321 



the Presbyterians 450,000, the Methodists 65,000. Congregationalists and Baptists are 

 very thinly represented. 



Wales. In view of the discussion on Welsh Disestablishment it may be convenient to 

 set out the figures supplied to the recent Royal Commission on the basis of the 1901 census: 

 Communicants of the Anglican Church, 193,081; Members of Congregational Churches, 

 175,147; Members of Calvinistic Methodist Churches, 170,617; Members of Baptist 

 Churches, 143,835; Members of Wesleyan Churches, 40,811; Members of smaller denomina- 

 tions, 19,870; Roman Catholics, 64,800. There are 4865 Free Church ministers, 1,597 

 Anglican clergy; 611,083 nonconformist Sunday scholars and 168,786 Anglican. 



Free Church Commission. In view of the decrease in membership and of other 

 problems of related but more general interest, e.g. the relation of the Free Churches to 

 the spiritual and other needs of the present day, a commission of inquiry has been 

 arranged which is representative of every shade of Free Church polity. The initial 

 step was taken by Rev. F. B. Meyer, and his plan of a number of boards each charged 

 with some definite task after the fashion of the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910 

 was approved at the annual meeting of the National Free Church Council at Chelten- 

 ham in March 1912. These boards have now been constituted and will consider such 

 questions as (i) the Free Church message, (2) the ministry and it's training including 

 lay and feminine agencies, (3) the Institutional Church, (4) overlapping and co-operation 

 (5) auxiliary agencies, (6) the laws of spiritual revival, (7) relationship to other churches. 

 At the head of the whole investigation is Dr. J. Scott Lidgett, and there is every reason 

 to believe that the enquiry will result in such a body of evidence and opinion that will 

 enable the conference and the churches which it represents to arrive at a cool and rea- 

 soned appraisement of the situation, and to formulate some definite lines of action. The 

 task in hand is much more than a question of " Why people do not attend church;" it is 

 a consideration of the place and function of the church in modern civilisation. 



Public Activities. The Free Churches are keenly alive to current sociological prob- 

 lems and every denomination has its Social Service Union or Association. These or- 

 ganisations work largely through study circles in individual churches and through 

 conferences, and have produced some pertinent literary contributions. This is especial- 

 ly true of the Wesleyan Methodist Union. Some of the best known University Settle- 

 ments in London are directly connected with the Free Churches, e.g. the Leysian 

 Mission and the Bermondsey Settlement (Wesleyan), and Mansfield House in Canning 

 Town (Congregational). In Manchester and Bradford too the students of theological 

 colleges engage in settlement work, and the various Institutional Churches (E. B. xiv, 

 650) and Central Missions may also claim to be working along kindred line's. Inciden- 

 tally this branch of endeavour is proving a remarkable factor in drawing together churches 

 separated in creed and polity. A very significant gathering of all the Social Service 

 Unions was held at Swanwick in June 1912, when representatives of the Free Churches 

 met Unitarians, Angliqans and Roman Catholics in mutual confidence and friendship. 

 The churches have been accused of callousness in standing apart from social questions, 

 and of futile inexperience when they have attempted to intervene. Continued study 

 and conference along the line indicated above should help to remove both these re- 

 proaches, while it must always be remembered that the function of the churches is to 

 quicken conscience and sympathy rather than to frame programmes. 



Separate churches have also been concerned directly with special problems. The 

 Congregational Union "has drawn together in Conference a number of employers and 

 employes to discuss the question of labour unrest, and the Society of Friends has been 

 concerned .with the problem of religion and business, which was raised in a -somewhat 

 acute form by the connection of some leading members of the Society with newspapers 

 that publish betting news. The Free Churches as a whole have given hearty support to 

 all movements for securing a weekly rest-day for all workers, and for the ending of the 

 rubber atrocities on the Congo and in the Putumayo. They have also done their part 

 in the endeavour to suppress the white slave traffic; and it was largely due to the efforts 

 of the Rev. F. B. Meyer, who enlisted the support of the Archbishop of Canterbury and 

 other leaders, that the proposed prize-fight between Johnson and Wells at Earl's Court, 

 London, in September 1911 was abandoned. 



