192 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



can Congregational Union) was held in New 

 York, Jan. 12. Vice-President A. S. Hatch pre- 

 sided. The trustees reported that the receipts 

 of the society for the year had been $168,450, of 

 which $13,670 had been contributed through 

 the Women's Home Missionary Unions, $540 

 through 43 Young People's Societies of Chris- 

 tian Endeavor, and $1,059 through 111 Sunday 

 schools. Loans and grants had been voted to 

 188 churches, and parsonage loans to 58 churches. 

 By paying $71,645 directly from the church- 

 building funds, property worth $361,591 had 

 been secured ; and by paying out $20,060 from 

 the Parsonage Loan fund, parsonage property 

 valued at $48,230. Thirty-five churches aided 

 in building houses of worship had closed their 

 accounts with the society by paying the balance 

 of the grant or loan ; making a total of 351 out 

 of the 2,294 churches which had been aided that 

 had discharged their obligations. Certain officers 

 of the society were authorized to act as a com- 

 mittee of conference to decide upon the expedi- 

 ency of undertaking building enterprises in cases 

 where there may be doubt of financial ability, or 

 in which questions of denominational comity or 

 multiplication of churches may be involved. 



Congregational Home Missionary Society. 

 The sixty-seventh annual meeting of the 

 American Home Missionary Society was held at 

 Saratoga Springs, N. Y., May 30. The receipts 

 for the year had been $775,262, of which $526,- 

 582 were from contributions and legacies, and 

 $211,500 were collected and expended on the 

 field. Two thousand and two missionaries had 

 been employed in 47 States and Territories, of 

 whom 1,169 were "pastors or stated supplies of 

 single congregations, 599 had ministered to two 

 or three congregations each, and 257 had labored 

 over still wider fields. They had supplied fully, 

 or by preaching at stated intervals, 3,841 congre- 

 gations and missionary districts. Four mission- 

 aries had served congregations of colored people, 

 and 196 had preached in foreign languages 8 to 

 Welsh congregations, 50 to German, 81 to Scan- 

 dinavian, 22 to Bohemian, 4 to Polish, 15 to 

 French, 2 each to Mexican, Italian, Spanish, and 

 Finnish, 3 to Danish, 2 to Armenian congrega- 

 tions, and 1 to a congregation of Jews. The or- 

 ganization of 265 new Sunday schools, was report- 

 ed, and 2,270 Sunday schools, with 159,420 pupils, 

 were under the care of the missionaries. Seven 

 thousand two hundred and forty-nine members 

 had been added to the churches on confession of 

 faith. One hundred and forty churches had 

 been organized in connection with the labors 

 of the missionaries, and 75 churches had become 

 self-supporting. One hundred and fifty-three 

 houses of worship had been completed, 34 were 

 in course of erection, 217 had been materially re- 

 paired or improved, 4 chapels had been built, 

 and 110 parsonages provided; and 122 men in 

 connection with the missionary churches were pre- 

 paring for the ministry. A special report on the 

 work done among foreigners gave the following 

 results : German work, 91 churches, with a mem- 

 bership of over 4,000, in 13 States, mostly west 

 of the Mississippi ; Slavic, 6 Bohemian churches, 

 350 members, in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Min- 

 nesota, etc., 1 Polish church in Detroit, 1 

 Slovak or Hungarian Slav church at Maddock, 

 Pa., and a Magyar work at South Norwalk 



and Bridgeport, Conn. ; Scandinavian, over 100 

 churches, with a membership of more than 4,000 

 scattered over the whole country, from Maine to 

 California. There were also " mentioned 130 

 Churches of Welshmen in Ohio and Pennsylva- 

 nia, 6 churches of French Canadians in New Eng- 

 land, a Spanish church in New York city, be- 

 sides earnest calls for work among Italians, Ar- 

 menians, and others. The Woman's Department, 

 organized in 1883, had contributed $51,000 to the 

 resources of the society, making the whole 

 amount of its contributions since 1886, when 

 they were first reported, $280,000. Packages of 

 " family supplies " had been sent out through 

 the medium of officers of the society, amount- 

 ing in value to $46,597. A committee appointed 

 in 1892 to examine into the relations between 

 the national society and its auxiliaries and re- 

 port what changes might be needed to render 

 them more harmonious, reported a plan for the 

 allotment of funds, which was approved. The 

 name of the society was changed to Congrega- 

 tional Home Missionary Society ; the changes in 

 the constitution necessary to make it conform- 

 able to the new name were directed to be made, 

 and the executive committee was instructed to 

 take the steps required to secure legal sanction 

 for the change. 



American Board. The eighty-third annual 

 meeting of the American Board of Commission- 

 ers for Foreign Missions was held in Worcester, 

 Mass., beginning Oct. 10. The Rev. R. S. Storrs, 

 D. D., presided. The Prudential Committee re- 

 ported that the total receipts for the year had 

 been $641,421, of which $483,188 had been from 

 donations, $146,759 from legacies, and the rest 

 from other sources. Of the donations, $205,683 

 had been received from the three Woman's boards, 

 and $14,000 from the Societies of Christian En- 

 deavor. The sum of $30,865 had been appro- 

 priated for the two new missions in East Central 

 and West Central Africa, and $7,000 from the 

 small remnant of the Swett bequest to the mis- 

 sions in China and Japan. The expenditures had 

 amounted to $768,333 ; and for the first time in 

 sixteen years, or since 1877, a large debt was re- 

 ported at the end of the year. The general sum- 

 mary of the missions for 1893 furnishes the fol- 

 lowing figures : 



Missions. Number of missions, 20; stations, 

 96; out stations, 1,128; places for stated preach- 

 ing, 1,323 ; average congregations, 69,357. 



Laborers employed. Ordained missionaries 

 (10 being physicians), 183; male physicians not 

 ordained (besides 6 women), 12 ; other male as- 

 sistants, 6 ; women 6 of them physicians (wives, 

 185 ; unmarried, 171) 356 ; whole number of la- 

 borers sent from this country, 557. Native pas- 

 tors, 219 ; native preachers and catechists, 562 ; 

 native school teachers, 1,462 ; other native labor- 

 ers, 495. Total of native laborers, 2,738 ; total of 

 American and native laborers, 3,295. 



The Churches. Number of churches, 442 ; 

 church members, 41,566; added during the year, 

 3,570; whole number from the first, as nearly as 

 can be learned, 125,593. 



Educational Department. Theological semi- 

 naries and station classes, 17 ; pupils, 228 ; col- 

 leges and high schools, 65 ; pupils in the above, 

 3,744 ; boarding schools for girls, 63 ; pupils in 

 boarding schools for girls, 3,118 ; common schools. 



