REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



REFUNDING. 



751 



1,334; communicants, 5,842. Amount report- 

 ed fur current expenses, $102,068; General 

 and Missionary Fund, $7,988; Sunday-school 

 offerings, $4,237; for other benevolent pur- 

 poses, $18,685; total, $127,828. Present value 

 of church property, $940,536. During the year 

 new congregations have been formed in Wil- 

 mington, Del., Detroit, Mich., Indianapolis, 

 Ind., and Cincinnati, O. Six church buildings 

 have been opened and four begun during the 

 year, and 27 ministers have been added to the 

 clergy list, which now numbers bishops, 6; 

 presbyters, 70; deacons, 24; total, 100. 



The seventh General Council of the Re- 

 formed Episcopal Church met in Chicago, 

 May 28th. Bishop W. R. Nicholson was elected 

 Presiding Bishop for the ensuing year. Differ- 

 ences had prevailed during the year between 

 Bishop Gregg and his associates in Great Brit- 

 ain, threatening to divide the Church in that 

 country. In consequence of them, Bishop 

 Gregg had asked for letters of dismission, but 

 the General Committee had declined to grant 

 them. The action of the General Committee 

 was approved, and the members of the Church 

 in England were advised to meet together in 

 General Synod and " retrace steps " ; for the 

 better success of which the Council advised 

 " that all correspondence be mutually surren- 

 dered for destruction which bears on the ex- 

 isting differences ; that the said Synod be pre- 

 sided over by a temporary presiding officer ; 

 that the brethren do then choose a Bishop to 

 preside over their deliberations, and then pro- 

 ceed to organize their Synod and declare abro- 

 gated all canons, rules, and regulations which 

 are plainly inconsistent with the principles of 

 this Church, and substitute therefor such others 

 as in the wisdom of the assembled brethren may 

 be determined on as constitutional." The Syn- 

 od under Bishop Sugden was recognized aa 

 the true Synod of the Church in Great Britain. 

 Several alterations in the Prayer-Book, which 

 were chiefly of a verbal character, or intended 

 to make the position of the Church in respect 

 to ritual more clear, were approved for final 

 submission to the next General Council. Two 

 reports from a committee respecting the epis- 

 copate came to this meeting from the previous 

 meeting of the General Council. The majority 

 report recommended that the Synods be au- 

 thorized to nominate their bishops for ap- 

 proval and confirmation by the General Coun- 

 cil ; the minority report recommended that the 

 right to appoint the bishops be vested in the 

 General Council. The nomination of the Rev. 

 A. S. Richardson by the Synod of Great Britain 

 was confirmed. The Rev. P. F. Stevens was 

 elected Bishop for the special, and the Rev. J. 

 A. Latane for the general, missionary jurisdic- 

 tion of the South. 



The General Synod of the Reformed Episco- 

 pal Church in the United Kingdom (under 

 Bishop Gregg), at its meeting held in Sidcup, 

 Kent, in July, 1879, condemned the action of 

 the General Council in America in confirming 



the election of Bishop Richardson; declared 

 his election, confirmation, and consecration 

 void and not to be recognized ; resolved that 

 the course of the General Council in this mat- 

 tor had created an unexpected and insurmount- 

 able " obstacle " to carrying into effect its own 

 recommendation for a compromise between 

 the two branches of the Reformed Episcopal 

 Church in Great Britain ; and approved the 

 course which had been pursued by Bishop Gregg 

 as justified by the necessities of the case. 



In June, 1879, the Rev. Dr. B. B. Ussher, 

 of St. Bartholomew's Church, Montreal, with 

 the congregation of the church, withdrew 

 from connection with the General Council and 

 took steps for uniting with the Reformed 

 Episcopal Church of the United Kingdom un- 

 der Bishop Gregg. The cause of this action 

 was dissatisfaction with the action of the Gen- 

 eral Council and the bishops with reference to 

 the Church in Canada. The Presiding Bishop, 

 after examining into the trouble, declaring that 

 a crisis had arisen in the interests of the Church 

 in the Dominion, issued a pastoral letter call- 

 ing a representative convention of the churches 

 in Canada to meet at Ottawa, July 30th, for 

 the purpose of organizing a Synod and nomi- 

 nating a Bishop. The Convention was attended 

 by the delegates of eleven churches in Nova 

 Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. 

 Bishop Latane was chosen to preside. A com- 

 mittee of three presbyters and three laymen was 

 appointed to frame a constitution for a Synod 

 to be submitted to the next meeting of the 

 Convention for approval. The Presiding Bish- 

 op and the General Committee were requested 

 " to take steps to have a Bishop elected, or 

 make provision that one of the present bishops 

 be assigned to the special charge and care of the 

 Reformed Episcopal churches in the Dominion 

 of Canada until the proposed Synod for Cana- 

 da be organized and nominate its own Bishop." 

 A resolution was adopted declaring that the 

 Convention were satisfied to remain in the 

 present position of the Canadian churches with 

 regard to the General Council, and deprecat- 

 ing any separation from the Reformed Episco^ 

 pal Church as it was originally organized by 

 the late Bishop Cummins. An annual conven- 

 tion of the Canadian churches was decided 

 upon, the next one to be held in the city of 

 Montreal on the last Wednesday of May, 1880, 

 and to be composed of all the clergy of the 

 Church in the Dominion, including deacons 

 who are engaged in church work, and one lav 

 delegate from each parish, with one additional 

 delegate for every fifty communicants in the 

 parish. 



REFUNDING THE NATIONAL DEBT. 

 The refunding of the national debt for the pur- 

 pose of securing a lower rate of interest or ex- 

 tending the period of payment has from time 

 to time engaged the attention of Congress ever 

 since the organization of the Government under 

 the Constitution in 1789. 



The Confederation of States which preceded 



