,865,291 pupils in Sunday-schools; 

 while the Official Year-Book of the Church of 

 England gives the number of sittings provided by 

 Anglican churches as 7,000,375. 



The eighth annual meeting of the (English) 

 National Council of the Evangelical Free Churches 

 was held at Cardiff, Wales, March 12 and 13. The 

 Rev. C. H. Kelly, retiring president, spoke, in the 

 opening sermon, on the reality and value of 



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