8 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



power of appointment by the Governor; that 

 Kolb was thereby ousted from office as soon as 

 the act was passed, and that a special election 

 should have been called to fill the vacancy. In 

 either case the decision was adverse to Kolb, and 

 Commissioner Lane, in accordance with the ma- 

 jority opinion, proceeded to discharge the duties 

 of the office. 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. Property and 

 Revenues of the Church of England. A 

 return has been published of the property and 

 revenues of the Church of England as presented 

 to Parliament by the Ecclesiastical Commission- 

 ers. It shows that the aggregate annual income 

 of the Church amounts to 5,753,557, of which 

 5,469,171 are derived from ancient endowments, 

 and 284,386 from private benefactions since 

 1703. The lands, tithe rent-charges, and other 

 sources of income held by the occupants of archi- 

 episcopal and episcopal sees have produced a 

 gross total of 87,827 from ancient endowments 

 and 11,081 from private benefactions since 

 1703. Cathedral and collegiate churches are 

 credited with property to the yearly value of 

 192,460, the whole of it from ancient endow- 

 ments. The holders of ecclesiastical benefices 

 receive from various enumerated sources a gross 

 income of 3,941,057 from ancient endowments 

 and 272,605 from private benefactions since 

 1703. The total gross Church income in the 

 hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners is 

 1,247,827, subject to deductions for outgoings 

 to an unstated amount, and subject further to 

 permanent charges in favor of bishops, chapters, 

 archdeacons, and incumbents, amounting, " with 

 other liabilities." to more than 950,000 a year. 

 Of this sum, 597,000 are paid to incumbents as 

 augmentation grants, and the rest to bishops 

 chapters, and archdeacons. The governors of 

 Queen Anne's Bounty hold a capital sum of 

 4,456,124, the income from which has been in- 

 cluded in the return of incomes received by the 

 holders of ecclesiastical benefices. They also 

 hold certain lands in the county of Lancaster 

 producing a gross rental of about 700 a year. 

 To these sums must be added, as property belong- 

 ing to the Church, the archbishops' and bishops' 

 residences, with a total ratable value of 11,151 : 

 the residence houses attached to cathedral and 

 collegiate churches, 18,928; and 11,667 parson- 

 age houses, rated at 518,054. Of the cost of the 

 last, more than two thirds may be regarded as 

 derived from private benefactions and from pay- 

 ments made by the clergy out of their incomes. 



Convocation of Canterbury. The Convo- 

 cation of Canterbury met for the dispatch of 

 business at Westminster, Feb. 4. The upper 

 house considered a draft of a proposed bill for 

 the amendment of the Marriage Act, and sent it 

 to the lower house and the House of Laymen. 

 The bill is intended to meet the existing difficul- 

 ties in the definition of the residence of parties 

 publishing banns of marriage, and in other ways 

 to facilitate marriage. Under it the clergy will 

 be relieved from the duty of inquiring as to resi- 

 dence. A form for admitting converts from the 

 Church of Rome and for restoring those who 

 have relapsed was approved. A report on sis- 

 terhoods and deaconesses was adopted. It rec- 

 ognizes their value and importance, assumes that 

 the Church should extend its care and guidance 



to them, and defines conditions on which those 

 who enter them, being not less than thirty years 

 of age, may undertake life-long engagements to 

 their work, but prescribes against any interfer- 

 ence with the freedom of individual sisters to 

 dispose of their property as they may see fit. 

 The resolutions concerning deaconesses declare 

 that " deaconesses having, according to the best 

 authorities, formed an order of ministry in the 

 early Church, and having proved their efficiency 

 in- the Anglican Church, it is desirable to en- 

 courage the formation of deaconesses' institu- 

 tions and the work of deaconesses in our dio- 

 ceses and parishes," and provides that deacon- 

 esses shall be admitted in solemn form by the 

 bishop with benediction by laying on of hands ; 

 that there shall be an adequate term of prepara- 

 tion and probation ; that they may be released 

 from their obligations by the bishop of the dio- 

 cese in which they were admitted ; that license 

 to serve in any parish may be given by the bish- 

 op at the request of the incumbent to any dea- 

 coness employed therein ; that their dress should 

 be simple and distinctive ; that they should not 

 pass from one diocese to another without the 

 written permission of both bishops ; and that 

 special care should be taken to provide for every 

 deaconess sufficient time and opportunity for 

 the strengthening of her own spiritual life. 

 Resolutions were also passed declaring that the 

 time had come " when the Church can with ad- 

 vantage avail herself of the voluntary self-devo- 

 tion of brotherhoods, both clerical and lay, the 

 members of which are willing to labor in the 

 service of the Church without appealing for 

 funds to any form of public support." The 

 house further advised that a wide elasticity was 

 desirable in the rules and systems of such broth- 

 erhoods; that they should work in subordination 

 to the authority of the bishop of the diocese, and 

 should be employed only under the sanction of 

 the incumbent or curate in charge in each par- 

 ish ; that members of them, after an adequate 

 term of probation, might undertake life-long 

 engagements, subject to release, for cause shown, 

 by the bishop ; and that the statutes of the com- 

 munity should be under the sanction of the 

 bishop. The lower house adopted a resolution 

 asking the upper house to take steps for ad- 

 justing the differences between the Anglican 

 bishop in Jerusalem and the Church Missionary 

 Society, and for " strengthening the catholic rela- 

 tions of the Church of England with the ortho- 

 dox churches of the East, and rendering renewed 

 and vigorous support to the mission among the 

 Mohammedans of Palestine." The differences 

 referred to as existing at Jerusalem grew out of 

 charges published by the bishop in Jerusalem 

 that some of the Church missions in Palestine 

 were prosecuted by methods at variance with ec- 

 clesiastical principles and usage, and likely to 

 hinder the growth of closer union between the 

 English and Orthodox Eastern Churches; to 

 which the Church Missionary Society replied, 

 affirming and maintaining its methods. 



The Houses of Convocation met, for the second 

 time in the year, April 28. In the upper house 

 the resolutions on education adopted by the lower 

 house in 1890 were concurred in. The lower 

 house resolved that if clause 2 of the Church 

 Discipline bill should be adopted unaltered, Her 



