PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



709 



163,373. Amount of contributions for the 

 year, 157,348; value of church property, 

 1,000,000. 



The General Assembly met at Bala, June 

 15th. The Rev. T. Levi, of Aberystwyth, was 

 chosen Moderator. 



XV. WALLOON CHURCHES. The annual 

 synod of the Walloon churches was held in Rot- 

 terdam in July. The churches are in a condi- 

 tion of decline, owing to the gradual dying 

 out of the use of the French language, and 

 only those at Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and the 

 Hague, out of the seventeen organizations still 

 in existence, seem to be prospering. In view 

 of these facts, the synod appointed a commit- 

 tee to collect materials for a history of the 

 churches since their foundation by the Wal- 

 loons, who sought a refuge in Holland in the 

 time of the Reformation. 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

 Whittaker's " Protestant Episcopal Almanac 

 and Parochial List " for 1883 gives statistics 

 for this Church of forty-eight dioceses and six- 

 teen missionary jurisdictions (of which twelve 

 are in the United States and Territories and 

 four in foreign mission fields), of which the 

 following is a summary: Number of bishops, 

 66; number of clergy (priests and deacons), 

 3,513, or, including the bishops, 3,579 ; number 

 of parishes, 3,047 ; number of missions, 1,310; 

 whole number of communicants, 348,888; 

 number of candidates for orders, 396 ; number 

 of ordinations, 132 of deacons, 116 of priests; 

 number of baptisms, 45,817 ; of confirmations, 

 26,091 ; number of Sunday-school teachers, 

 34,675 ; of Sunday-school scholars, 308,591. 

 Total amount of contributions by the churches, 

 $8,066,404. 



" Whittaker's Almanac " gives an exhibit of 

 the ratio of communicants to the population 

 in five decades, beginning in 1830, which shows 

 the advancing growth of the Church as follows: 

 In 1830 there was one communicant to every 

 410 of the population; in 1840, one to every 

 308 ; in 1850, one to 292 ; in 1860, one to 214 ; 

 in 1870, one to 175 ; in 1880, one to 151. 



THE PRESIDING BISHOP'S FIFTIETH ANNIVER- 

 SARY. The fiftieth anniversary of the conse- 

 cration of Presiding Bishop Smith, which took 

 place, together with the consecrations of Bish- 

 ops Mcllvaine, Doane, and Hopkins, October 

 31, 1832, was celebrated in the city of New 

 York on October 31st. Special religious services 

 were held on the previous day (Sunday), com- 

 memorative of the event, in St. Paul's Chapel, 

 when appropriate discourses were delivered by 

 the Bishop of Albany and the Rev. Dr. Hop- 

 kins. The celebration itself was marked by 

 the presentation of congratulatory addresses 

 from the clergy of New York, the bishops of 

 the Church of England, the Episcopate of the 

 Church in the United States, the Standing Com- 

 mittee of the Presiding Bishop's own diocese 

 of Kentucky, and the Executive Committee of 

 the Church Temperance Society. A chalice 

 and paten were presented to the bishop, as a 



memorial of the occasion, by churchmen of 

 New York. 



BISHOP OF MISSISSIPPI. At the regular an- 

 nual council of the Diocese of Mississippi, which 

 met in April, the Right Rev. Dr. John N. D. 

 Wingfield, Missionary Bishop of Northern Cali- 

 fornia, was elected Assistant Bishop to Bishop 

 Green, whose advanced age and infirmities 

 rendered such an aid necessary. Bishop Wing- 

 field declined to accept the appointment. A 

 special council of the diocese was called, and 

 met on November 28th, when the Rev. Hugh 

 Miller Thompson, D. D., Rector of Trinity 

 Church, New Orleans, La., was chosen assist- 

 ant bishop. 



CHURCH TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. The Church 

 Temperance Society was founded in 1881, with 

 the aid of Mr. R. Graham, one of the general 

 secretaries of the Church of England Temper- 

 ance Society. Its general constitution is based 

 on principles parallel with those on which that 

 society is founded ; and it is intended to fur- 

 nish a platform on which total abstainers and 

 non-abstainers may work together and in har- 

 mony for the promotion of temperance. It 

 was organized with the presiding bishop as 

 president, and the bishops of the dioceses 

 were invited to act as vice-presidents. The 

 formation of diocesan societies in the several 

 dioceses was recommended, and work was be- 

 gun at once for the establishment of local socie- 

 ties. In March, 1882, letters were sent out to 

 the secretaries of the diocesan conventions, 

 suggesting to them that the organizing secre- 

 tary of the society desired, provided their bish- 

 ops approved of it, to obtain at as early a day 

 as possible the passage of some resolution giv- 

 ing official sanction to the work and objects of 

 the society in their several dioceses, and invit- 

 ing the choice of clerical and lay delegates to 

 attend a National Church Temperance Conven- 

 tion to be held in the city of New York in Oc- 

 tober. These letters were answered by favora- 

 ble replies. The convention was opened Octo- 

 ber 29th with services in the churches of the 

 city, after which business meetings and general 

 public meetings were held on the 30th and 

 31st. At these meetings papers were read or 

 addresses made on " Prohibitory and Licensing 

 Law in the United States," the " Non-observ- 

 ance of Liquor Law in New York City," " The 

 Formation and Management of Parochial Tem- 

 perance Societies," and "Juvenile Societies." 

 At the final public meeting, over which the 

 Bishop of Louisiana presided, Bishop Clark, of 

 Rhode Island, spoke in commendation of the 

 " broad, tolerant, and scriptural methods" of 

 the society, and Bishop Dudley, of Kentucky, 

 made an expression of similar significance. 



SOCIETY FOR THE INCREASE OF THE MINIS- 

 TRY. The receipts of the Society for the In- 

 crease of the Ministry, for the year ending Sep- 

 tember 1st, were $24,722; its expenditures 

 were $23,269. The invested funds amounted 

 to $54,927. Twenty-one scholars of the soci- 

 etv had been admitted to holy orders since 



