16 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



things would not be, for Mexico, at all an un- 

 satisfactory one. 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. I. CHTTBCH OF 

 ENGLAND. The one hundred and seventy-sixth 

 anniversary of the Society for the Propagation 

 of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was held in 

 London, April 30th, the Archbishop of Can- 

 terbury presiding. The report stated that the 

 income for 1876 had been 136,906 16s., the 

 largest amount ever received in one year. 

 There were now sixty-two colonial and mis- 

 sionary bishoprics, in forty-two of which 533 

 missionaries had been engaged. The mission- 

 aries were thus distributed : In Asia, 132 ; in 

 Africa, 112 ; in Australia and the Pacific, 63; 

 in America and the West Indies, 225 ; in Eu- 

 rope, 1. There were also about eight hundred 

 catechists and lay teachers in the service of 

 the Society, mostly natives, in heathen coun- 

 tries. Sixty-seven women were teaching in 

 India, Burmah, Japan, Africa, and Madagas- 

 car. Sir Thomas Wade, in addressing the 

 meeting, said that in China the Society single- 

 handed could hardly effect what it desired, 

 but would have to work with the other Chris- 

 tian societies there. 



The seventy-eighth annual meeting of the 

 Church Missionary Society was held in Lon- 

 don, May 1st, the Earl of Chichester presiding. 

 The annual statement showed that the total 

 income of the Society for the year had been 

 190,693, and the gross expenditure 210,859. 

 A subscription of 4,000 sterling had been made 

 toward meeting the deficiency in income. Fif- 

 ty-five candidates for appointment as mission- 

 aries had been accepted, and eighty-one candi- 

 dates were under training. Much success had 

 attended the labors of the missionaries in 

 South India, Ceylon, the Fokien province in 

 China, and Northwest America. An increase 

 of 280 communicants had taken place in Cey- 

 lon, and several native ministers had been or- 

 dained in China. The progress of the missions 

 in West Africa, at Sierra Leone, was sketched, 

 as well as that in East Africa, where the So- 

 ciety not only has missions on the coast, but 

 has also, since 1875, established a new mission 

 on the Victoria N'yanza Lake. The report re- 

 ferred to difficulties which had been recently 

 encountered by some of the missions of the 

 Society, as in Ceylon, where, in 1876, an effort 

 to introduce ritualism into some of the native 

 churches had been assisted and supplemented 

 by the assumption of Episcopal authority over 

 the missions, which the Society was not willing 

 to acknowledge, as involving " elements of 

 very real danger," and avowed the intention 

 resolutely to " persevere in taking measures to 

 secure the faithful preaching of the full and 

 unadulterated Gospel among the heathen, and 

 to defend the native Christian congregations 

 connected with the Society from erroneous 

 doctrine and superstitious ritual. It has been, 

 ano^ever will be, the aim of the committee to 

 secure the distinct and emphatic utterance by 

 the Society's agents of those great truths of 



the sole supremacy of Holy Scripture as the 

 rule of doctrine and of justification through 

 faith on account of the merits of Christ, which 

 are the life-blood of an intelligent and vigor- 

 ous piety, and which are wont to be ignored 

 or denied by those who receive their inspira- 

 tion from the leaders of the well-known trac- 

 tarian movement of some forty years ago." 

 Bishop Crowther, a native African, gave an ac- 

 count of the condition of the Niger missions 

 in W T est Africa, of which he has charge. 



By order of the Privy Council, issued April 

 30th, a new diocese, to be called the Diocese 

 of St. Albans, was constituted out of the coun- 

 ties of Essex and Herts and a part of Kent, 

 the bishop of which should be subject to the 

 jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of England. 

 St. Albans Abbey was made the cathedral 

 church. The Right Rev. Thomas Legh Claugh- 

 ton, Bishop of Rochester, was appointed 

 Bishop of St. Albans, and was enthroned June 

 llth. The Rev. Anthony Wilson Thorold, 

 vicar of St. Pancras, and canon residentiary 

 of York Cathedral, was appointed Bishop of 

 Rochester in place of Bishop Claughton. 



At a meeting of the bishops of England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland, held on the 17th of 

 May, it was determined that the Archbishop 

 of Canterbury should invite all the bishops of 

 the Anglican communion to meet in London 

 during the month of July, 1878, the first and 

 last weeks to be devoted to general conference, 

 and the two intermediate weeks to the delib- 

 eration of committees and other private mat- 

 ters. It was also proposed that the following 

 subjects, in their order, should be presented 

 for consideration : 1. The unity of the several 

 branches of the Anglican Church ; 2. The es- 

 tablishment of courts of arbitration ; 3. The 

 relation of missionary bishops of different 

 branches of the Church in foreign countries ; 

 4. The establishment of chaplaincies on the 

 continent of Europe and elsewhere ; 5. The 

 special forms of modern infidelity, and how 

 they are to be met ; 6. The general interests 

 of the several branches of the Anglican com- 

 munion. It is stated that thirteen bishops, 

 among whom are five American bishops, have 

 refused to attend the conference. The call 

 has been issued for the conference to meet 

 July 2, 1878. 



The Convocation of YorTc met April 17th, 

 the Archbishop of York presiding. A peti- 

 tion was presented asking, among other ob- 

 jects, the appointment of a royal commission 

 to inquire into the Public Worship Regulation 

 Act ; another petition from fifteen thousand 

 working-men, eleven thousand of whom were 

 communicants, prayed that liberty of worship 

 might not be taken from them, as they con- 

 ceived was done by the present prosecutions of 

 clergymen under the act. A third petition, 

 from laymen of the upper classes, including 

 sixteen peers, set forth that much distress ex- 

 isted as to the question of spiritual jurisdiction. 

 The President stated that a joint committee of 



