FEDERATION OP CHURCHES. 



213 



ends may be secured." Provision was made for 

 a State council representing the denominations 

 uniting in the federation work, and local councils 

 or federations established in towns and cities of the 

 State, on the basis defined in the articles; while 

 other organizations of Christian workers will be 

 entitled to representation on a basis provided by 

 . the executive board. This executive board, of 12 

 pel-sons, one third of whom are to be chosen each 

 year in alternation, with the officers, will have 

 charge of the work of the federation under the 

 general instructions of the council, and report to 

 the annual meeting in November. The Rev. Dr. 

 H. H. Stebbins, of Rochester, was chosen president 

 of the federation, and Gov. Theodore Roosevelt 

 and the Hon. William E. Dodge, of New York, 

 were made vice-presidents. 



The executive committee, at a meeting held sub- 

 sequently to the meeting of the council, decided 

 upon the institution of definite practical work in 

 behalf of federation during 1901, recognized the 

 value of help received from the National Federa- 

 tion, and requested the Rev. Dr. E. B. Sanford, sec- 

 retary of that body, to devote a part of his time 

 to the organization of city and county federations 

 in New York State. 



National Council of British. Evangelical 

 Free Churches. The National Council of Evan- 

 gelical Free Churches of England met in Shef- 

 field, March 13. The opening sermon was 

 preached by the Rev. Alexander Mackennall, D. D., 

 ( 'ongregationalist. The Rev. C. II. Kelly, D. D., 

 Wesleyan Methodist, was president for the year, 

 and delivered an opening address on the subject 

 of What the Twentieth Century has a Right to 

 demand from the Free Churches. The report of 

 the organizing secretary, the Rev. Thomas Law, 

 showed that much more had been attempted and 

 much more accomplished in the line of the work 

 of the federation in the past than in any previous 

 year of its history. Forty-four new councils had 

 been formed in England and Wales, bringing the 

 whole number of councils up to more than 600. 

 The federations, the formation of which had be- 

 gun two years previously, were developing rapidly, 

 and had proved their usefulness as a connecting 

 link between the national and the local councils. 

 They now numbered 33. There had also been de- 

 velopments abroad, and communication between 

 1he central office and the colonies and the United 

 States had been going on, with furnishing of lit- 

 erature and the visits of distinguished speakers. 

 A conference had been held in the city of New 

 York, Feb. 1 and 2, to consider the formation in 

 the United States of a National Federation of 

 Churches and Christian Workers, and to deter- 

 mine the method and scope of its work. Reports 



ere also given from Cape Town, Durban, Kim- 



rley, and Port Elizabeth in South Africa, at 

 all of which places councils existed; and councils 

 had been formed in New South Wales and Ja- 

 maica, and one in Scotland. United missions had 

 l:een carried on by the two evangelists of the 

 council, and 43 other evangelists had conducted 

 missions in all parts of the country. An increas- 

 ing number of local councils were undertaking 

 house-to-house visitation, and were adopting the 

 parochial system. Inquiries were being made as 

 to villages without Free Church services, and 

 questions were agitated as to abuses in connec- 

 tion with charities and educational trusts. Ac- 

 tion of councils was described relative to the 

 clerical tithes bill, the rights of the children in 

 the schools, the relation of the catechism to the 

 School Board in Liverpool, the " tyranny " of An- 

 glican clergy in rural districts; and in opposition 

 1o seven-day journalism and Sunday trading. 





The new-formed Free Church Girls' Guild, dis- 

 trict nursing, and the miscellaneous work done by 

 the several councils were noticed. Free Church 

 services had been held during the preceding sum- 

 mer at five centers on the Continent of Europe. 

 The circulating libraries had been in great de- 

 mand, more than 300 boxes of books having been 

 forwarded to various councils. The publication 

 department had been very active during the year. 

 The treasurer reported that the receipts from all 

 sources had been 7,947 and the expenditures 

 4,102; the liabilities amounted to 1,581. The 

 resolution passed on the subject of education em- 

 bodied a renewed protest " against the injustice, 

 aggravated by recent legislation, by which, in over 

 8,000 parishes in England, the only public schools 

 available are schools which, though in all cases 

 they are largely, and in many cases almost wholly, 

 maintained by public funds, yet are controlled 

 by the clergy of one denomination and worked in 

 the exclusive interest of one sect; while the re- 

 ligious teaching in a vast number of them is such 

 as grievously wounds the consciences of the par- 

 ents of Free Church children." The resolutions 

 exhort members of Free Churches, especially those 

 who are electors, not to rest content in their de- 

 mands for remedial legislation till such provision 

 shall be made as shall bring within the reach of 

 every child in the kingdom " a school under the 

 control of duly elected popular representatives, in 

 which the religious instruction shall be free from 

 sectarian bias; and until teachers and pupil 

 teachers in all state-aided schools and children in 

 all state-aided training colleges shall be free from 

 any theological test." Resolutions respecting 

 secondary education set forth that " in any future 

 organization of secondary education the local 

 authority should be a public representative body, 

 on which the school boards, where they exist, 

 should be largely represented " ; approved the 

 method laid down in the report of the Secondary 

 Education Commission for the constitution of the 

 local authority in county boroughs namely, that 

 one third of the members should be chosen by 

 the borough council, one third by the school 

 board, and the remaining third, half by any uni- 

 versity college contained in the borough, or by 

 the central office (Board of Education), and half 

 by co-optation; advised that the administrative 

 authority in counties should be similarly consti- 

 tuted; urged enforcement of the conscience clause 

 and the effective representation of the public on 

 the governing body of the schools in all cases 

 where a grant of public money is made to a sec- 

 ondary school; that no formularies distinctive of 

 any particular religious denomination or denomi- 

 nations should be used in such schools; that in 

 case of denominational boarding schools aided 

 out of public funds parents of other denomina- 

 tions be permitted to establish hostels within their 

 organization, subject to the governing body; that 

 the constitution of the endowed grammar schools 

 be revised, so as to secure their undenominational 

 character and make laymen and Free Church min- 

 isters eligible to the head mastership; and de- 

 manding provision for the establishment and 

 maintenance by school boards of unsectarian 

 training colleges. A scheme was presented to the 

 council and discussed for the institution of Free 

 Church Girls' Guilds, on which, however, definite 

 action was not taken. A resolution with refer- 

 ence to the Sunday closing of places where in- 

 toxicating drinks are sold expressed regret that 

 nothing had been accomplished, notwithstanding 

 an agitation extending over thirty years to give 

 England this boon, which had been acquired by 

 nearly every other part of the empire, and advis- 



