matters pertaining to the ministry. For the superintendence of the business of the convention and the exercise of its powers in the interval between meetings, there is a general council, consisting of the president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer of the convention, together with 4 ministers and 6 laymen, chosen by ballot by the convention.

The ministry includes ministers, pastors, and general pastors. Ministers are those who are ordained to the ministry without identification with any particular pastorate, having the power to teach, preach, and baptize, and officiate at marriages and the Holy Supper. Pastors are those ministers who are called to the pastorate of societies and installed over them, generally to serve without fixed term of office. When the candidate is called by a society at the time of his ordination, the ordination and installation offices are often combined. A general pastor is one who, after a suitable term in the pastoral office, is, by request of an association and with the sanction of the General Convention, invested with power to authorize candidates, ordain ministers, preside over a general body of the church, and act as presiding minister of any association or of the General Convention. An association may, with the sanction of the General Convention, temporarily invest the powers of general pastor in its presiding minister or superintendent during his continuance in office.

The worship of the church is generally liturgical, chants being extensively used, but great latitude is observed in different societies and localities. A very complete Book of Worship was adopted by the General Convention in 1912, and is extensively used by the societies of the New Church.

WORK.

The missionary enterprises of the New Church are conducted by the General Convention through its Board of Home and Foreign Missions, supplemented by an Augmentation Fund Committee, and by local boards of the various constituent bodies. In 1916 this board and some of the state associations employed 9 missionaries among the adherents in 17 states, and aided 13 churches in connection with their running expenses, etc. The work has extended into Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and other foreign countries, where 11 stations have been cared for by 4 European missionaries. Contributions for the work amounted in 1916 to $20,000 for the home work and $1,200 for the foreign work. The property belonging to the denomination in the foreign field is valued at about $1,000.

The educational preparation for the ministry of the church is carried on principally by the New Church Theological School at Cambridge, Mass., which has property valued at $255,000, and during 1916 had 5 instructors and 15 students. Two other institutions,

in Massachusetts and Ohio, under distinctively New Church instruction, and partly supported by the church, reported 14 teachers and 64 students, and property valued at $163,860. The total value of property devoted to educational purposes was given as $418,860. The amount contributed for this work in 1916 was about $43,000.

The New Church has a pension fund for needy ministers, and an orphan fund, both of recent origin and growth, and small in amount. It has also a league of 37 young people's societies, with 1,050 members. The American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society of New York, the American New Church Tract and Publication Society, and the Jungerich Trustees, of Philadelphia, have made free distribution to theological students and clergymen of over 155,000 copies of Swedenborg's writings, including the "True Christian Religion," "Apocalypse Revealed," "Heaven and Hell," and "Divine Love and Wisdom," and also "The Life of Swedenborg." There are a number of other boards which make the press an important factor in the missionary work of the church. The church has 3 weeklies, a young people's monthly, and a quarterly. It is estimated that $500,000 is invested in publication enterprises.

HISTORY.

The General Church of the New Jerusalem traces its origin as an independent ecclesiastical body to the development, at the very beginning of the New Church in England and America, of a movement "toward a strict adherence to the doctrines and principles revealed in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, and toward distinctiveness of teaching, worship, and life, in the Church of the New Jerusalem." Under the influence of two prominent theologians, the Rev. Richard de Charms and the Rev. W. H. Benade, both of Philadelphia, this movement gradually assumed more definite form, and in 1876 the institution known as "The Academy of the New Church" was founded as the organic exponent of its principles, which were subsequently adopted by the Pennsylvania Association, connected with the General Convention of the New Jerusalem. That association

in 1883 adopted an episcopal form of government, elected the Rev. W. H. Benade bishop, and changed its name to "The General Church of Pennsylvania." In 1890 it severed its connection with the General Convention, and in 1892 adopted as its name "The General Church of the Advent of the Lord." In 1897 a complete reorganization was effected, and the name "The General Church of the New Jerusalem" was adopted.

DOCTRINE.

In doctrine the General Church of the New Jerusalem differs from other branches of the organized New Church simply in its attitude toward the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which it regards as being "divinely inspired and thus the very Word of the Lord, revealed at His second coming."

POLITY.

The polity of the General Church is based upon the principle of "practical unanimity," to be secured through deliberation and free cooperation in "council and assembly." The spiritual affairs of the church belong exclusively to the priestly office, of which three distinct degrees are recognized, namely, ministers, pastors, and bishops, though at present, on account of the limited membership, the services of but one bishop are required. The administrative functions of church government are vested in the office of the bishop, who is assisted by a consistory and a consultative general council, consisting of the most representative ministers and laymen. Admission to church membership is by direct application to the bishop, the only conditions required being adult age and baptism into the faith of the New

Church. Ordination to the ministry is by the bishop of the General Church.

WORK.

Under the head of home missionary work, the General Church includes all the activities supported by the general fund, namely, the support of the bishop's office and of the visiting missionary, the pension fund, the extension fund, special funds, and the publication of the "New Church Life," a monthly magazine, the organ of the denomination. The contributions for these purposes during the year 1916, including $7,000 for home missionary work, amounted to $20,933. There were 5 missionaries employed and 8 churches were aided.

The main energies of the General Church have been concentrated on the religious education of children, and parochial schools for those who have been baptized into the faith of the New Church have been established in the main centers of the church under the direct supervision of the pastors of local churches. There were in 1916, 3 of these schools, with 150 pupils, in the United States. The higher education of the church is intrusted to the Academy of the New Church, which includes a theological school and college for young men and women, an academy for boys, and a seminary for girls. The central office of the legal corporation of the Academy is in Philadelphia, although the schools of the Academy were removed from Philadelphia to Bryn Athyn, Pa., in 1896. A sustentation fund of $400,000 was received in 1899, and new school buildings were erected at Bryn Athyn in 1901 and 1903. In 1917 there were 88 pupils, property valued at $416,664, and an endowment of $1,168,797.

An orphanage fund, intended primarily to assist orphaned children of the church, was instituted in 1900. The receipts of this fund for the year amounted to $1,076, and the expenditures to $740.

Foreign missionary work is carried on in Sweden, Belgium, France, Switzerland, South Africa, Brazil, and Canada. The report for 1916 shows 6 stations occupied in the foreign field, with 5 American missionaries and 9 native helpers. There are 5 organized churches, with 310 members; and 3 schools, with 35 pupils, were maintained.

STATISTICS.

The general statistics of the General Church of the New Jerusalem for 1916 are given, by states and districts, on pages 227 and 228, and the relation of these statistics to those of other bodies is shown in the general tables in Part I. A comparative summary of the principal items of inquiry in 1916 and 1906 follows: