CONGREG ATION ALISTS. 



155 



resolution was passed urging it to complete and 

 publish its work as speedily as practicable. A 

 resolution was introduced advising that the 

 terra "acting pastor" and its abbreviation, 

 "A. P.," be dropped from the nomenclature 

 and statistics of the denomination, and that all 

 ministers in regular connection with some as- 

 sociation or conference of churches, or minis- 

 ters who accept calls to pastorates given by a 

 formal vote of the churches, be enrolled as 

 pastors, and all others be enrolled with their 

 appropriate designations. This gave way to a 

 resolution, which was adopted, directing the 

 secretary, in preparing the "Year-Book," to 

 follow the designations of pastor or acting pas- 

 tor, adopted in the minutes of the several State 

 bodies. The object of the measure is to remove 

 the distinction previously recognized between 

 pastors who have been installed with the ad- 

 vice of a council and those who have not been 

 so installed. A statement was made respect- 

 ing the growth of Congregational churches in 

 the South, showing that, while only about 

 twenty churches had been formed among the 

 white people of the South (outside of Missouri 

 and the District of Columbia), nearly one hun- 

 dred churches had been established among the 

 colored people, and were organized in confer- 

 ences covering the Southern States. A com- 

 mittee was appointed to prepare a draft of a 

 bill for the establishment of a Bureau of In- 

 dian Education, and to press it upon the atten- 

 tion of Congress. 



Congregationalists in Great Britain. The " Con- 

 gregational Year-Book " for 1883 gives the num- 

 ber of members of the Congregational churches 

 in England and Wales as 387,619. showing a net 

 gain during the year of 1,934. The number of 

 churches was 3,936, and the number of min- 

 isters 3,723, of whom 918 were pastors, 1,607 

 acting pastors, and 1,198 not in pastoral work. 

 The number of baptisms during the year was 

 5,999 of adults, and 5,322 of infants. 



London Missionary Soeiety. The receipts of the 

 London Missionary Society for 1882 were127,- 

 627, and a balance in favor of the society of 

 539 was returned on the year's accounts. 

 The number of missionaries in connection with 

 the society was 166, 15 of whom were women. 

 Reports of missionary operations were made at 

 the anniversary in May, from China, Mongolia, 

 India, where 5,804 pupils in schools were re- 

 turned; Madagascar; South Africa, including 

 the Cape Colony and the country north of the 

 Orange and Vaal rivers, extending almost to 

 the Zambesi ; Central Africa, including the 

 country of the Tanganyika-lake ; the West In- 

 dies, including Jamaica and British Guiana; 

 the South Sea islands, including the Samoa and 

 Loyalty groups ; Tahiti, and a number of small- 

 er islands; and Few Guinea, where, under the 

 direction of four European missionaries and 

 eight teachers, natives of the Loyalty islands, 

 remarkable progress was claimed to have been 

 made in eight years. A deputation had been 

 sent out to visit the mission-fields of the so- 



ciety, beginning with India, and going thence 

 to China and South Africa. Another deputa- 

 tion had been sent out, with a representative del- 

 egated by the Congregational Union of England 

 and Wales for the same object, to inquire into 

 the condition of the native churches of Jamaica 

 and British Guiana, from which the society had 

 been gradually withdrawing its aid, but which 

 had asked for continued support. On the rec- 

 ommendation of the deputation, the directors 

 of the society, at a time later than the anniver- 

 sary meeting, adopted a plan of continued but 

 gradually diminishing support for three years 

 longer. 



Congregational Union of England and Wales. The 

 meeting of the Congregational Union of Eng- 

 land and Wales for the spring was held May 

 llth. The subject of lay agency was dis- 

 cussed, with many expressions in favor of ex- 

 tended lay preaching. A resolution was adopted 

 respecting the Affirmation Bill, declaring : 



That the Assembly hereby records its extreme re- 

 gret at the reactionary votes by which a majority of 

 the House of Commons has rejected the Affirmation 

 Bill, checked the course of Liberal legislation com- 

 menced fifty years ago in the repeal of the Test and 

 Corporation Acts, and carried still further in the Act 

 of Roman Catholic Emancipation and the relief of 

 Jewish disability ; and at the same time expresses 

 gratitude to the minority who were faithful to the 

 principle of religious liberty, and especially to their 

 venerated leader, the Prime Minister ; for his exposi- 

 tion and defense of those principles with an eloquence 

 so lofty and in a spirit so eminently Christian. 



A scheme was adopted relative to examina- 

 tions of young people on the three subjects of 

 Scripture history and doctrine, Christian evi- 

 dences, and ecclesiastical polity, and a special 

 committee was appointed fo attend to the per- 

 fection and execution of it. 



The forty-fourth autumnal session of the 

 Union was held in Sheffield, beginning October 

 9th. The Rev. Principal, A. M. Fairbairn, D. D., 

 presided, and delivered the opening address, 

 the subject of which was "Christianity in the 

 Nineteenth Century." The committee of the 

 Jubilee Fund reported that 100,000 sterling 

 had been added to the fund, and it now stood 

 at 280,000. Of it there had been promised 

 27,826 to the Congregational Church Aid So- 

 ciety; 125,000 for the liquidation of church 

 debts ; 46,781 for Congregational Church ex- 

 tension in London, and 1,830 to various Con- 

 gregational institutions, besides 17,500 for the 

 liquidation of the debts of the Yorkshire col- 

 leges, while 24, 000 were not yet appropriated. 

 The special committee appointed at the spring 

 session of the Union, on the subject of the ex- 

 amination of young people in Scriptural knowl- 

 edge, reported that it had appointed central 

 bodies of examiners on the subjects specified in 

 the scheme approved at that meeting, and had 

 divided the country into eight districts, for each. 

 of which a body of eight examiners had been 

 appointed. A report was made of the work oi ! 

 the "Senatus Academicus" of associated theo- 

 logical colleges of England and Wales, which 



