UNITARIANS. 



UNITED BKKTHKKN CHURCH. 731 



U 



UNITARIANS. The " Yearbook of the Uni- 

 tarian Congregational Churches" for 1894 gives 

 li>i> of 459^Unitarian societies and 517 mini-!' TS 

 in the United States and Canada. The chief 

 representative meeting of these churches is the 

 National Conference of Unitarian and Other 

 Christian Churches, which meets biennially. 

 Contributing churches are also represented m 

 the American Unitarian Association, the pur- 

 poses of which are to collect and diffuse infor- 

 mation respecting the state of Unitarian Christi- 

 anity in our country ; to promote union, sympa- 

 thy, and co-operation among liberal Christians; 

 to publish and distribute doctrines and tracts in- 

 culcating the views of religion regarded by Uni- 

 tarians as correct, in such form and at such price 

 as shall make them acceptable and obtainable ; 

 to supply missionaries ; and to assist in building 

 churches and supplementing insufficient salaries 

 of clergymen. The association consists of life 

 members made so by contributing $50 ; dele- 

 gate members, representing churches which make 

 contributions of funds for missionary uses ; and 

 honorary members, who are chosen by the Board 

 of Directors, and have the same rights and privi- 

 leges as other members. More than 260 societies, 

 contributing to the missionary funds of the as- 

 sociation, are entitled to representation in its 

 meetings by their ministers or presidents and 2 

 lay delegates each. The annual meeting of the 

 association was held in Boston, Mass., May 30. 

 The Hon. G. S. Hale presided. The reports of 

 the directors and the treasurer were read. The 

 association was shown to possess $548,845 of 

 funds, assets, and property, invested or other- 

 wise, and to be the patron of five schools and 

 academies. Addresses were made on " The Work 

 done in the Unitarian Churches on the East 

 Slope of the Rocky Mountains and on the Pa- 

 cific Coast," bv the Rev. J. W. Chadwick ; " The 

 I'niturian and Liberal Churches of Japan," by 

 the Rev. Clay MacCauley ; " The Rocky Moun- 

 tain Conference," by the Rev. Samuel Eliot ; 

 "The Prospects of Unitarianism in the East and 

 West," by the Rev. Joseph Waite ; " Unitarian- 

 ism in the South," by the Rev. C. J. K. Jones ; 

 " The Position, Prospects, and Needs of Liberal 

 Religion in the West," by John E. Roberts; 

 " The Effect of the Civil War on the Religious 

 Life of America," by the Rev. E. E. Hale, D. D., 

 Rev. G. A. Thayer, Col. T. W. Higginson, and 

 the Rev. Robert Collver, D. D. Pertinently to 

 the address of Mr. MacCauley conveying the 

 greetings of the Unitarians of Japan, a resolu- 

 tion was passed expressing confidence in the 

 adaptability of the principles and spirit of lib- 

 eral Christianity to the nature and needs of all 

 mankind, and commending the Japanese mission. 

 President Hale, speaking in his address of the 

 growth during the past six years of active social 

 organizations for religious or partly religious pur- 

 poses, affirmed that the Unitarian denomination 

 was early in the movement which has spread 

 among others, in such organizations as the Help- 

 ing Hands, the guilds, the Societies of Christian 



Kmlenvor, the ITenry Wadsworth organizations, 

 etc. The other principal general society of Uni- 

 tarians is the Sunday-School Society, which holds 

 a special meeting in Boston in "Anniversary 

 Week," and an annual meeting in the fall for 

 business, the election of officers, and discussion 

 of Sunday-school work. The annual meeting for 

 1898 was held in West Newton, Mass., Oct. 25. 

 The treasurer [reported a small balance in the 

 treasury. The National Alliance of Unitarian 

 and other Liberal Christian Women is an organi- 

 zation the purpose of which is to enable the 

 women of the denomination to work more effi- 

 ciently for the advancement of liberal religion. 

 The Ministers' Institute was organized under 

 the auspices of the Council of the National Con- 

 ference. It meets biennially, in alternation with 

 the meetings of the National Conference. The 

 Ministerial Union has provided a lending library 

 for the use of members in the building of the 

 American Unitarian Association, Boston. Be- 

 sides these societies, the denomination has theo- 

 logical schools at Cambridge, Mass., and Mead- 

 ville, Pa., academies at Greenfield, Mass., And- 

 over, N. H., and West Bridgewater, Mass. 



Unitarianism is represented in England by 

 the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, 

 founded in 1825, and the National Conference, 

 which was established in 1882, and meets every 

 three years. Three theological schools are main- 

 tained, viz., Manchester College, Oxford, War- 

 rington Academy, and the Home Missionary Col- 

 lege, Manchester. In Hungary the Unitarians 

 have more than 100 churches, "with 50 or more 

 " filial " or " daughter churches," and about CO,- 

 000 registered members. The governing authori- 

 ties are an ecclesiastical council of 350 members, 

 with Bishop Joseph Ferencz and 8 rural deans. 

 The higher education is provided for by the col- 

 lege at Klausenburg, besides which there are 

 middle schools at Thorda and Szeckely-Keresz- 

 tur. Several native churches have been formed 

 in Japan ; and a" Unitarian Review " is published 

 in the native tongue. 



UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH. This 

 Church suffered a division in 1889, when the 

 General Conference adopted a revision of the 

 Confession of Faith ana a new constitution in 

 which were incorporated a provision for the ad- 

 mission of laymen to the General Conference 

 and a modification of the rule prohibiting mem- 

 bership in secret societies. A minority, with one 

 of the bishops, held that these statutes were 

 adopted in an illegal manner, and, withdrawing 

 from the General Conference, organized what 

 they claimed was the legal General Conference. 

 The division extended till it involved many of 

 the annual conferences, and there are now two 

 sets having the same names and territory. The 

 general property and the offices and most of 

 the churches and parsonages remain in the 

 hands of the majority branch, or the " Liberals," 

 us they arc currently called. Suits have been in- 

 stituted in several States for the possession of 

 church property, and have been variously de- 



