REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



C73 



Villiersdorp in December, 1876, for its regular 

 quadrennial meeting, and was in session near- 

 ly five weeks. The Rev. Andrew Murray was 

 chosen moderator. This Church has remained 

 for 150 years in communion with the classis of 

 Amsterdam, Holland, but received a separate 

 constitution in 1804, and came under English 

 rule in 1843. The Church contained a French 

 element of the descendants of more than 300 

 Huguenot families who had settled in South 

 Africa about 1687. The Church numbered at 

 thia time 100 ministers, and 125 churches. It had 

 a theological seminary with three professors, 

 and an average attendance of from 14 to 24 

 students each 'year. It employed 12 missiona- 

 ries, and an institution for the training of mis- 

 sionaries was contemplated. It had organized 

 several schools, for which it had received some 

 10 or 12 young women teachers from Mt. Holy- 

 oke Seminary, Mass. The English language 

 was used in the churches at Capetown, with 

 the hymn-books and liturgy of the Reformed 

 Church in America. 



REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH. The 

 Committee on the State of the Church reported 

 to the General Council, in May, that they had 

 received statements from 59 congregations 

 against 34 parishes which had reported in 

 1876. From the parochial exhibits sent up 

 to them the following statistics had been com- 

 piled : number of persons connected with the 

 congregations, 10,728 ; number of commu- 

 nicants as reported, 4,996 ; number of Sun- 

 day-school scholars, 6,534; of Sunday-school 

 teachers, 627 ; number of persons baptized, 

 410; do. confirmed, 657; amount of contribu- 

 tions for benevolent, religious, and parochial 

 purposes, and for current expenses, collections 

 for the sustentation fund, and Sunday-school 

 offerings, $247,507.32 ; value of church prop- 

 erty (an item which several congregations had 

 failed to report), $438,086.65 ; incumbrances 

 upon church property, $148,700. During the 

 year churches had been occupied, or were in 

 course of erection, at Moncton, N. B. ; Digby, 

 N. S. ; Chatham, N. B. ; Newark, N. J. ; To- 

 ronto, Canada ; Barrie, Canada ; Philadelphia, 

 Pa. ; New York City ; Baltimore and Cumber- 

 land, Md. ; and steps had been taken to secure 

 church buildings in other places. 



The fifth General Council of the Reformed 

 Episcopal Church was held at Philadelphia, 

 Pa., beginning May 9th. The roll of the Coun- 

 cil included the names of 50 ministers, of whom 

 38 wore present, and 59 churches, distributed 

 as follows : Nova Scotia, 1 ; New Brunswick, 

 4; Ontario, 4; British Columbia, 1; Califor- 

 nia, 1 ; Massachusetts, 1 ; New York, 5 ; New 

 Jersey, 3 ; Pennsylvania, 7 ; Maryland, 4 ; Vir- 

 ginia, 2; South Carolina, 8; Texas, 1; Ohio, 

 1; Kentucky, 1; Illinois, 12; Missouri, 1; 

 Colorado, 2. The Rev. Bishop Fallows was 

 chosen presiding bishop for the ensuing year. 

 The Church of the Reconciliation, Philadel- 

 phia, was admitted to union with the Council. 

 The General Standing Committee reported that 

 VOL. xvn. 43 A 



they had received four churches duriug the 

 year, and had accepted ono minister. They 

 had considered the question of establishing the 

 Church in England, and had come to the con- 

 clusion that there was nothing in the fraternal 

 relations that had been agreed upon between 

 the Free Church of England and the Re- 

 formed Episcopal Church " preventing the lat- 

 ter Church from receiving into its communion 

 ministers and congregations in England or in 

 any other part of the world." Acting upon 

 this view, the Rev. Thomas Huband Gregg, 

 D. D., M. D., late Vicar of East Hurborn, in 

 the diocese of Lichfield, England, had been 

 received to the ministry of this church. The 

 committees of the several missionary jurisdic- 

 tions reported, stating that they hud received 

 several ministers. The Rev. B. Johnson, Evan- 

 gelist of the South, reported concerning his 

 ministrations at Charleston, S. C., and Augusta 

 and Atlanta, Ga. The Rev. P. F. Stevens, in 

 charge of the colored congregations in South 

 Carolina, reported that he had organized two 

 new congregations, and had formed the col- 

 ored congregations, now numbering thirteen, 

 into the " Charleston Convocation," embracing 

 three parishes or missions, the Charleston, St. 

 John's, and Pineville Missions, with a total of 

 980 members. Six students had attended hit 

 training-school. A plan had been submitted 

 to the Standing Committee for the permanent 

 establishment of this institution. Provision 

 was made by the Council for the continuance 

 of the school. Bishop Cridge reported con- 

 cerning his visit to the Free Church of Eng- 

 land, and the consecration of Bishops Price 

 and Sugden of that body, in 1870. Bishops 

 Nicholson. Cheney, and Fallows made report* 

 of their episcopal work during the year. A 

 schedule of theological study, which had been 

 prepared by a special committee in accordance 

 with the direction of the General Council of 

 1875, was presented and adopted. The ques- 

 tion was carefully discussed whether the 

 bishops of the Church should be synodical 

 bishops, or should be chosen by the Council 

 and assigned by it to their jurisdictions. Tbo 

 following rule WAS adopted on the subject : 



"The bishops of this Church shall bo chosen 

 or received agreeably to such rules as shall bo 

 fixed by the General Council; and their juris- 

 diction, powers, duties and terms of office in 

 any Synod or Episcopal Jurisdiction, shall le 

 such as the General Council may hereafter de- 

 fine; and any bishop of this Church mar or- 

 dain, confirm, or perform any other net of the 

 Episcopal office at the request of any bishop, or 

 of any Church in communion with thitOboreb.* 1 



The preparation of a Catechism for the Me 

 of Sunday-schools was recommended. A com- 

 mittee was appointed to take into consideration 

 the relation of the Church to the associations 

 and amusements of the world, and report upon 

 it to the next General Council, 

 of the functions of the deacons wa dMOMMd 

 on the presentation of the report of the com- 



