578 



PRESBYTERIANS. 



good judgment, reason, and the demands of their 

 growing work as an aggressive church, an Afro- 

 American Presbyterian General Assembly. The 

 fifth meeting of the Synod was held near Roulard, 

 N. C., Nov. 20 to 23, 1902. Much interest was 

 manifested in education and Sabbath-school 

 work. The report of the treasurer showed a de- 

 cided increase in revenues over all previous 

 years. A fund for foreign missions was in hand, 

 which would be augmented till the church had 

 sufficient to put a missionary of its own in the 

 foreign field. The mortgage on Ferguson and 

 Williams College, Abbeville, had been paid, and 

 the institution was free from debt. 



The colored churches under the care of the 

 Southern Presbyterian Assembly's Committee of 

 Evangelistic Labor include churches in two pres- 

 byteries in organic relations to the Southern 

 Church; churches in three presbyteries in con- 

 nection with the Afro- American Synod; and 8 

 or 10 inchoate synods all containing 53 colored 

 ministers and 86 churches, with 2,204 communi- 

 cants, 3,147 members of Sabbath-schools, and re- 

 turning 212 additions on profession during the 

 past year, with collections of $1,046 for the main- 

 tenance of their pastors and $1,965 for congre- 

 gational and miscellaneous purposes. In four 

 years these churches had added about 50 per 

 cent, to their membership and doubled the amount 

 of their contributions. Instruction was provided 

 for their people at three institutions. 



Independent Synod of Mexico. The statis- 

 tical report of the Independent Synod of Mexico 

 shows that it has 4 presbyteries, 73 organized 

 churches, 190 congregations, 63 Mexican preach- 

 ers, and 5,508 communicants. 



III. United Presbyterian Church in North 

 America. The following is the summary of the 

 statistics of this Church for 1902, as published in 

 May: Number of synods, 13; of presbyteries, 68; 

 of ministers, 1,019; of pastoral charges, 843; of 

 congregations, 989; of members, 132,476, of whom 

 117,874 were in America and the rest in the 

 foreign mission synods; of Sabbath-schools, 1,226, 

 with 13,498 officers and teachers and 120,133 pu- 

 pils; of mission stations, 30 in America and 637 

 in the foreign field; of baptisms during the year, 

 4,048 of infants and 1,973 of adults, of which 

 3,030 of infants and 1,221 of adults were in Amer- 

 ica; of members received on profession, 7,332, of 

 whom 5,846 were in America; of Young People's 

 Societies, 1,036, with 39,715 members. Amount of 

 contributions (in America): For salaries of min- 

 isters, $626,780; for congregational purposes, 

 $652,710; for the boards, $357,595; for general 

 purposes, $206,150; total for America, $1,843,235; 

 total for the Church (including the foreign sta- 

 tions), $1,874,514. Average contribution per 

 member in America, $15.87; average salary of 

 pastors in America, $1,010. Of the ministers re- 

 corded in the tables, 730 were classed as pastors 

 and stated supplies, and 289 as without charge; 

 of the congregations, 820 as provided with pas- 

 tors or stated supplies, and 169 as vacant. 



The Board of Education reported to the Gen- 

 eral Assembly that it had been able during the 

 year to pay the beneficiaries only two-thirds of 

 the allowance authorized. To the college and 

 seminaries the full amount was paid, $10,000 

 a sum equal to the income of an endowment of 

 $200,000. The presbyteries were requested by the 

 General Assembly to assist the board in every 

 effort to obtain from ministers withdrawing from 

 the Church a return of what they had received. 

 The board was advised to enlarge as rapidly as 

 possible the department of work in behalf of the 

 Church's higher institutions of learning. 



The Board of Ministerial Relief reported that 

 the number of beneficiaries had increased to 80, 

 of whom 33 were ministers and the others wid- 

 ows and orphans. Of these, 14 had been added 

 during the year. 



The Board of Home Missions had expended 

 $91,385, an increase of $3,232 over the preceding 

 year, and reported no debt to be provided for. 

 It had 229 stations under its care, with an aver- 

 age attendance of 19,429 on preaching services 

 and 23,120 on Sabbath-schools. The net gain in 

 membership of the Church was 1,614, making a 

 total enrolment of 18,285. The stations had con- 

 tributed $24,842 to the boards and $95,112 to 

 their own local work. Twelve congregations had 

 become self-sustaining. The whole amount of 

 grants of aid was $103,000, $15,450 of which 

 were for 38 cases of new work. The Assembly 

 recommended that the suggestion of " volunteer 

 service" on the home field on the part of stu- 

 dents just leaving the theological seminary be 

 put in operation as far as practicable; and that 

 the work among the mountain whites of the 

 South be kept under advisement in the hope that 

 means may be granted for engaging in it. 



The Board of Freedmen's Missions closed the 

 year with a debt increased to $25,052. The aver- 

 age of contributions of the freedmen for church 

 purposes had been $4.82 per member. 



The Board of Church Extension had expended 

 $52,857 in aid given to congregations, an increase 

 of $12,857 over the preceding year. The General 

 Assembly directed that statistics of church in- 

 debtedness be collected and reported to the next 

 Assembly. The assignment of the entire depart- 

 ment of parsonage work to the Woman's Board 

 was approved of. 



The report of the Board of Foreign Missions 

 showed that the Egyptian mission, urged by a 

 necessity, had overdrawn its allowance $5,848. 

 The General Assembly, recognizing an exceptional 

 case, authorized the. payment of the amount, 

 with a reservation against the action being taken 

 as a w 7 arrant for the contraction of debts by a 

 mission without the knowledge of the board. 

 The projects of establishing a high school or col- 

 lege at Cairo and of erecting a house for the 

 theological seminary in India were commended, 

 provided funds are supplied from outside the 

 regular channels of contribution. 



The mission in India returned for 1901 56 fc 

 eign workers, 14 ordained native ministers, 

 native helpers of all sorts; 22 organized cor 

 gregations, 4 of which were self-supporting ar 

 10 had pastors; 60 unorganized circles; 1,03(> 

 members received on profession during the year, 

 468 baptisms of adults and 744 of infants a total 

 of 7,722 church-members, with 5,159 pupils in 

 Sabbath-schools and 7,549 in other schools; and 

 contributions for all purposes of $10,300. Th'j 

 net year's increase of members was 851. In- 



history, 



pupils on its rolls, and was practically self-sup- 

 porting. 



The report of the Woman's Board of Missions 

 showed that during the year $93,844 had beei 

 raised by the women of the Church, $40,000 cf 

 which were denominated a thank-ofl'ering. It 

 was represented that 100 per cent, of all money- 

 contributed for missionary purposes was ex- 

 pended on the objects designated. Twelve mis- 

 sionaries were employed in the home field and 2 

 industrial teachers and matrons had labored 

 among the freedmen. In the parsonage work, 

 with more than $25,000 received and more than 



