students are from the county. The only other school in the county is a 

 denominational one — the Seventh Day 'Adventist Foreign Missionary 

 Seminary at Takoma Park. A few pupils from Takoma Park enter 

 this school for high school branches, but their number is never great. 

 The majority of the students come from other states to prepare for work 

 on the foreign mission fields. 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS AND ACTIVITIES 



There are in all in Montgomery County at the present time 135 

 churches in various conditions of health and activity. Of this number 

 95 are white churches and 40 are colored. It will be more convenient 

 to consider these two groups separately, treating the white churches first. 



(a) Distribution 



The total area of the county is 521 square miles and its total white 

 population is 22,847. If the churches were evenly distributed there 

 would be one white church to every b}4 square miles and to every 244 

 people. This ratio would provide more than adequate church facilities 

 for the entire county. As regards the various Election Districts the 

 distribution is quite uniform. There is no district without its fair 

 quota, and no point in the county more than five miles from some church. 

 As regards the distribution of the population, however, the churches are 

 not evenly distributed. Fifteen per-cent. of the population live in the 

 towns and villages and 85% live in the open country. Yet the country 

 claims only 55% of the churches. Many of the town churches must rely 

 for support upon the country, and many people in the country must look 

 to the towns for their church life. 



(b) Denominational Classification, Membership and Growth 



Eighty-six of the chiu"ches are Protestant and 9 are Roman Catholic. 

 The Protestant churches represent 15 different denominations. The 

 bulk of their strength, however, is divided between 5 denominations; 9 

 denominations have 3 churches or less. It is not our desire to emphasis 

 the division of these churches into denominations. We hope that the 

 day of denominational rivalry is passing and that all are coming to regard 

 the question of ability to serve a given community efficiently as the only 

 important question. On page VII, of the Appendix will be found a table 

 showing denominational strength with respect to number of churches, 

 membership, property, etc. Through the remainder of our discussion 

 no distinction will be made except between Protestant and Catholic. 



The total membership of all churches is 9,701, of whom 6,994 are 

 Protestants and 2,707 Catholic. It is hardly possible to make a fair 

 comparison here since the Catholic churches count in their membership 



