8 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



made to support and to maintain the efficiency 

 of the Church schools and the hope that the 

 Government might see its way to lighten the 

 burden now pressing on the voluntary schools in 

 the matter of rates. 



The thirty-third annual meeting of the English 

 Church Union, which numbers 33,800 members, 

 was held June 14. The meeting resolved that 

 a memorial be addressed in its name to the 

 members of the episcopate and to the synods 

 of the provinces, begging them to take steps to 

 insure that the holy eucharist be celebrated at 

 least on every Sunday and saint's day in every 

 parochial church or chapel having a cure of souls 

 attached to it : to secure an earlier hour than 11 on 

 Sundays for divine service, and to discourage all 

 arrangements which have the effect of substitut- 

 ing matins for the great act of Christian worship ; 

 to provide, in all places where it is practicable, for 

 two celebrations of the holy communion on Sun- 

 day one to be said not later than 8 A.M., the 

 second to be sung not later than 10.30 or 11 after 

 matins have been previously said or sung, in 

 order that opportunity may be given to all to 

 attend public worship on Sundays ; to make pro- 

 vision that in all cathedral and collegiate churches 

 there be a daily celebration of the holy eucharist; 

 and to provide, as far as possible, in all parochial 

 churches and chapels having cure of souls at- 

 tached to them, where the holy eucharist can 

 only be celebrated once on Sundays and saints' 

 days, that such celebration be not later than 9 or 

 9.30, in order to facilitate the observance of the 

 universal custom of the Church that holy com- 

 munion be received fasting. 



The Church Union, April 26, adopted a resolu- 

 tion in which. " recognizing the great injury to 

 family life and the morals of the country which 

 has resulted from the various divorce acts passed 

 within the last thirty-five years in violation of the 

 law of God as to the indissolubility of the marriage 

 bond declared in Holy Scripture and set forth 

 in the Book of Common Prayer " it called upon 

 the members and associates of the union to make 

 a vigorous and united effort to arouse the con- 

 science of the country on the subject ; and to use 

 their influence to procure the repeal of at least 

 those clauses in the divorce acts which require 

 the parochial clergy either to perform the service 

 themselves or to allow the churches to be used 

 for the marriage (so called) of a divorced person 

 whose real husband or wife is still living ; and to 

 resist the passage of a certain pending bill for ex- 

 tending still further the grounds for divorce. 



The income of the Curates' Augmentation 

 Fund, as returned at the annual meeting, June 

 15, was 9,048, showing an increase of 324 over 

 the funds of the society during the previous year, 

 and being the largest income for several years. 

 A large number of new applications had been 

 received. Three fourths of the vacancies had 

 occurred through preferment, which showed that 

 the fund had been helping deserving curates. 



An organization called the Clergy Fees Reform 

 Association has been set on foot, having for its 

 objects to obtain a reduction in the scale of fees 

 at present payable upon institution, induction, 

 dispensation, and sequestration, and for letters of 

 orders and curates' license, and to advise the 

 clergy when fees in excess of those allowed by 

 statute or order in council are demanded of them. 



The receipts of the Church Pastoral Aid So- 

 ciety for the year ending March 31, 1892, were 

 58,463, exceeding the gross receipts of the pre- 

 vious year by 2,149. Of the whole amount, 

 9,000 were given to be invested for special pur- 

 poses, leaving 49,463 as ordinary income. The 

 expenditure for the year had been 51,927. The 

 whole number of grants was 808, or 54 more 

 than during the previous year. 



Liberation Society. The triennial confer- 

 ence of the Society for the Liberation of Religion 

 from State Patronage and Control was held in 

 London, May 3 and 4. Mr. R. Spence Watson 

 presided. In opening the conference, he said 

 that the work during the last three busy polit- 

 ical years in which the society was especially 

 interested, had shown decided progress. There 

 were many indications of the fact. The report 

 of the executive committee spoke of the past 

 three years as a period during which the prog- 

 ress of opinion and events had been favorable to 

 religious equality. Detailing the work of the so- 

 ciety, it recognized the fact that it would not be 

 possible, without a severe struggle, to establish 

 completely the principle of religious equality in 

 connection with national education. Decisive 

 progress was making on the question of disestab- 

 lishment in Wales, but it was recognized that the 

 real ground of objection to Welsh disestablish- 

 ment was the certainty that it must be followed 

 by disestablishment in England. The question of 

 Scottish disestablishment occupied substantially 

 the same position. In regard to the approach- 

 ing general election the committee called atten- 

 tion to the enthusiasm with which the idea of 

 disestablishment was accepted by all advanced 

 reformers. The financial statement showed that 

 the receipts of the society for the past year had 

 amounted to 5,350, that a balance of 302 was 

 left in bank, and that there were accounts out- 

 standing to the amount of 1.900. Resolutions 

 were adopted congratulating the supporters of 

 the society on the advanced position of the ques- 

 tion of disestablishment in Wales and Scotland, 

 as it was shown by the debates in Parliament 

 during the past three years, by the declarations 

 and pledges of politicians, and the attitude of 

 the public press ; expressing satisfaction that so 

 large a number of candidates had declared in 

 favor of religious equality; urging the impor- 

 tance of strenuous exertions to secure the return 

 of such candidates and to elicit an expression of 

 public opinion which will exert a powerful im- 

 pression on the action of the new Parliament and 

 of the next Liberal administration ; citing the 

 meager results of recent parliamentary efforts to 

 remove abuses and anomalies in the Established 

 Church as further proofs of the impossibility of 

 satisfactorily regulating its affairs by parliamen- 

 tary enactment, but objecting to the removal of 

 parliamentary control from the Church as long 

 as it remains a national institution ; demanding 

 education wholly free from sectarian influence; 

 expressing the opinion that disestablishment 

 would greatly facilitate the management of local 

 affairs in rural parishes, would diminish perse- 

 cution for conscience' sake, and by more fully 

 extending religious liberty would promote not 

 only the spiritual but also the social interests of 

 village populations ; and urging the enactment 

 of a broader burials act. 



