6 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



a little while ago, but they had l>een gradually fall- 

 in;,' in consequence nf tin- great diminution in the 

 ralue of land and tit ho. 



Tin- report of the Committee of the Poor Clergy 

 Relief Corporation, made at the annual meeting, 

 July 7. eiiipha>i/ed tin- great need of the society, in 

 view of the fact that of all the educated professions 

 the clergy of the present day belong to the poorest. 

 Help was afforded to necessitous clergy without ref- 

 erence to party complexion or schools of thought. 

 The ineome of the >oricty for the past year had 

 liecii ah.. ut ilo.lMK). and i.~>.!H:> had been absorbed 

 in money grants to clergymen, widows, and orphans. 

 '..Vil in holiday grants, while clothing of 

 tin estimated value of 3.994 had been distributed, 

 .rplus of about 6,000 was left to be carried to 

 capital account. 



Bishop of London's Fund. The Bishop of 

 L.-iidon's fund was established in 1864 by Arch- 

 bishop Tait of Canterbury in aid of church-erection 

 and mission work in the metropolis. The public 

 has <incc then given it more than 1,000,000, and 

 this sum has |,,.,.n spent in building 185 churches in 

 London and its surrounding districts, and in assist- 

 ing to provide clergy for those churches. 



Society of the Sacred Mission. The Society 

 of the Sacred Mission was formed about 1890 at 

 Hrixton. having for its special object the training 

 of laymen who are willing to take the monastic 

 vow for service, more especially for the foreign- 

 mission field. At a meeting in the interest of this 

 work, held Feb. 1, to consider means for obtaining 

 new quarters for it (preferably at Cambridge), the 

 Bishop of Rochester presided, and made an address 

 commending the enterprise as a feature of a great 

 revival of the missionary spirit. The Rev. Canon 

 Ni wliolt said he regarded the mission as an envoy 

 in reviving monastic religious life, and spoke of the 

 wrong that had been done in branding as lazy and 

 vicious the monks in the religious houses that were 

 suppressed. The purpose of the mission was not 

 only to invite men to offer their service to the 

 Church without prospect of reward, but to give 

 them an opportunity to test their vocation. More 

 candidates were applying than could be received. 



Church Defense Committee. The second an- 

 nual meeting of the Church Defense Committee 

 an organization formed by amalgamating in 1897 

 the Church Defense Institution with the Central 

 Church Committee was held in the Church House, 

 Westminster, March 28. The Archbishop of Can- 

 terbury presided. The report recorded the quiet 

 but unremitting pursuit during the year of the 

 work of Church defense and instruction. A cir- 

 cular had been sent to every benoficed clergyman 

 suggesting the observance of Oct. 24 or some other 

 convenient day as " National Church Sunday," and 

 inviting sermons on Church defense and instruc- 

 tion, with offertories whenever possible. A larger 

 number of illustrated lectures on Church history 

 had been delivered than in the previous year. Six 

 hundred and forty-nine ruridecanal and r.!ir.!i 

 parochial secretaries were recorded. The income of 

 the committee for the year had been I'l 1,307. The 

 defeat of two parliamentary measures hearing ad- 

 versely to the claims of the Church was mentioned. 

 Resolutions were adopted pledging support to the 

 benefices bill, which was designed to remedy 

 acknowledged abuses in the Church and expressing 

 gratification at the progress it had made ; urging 

 ( "iitimied organisation of ruridecanal and parochial 



committees ami e,,nt iniied clTort to disseminate 

 an accurate knowledge among all classes of society 

 of tho history and work of the national Church": 

 and expressing hope for a spee.lv sat isfactory settle- 

 ment by the royal commissioners of the question 

 of the burden of local taxation borne by the clergy. 



Church Association. The annual meeting of 

 the Church Association was held in London, May 2, 

 Capt. A. W. Cobham presiding. The income of the 

 association had been 7.183, but although a balance 

 of 46 was returned, the funds were declared to be 

 totally inadequate. The van colporteurs had given 

 2,322 addresses and distributed 116,000 Protestant 

 publications in 1,541 villages. 



Church Reform League. The third annual 

 report of the Churcn Reform League contains the 

 names of 1,600 Churchmen who have joined the 

 society, including 842 clergymen. Sixty-eight 

 branches have been formed in England and Wales, 

 some of which are diocesan and some ruridecanal. 

 Sir Alfred Holdsworth has been employed as paid 

 secretary, and an office has been established at the 

 Church House, Westminster. The total receipts 

 for 1897 were 360, of which a balance of 22 re- 

 mained. About one hundred meetings were held 

 during the year, and a number of pamphlets and 

 leaflets had been published and widely distributed, 

 among which was a letter from Mr. Gladstone ex- 

 pressing sympathy with the movement. 



The Liberation Society. The sixteenth tri- 

 ennial Conference of the Society for the Liberation 

 of the Church from the Patronage and Control of 

 the State was held in London, May 3 and 4. The 

 Rev. Dr. J. Guinness Rogers presided. The report 

 of the executive referred to the results of the by- 

 elections and the school-board elections, and the 

 formation of the Free Church Council as indicative 

 of the growth of liberationism and the increase of 

 nonconformist strength ; adversely criticised the 

 bill for the reconstruction of London University ; 

 exhorted friends of religious equality to resist the 

 endowment of a Roman Catholic university in Ire- 

 land ; spoke of the present prospects of the noncon- 

 formist marriages bill as uncertain ; and, referring 

 to the " growing Komanistic lawlessness " within 

 the Established Church and the attempts to reform 

 abuses therein, expressed the opinion that the Eng- 

 lish Church can not be effectually regulated by 

 legislative machinery or by appeals to judicial tri- 

 bunals. The financial report represented that the 

 receipts of the society had amounted to 4,649, and 

 the expenditures to 4,500. This income was alto- 

 gether inadequate to the demands made upon it, 

 and needed to be increased by 1,000. Resolutions 

 were adopted welcoming recent declarations of 

 leaders of the Liberal party of continued adher- 

 ence to the policy of disestablishment in Wales 

 and Scotland ; urging increased energy in carrying 

 on the society's work: condemning the proposed 

 establishment of a Roman Catholic University in 

 Ireland as a retrograde measure, not called for by 

 the necessities of the case, but calculated to inten- 

 sify existing sectarian differences and injuriously 

 affect the interests of learning; and instructing the 

 executive to take such steps as might be necessary 

 to defeat the measure, while they should support 

 any needed changes in university teaching which 

 would be "free from sectarianism and consistent 

 with the maintenance of religious equality "; con- 

 demning the educational policy of the Government, 

 and hoping that friends of unsectarian education 

 would persistently aim at the establishment of a 

 national system based on the principle of local and 

 representative management, free from religious dis- 

 abilities, and recognizing the just claims of the 

 teaching profession. 



At the autumnal meeting of the council of the 

 society, Oct. 24, Mr. Albert Spicer, M. P., presiding, 

 speaking in reference to the prevailing excitement 

 concerning ritualism, said that some of them had 

 always thought that disestablishment would come 

 naturally from the dissensions in the Church of 

 England, but it must never be overlooked that it 



