ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



25 



clined to assume the responsibility of conse- 

 crating a bishop without the royal license. 



The Church Congress met at Bath, October 

 7th, and closed October 10th. It was more 

 largely attended than any previous Congress, 

 and its proceedings were regarded with un- 

 usual attention. The bishop of the diocese 

 (Bath and Wells) presided at the Congress. 

 Papers were read as follows : On " The 

 Church's Duty in regard to Strikes and La- 

 bor," the Bishop of Oxford and the Rev. 

 Llewellyn Davis; "Lay Agency," the Rev. 

 W. Cudman and the Rev. N. I). Nihill ; 

 "Christian Almsgiving in Relation to Pauper- 

 ism and the Existing State of Society," Earl 

 Nelson and the Rev. Dr. Hannah ; " Foreign 

 Minions," Sir Burtle Frere and the Rev. K. 



C. Stuart; "The Supply and Preparation of 

 Candidates for Orders," Dean Hornell, Canon 

 King, Canon Ashley, and Prebendary Church ; 

 " The Union of Church and State," the 

 Dean of Exeter and Sir Stafford Northcote ; 

 "The Duty of the Church in regard to the 

 Temperance Movement," Canon Ellison; "The 

 Present Need and the Best Means of quicken- 

 ing Interest in Theological Thought," the 

 Rev. P. J. Medd and Canon Lightfoot ; " The 

 increase of the Episcopacy and Church Organ- 

 ization in Synods, Conferences, and Parochial 

 Councils," the Rev. J. F. Griffith and Mr. 

 F. H. Dickinson ; ' The Appropriation of 

 Seats as affecting a National Church," the 

 Rev. Archer Gurney and the Rev. R. C. Bil- 

 ling ; " Church Endowments with special 

 reference to Recent Legislation," the Arch- 

 il -neon of Lindisfarne and Prebendary Fagan ; 

 "Cathedrals ami Chapters: their Proper Work 

 and Influence," Canon Selwyn and Mr. E. A. 

 Freeman; "The Means of bringing the Influ- 

 ence of the Church to bear upon the Mass of 

 the People," Bishop Ryan and the Rev. W. 



D. Madagan; "The Life of Godliness; intel- 

 lectual, elevational, practical," the Rev. E. 

 Garbette and the Rev. R. M. Benson ; " The 

 Itflijiious Wants and Claims of Children, and 

 the Methods of providing for them before and 

 after Confirmation," the Rev. R. W. Randall 

 and Mr. Eugene Stock ; " Church Music," 

 Mr. J. Barnby. The readings of the several 

 papers were followed by informal discussions 

 of the topics to which they respectively re- 



The one hundred and seventy-second anni- 

 versary of the Society for the Propagation of 

 tlif Goipel in Foreign Parts was held on the 

 2!lth of April. The Archbishop of Canterbury 

 presided. The report represented the receipts 

 of the Society for the year to have been 

 113,123, and stated that they were the largest 

 the Society had ever had in a single year. 

 The Society had supported during the year, 

 wholly or in part, 418 ordained clergymen, of 

 whom 35 were natives; 855 catechists; and 

 about 300 students in various foreign colleges. 



The seventy - fourth anniversary of the 

 Church Mittionary Society was held on the 



6th of May. The receipts from associations 

 during the year were 125,580, this being the 

 highest amount yet attained, and an advance 

 of 12,088 on the like receipts of the previous 

 year. The total receipts of the Society for 

 the year were 159,230, and the expenditures 

 167,394. The following is a summary of the 

 statistics of all the missions: 



Stations 15* 



Cle rfrymen. European 204 



Clergymen, native and country born 148 



ToUJ of clergymen 841 



European laymen, school-muster*, lay agents, printers, 



tc 14 



European female teachers (exclusive of missionaries' 



wives) 12 



Native and country born Christian catechists, and 



teachers of all classes, not sent from home 1.923 



Number of communicants 11S72) 21,043 



Complete returns from several of the mis- 

 sions had not been received at the time of 

 making the report. The Society had with- 

 drawn from 77 stations, which had been 

 chiefly added to parochial establishments in 

 the West Indies, or transferred to the native 

 Church in Sierra Leone. These statistics con- 

 tained 10 native clergy, 4,356 communicants, 

 and 12,866 scholars. 



II. THE Cut KCH OF IRELAND. The General 

 Synod of the Church of Ireland met in Dublin 

 April 16th. The Bishop of Kildare presided. 

 One of the first subjects of discussion related 

 to the condition of the Divinity School in the 

 event that Mr. Fawcett's bill for the abolition 

 of religious tests in the universities should be- 

 come a law. Resolutions were passed declar- 

 ing "that the continuance of the Divinity 

 School, which is at present connected with 

 Trinity College and the University of Dublin, 

 with proper securities for the orthodoxy of its 

 teaching, is essential to the welfare of the 

 Church of Ireland," and " that in this view it 

 is necessary that the divinity professorships 

 be exempted from the proposed abolition of 

 all religious tests in Trinity College and the 

 University of Dublin until due provision shall 

 be made for the separation and adequate en- 

 dowment of the Divinity School." A propo- 

 sition was agreed to for the insertion before 

 the communion service of the parenthetical 

 words, "those who do not intend to commu- 

 nicate having had an opportunity of with- 

 drawing." The Synod agreed to the insertion, 

 after the words preceding the exhortation in 

 the communion service, of a note to the effect 

 that the exhortation might be omitted with 

 the consent of the ordinary, provided it were 

 read once in the month at least, and upon 

 all great festivals ; but refused to omit from 

 the second warning exhortation the words 

 which state that it is to be used when the 

 minister sees the people go negligently to the 

 communion. A rubric was adopted allowing 

 the words of administration to be said to a 

 whole, nvilful at once in case there (ire great 

 numbers of communicants; but it was pro- 

 vided that any communicant may require the 



