WORK.

The missionary and general educational activities of the Congregational Churches are conducted through a number of national organizations, each of which is recognized as an agency of the National Council of the churches, whose members are voting members of each of the missionary organizations. Provision for securing the participation of those especially interested in any given cause is secured through permitting each organization to elect a limited number of delegates at large, in addition to the council membership. The unity of control and administration thus secured is further developed by grouping agencies kindred in nature under a common board of directors and a common staff of executives.

As a result of this arrangement, there are in effect four classes of organization created by the denomination. The first has the total foreign missionary field in its care; the second, the entire field of church extension at home, including Sunday school planting and church building; the third, the task of conducting schools and colleges among backward or exceptional populations; and the fourth, the function of religious education, including in its scope the whole life of the church. The publishing agency of the denomination is an integral part of the last named organization.

The home missionary work is carried on chiefly by four societies-the Congregational Home Missionary Society, the American Missionary Association, the Congregational Church Building Society, and the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society.

The Congregational Home Missionary Society is charged with the missionary work among the white races of continental United States, whether of native or foreign extraction, and carries on its work in close coordination with a number of state missionary societies, each of which is represented upon the board of the general society. There are also several women's home missionary unions, which contribute to the general society, and which have formed a national federation of women's state home missionary organizations. The report for the year 1916 shows a total of 1,729 missionaries employed by the general society and the constituent state societies, while the number of churches and preaching stations cared for was 2,401. Of these churches and missions, 421 held services in foreign tongues: German, Swedish, Dano-Norwegian, Bohemian, Italian, French, Spanish, Welsh, Finnish, Armenian, Albanian, Persian, Slovak, Swede-Finn, Greek, Portuguese, Syrian, Indian, Polish, Turkish, Chinese, and Japanese. The largest mission work for those of foreign extraction was carried on among the German, Swedish, Finnish, and Welsh people. The total contributions for the year, including the receipts of the constituent state societies and the city mission societies for work in their own fields, was

$609,439. Adding to this, $32,401, income from invested funds, there was a total of $641,840.

The American Missionary Association carries on work among the Negroes, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and Hindus, the Eskimos in Alaska, and various races. in Porto Rico and Hawaii. It established at Hampton, Va., during the Civil War, the first day school among the freedmen, and after the close of the war extended its work rapidly, laying the foundations for a number of educational institutions in the South, and at the same time commenced the planting of churches among the freedmen. It also undertook the care of the missions among the Indian tribes, formerly carried on by the American Board. On the accession of the Hawaiian Islands and Porto Rico, the association assumed the work in those islands, particularly among the native Hawaiians, Chinese, and Japanese. The report for 1916 shows 728 missionaries and teachers, 225 churches aided, and 61 schools, including 3 theological seminaries, 6 colleges, of which 5 are for Negro students, 33 secondary and elementary schools, and 19 mission schools, with a total of 11,600 students and pupils. The contributions reported were $311,671, of which it is estimated that $70,238 were for the distinctively missionary work of the association and $241,433 for its educational work. In addition, the income from certain funds amounted to $36,409, while $72,154 was received from tuition, making a total of $420,234 for missionary and educational work. The value of property under the care of the association, used for educational purposes, is estimated at $1,833,000, and there are endowments amounting to $2,747,479, including $415,641 conditional endowment funds. Recently a large body of Christian work among the Latin Americans has been transferred to this association from the Congregational Education Society.

The Church Building Society assists congregations in the erection of church buildings and parsonages, and works in harmony with the Home Missionary Society and the American Missionary Association. In 64 years this society has helped to complete 4,753 churches and 1,280 parsonages. Its receipts during that time have amounted to more than $8,200,000, and it has helped to secure church property worth over $23,000,000. During 1916 the number of churches aided was 178, and the amount contributed for this work was $130,071. Other miscellaneous receipts amounted to $184,627, making a total of $314,698.

The Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society has heretofore been both a missionary society and a business corporation. As a missionary society it has sent out missionary workers to organize Sunday schools, which in many cases develop into churches. Since 1882 it has organized 13,276 Sunday schools, from which 1,757 churches have grown. In 1916 the

number of missionaries employed was 71, and the amount contributed, $87,405. Under a new arrangement, the missionary and Sunday school work of the society is being taken over by the Congregational Sunday School Extension Society.

The totals for the 4 home missionary societies for 1916 show 2,528 agents, 2,804 churches aided, and contributions to the amount of $897,153. The amount of contributions is less than that reported for 1906, due to the fact that at that time the entire receipts of the American Missionary Association were credited to home missions while now the greater part of them is credited to educational work.

The foreign missionary work of the Congregational Churches is carried on through the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, with its auxiliary women's boards, of which there are 3, representing different sections of the country; and the oldest, the Women's Board of Missions, is also the pioneer of similar societies in other denominations. In 1916 the American Board carried on missions in Southern and West Central Africa, in the Turkish Empire, in India, Ceylon, China, Japan, the Philippines, the Pacific islands, Mexico, Spain, Austria, and the Balkans. Owing to the general war conditions it has been impossible to obtain accurate statistics from many of these fields, and consequently those gathered are said to be very incomplete. The report for the year, however, shows 106 stations, occupied by 661 American missionaries and 5,273 native workers. There were 701 churches reported, with 83.135 members; 14 theological seminaries, 18 colleges, 115 boarding and high schools, and 1,466 other schools, with a total of 86,581 students; 32 hospitals and 38 dispensaries, which gave a total of 475,640 treatments to 124,811 patients; and 3 asylums with 337 inmates. There are also a number of orphanages in Turkey under the control of the board. Owing to the deportation of the Armenians in Turkey, the number of orphans greatly increased during the war. It is estimated that there are 200,000 within the present limits of the Turkish Empire, and 100,000 others in the Caucasus region, all of whom might properly be included with the statistics of the American Board. The amount contributed during 1916 for the foreign work was $1,089,098, and the income from various funds $118,129, making a total of $1,207,227. In addition to this, $371,809 was contributed for the work by the native churches. In regard to the total value of property belonging to the Congregational denomination in foreign countries, or the total amount of endowment for all its institutions, there are at present no figures available. The value of the property is doubtless somewhat greater than that reported for 1906, which was $1,500,000. The interest of the Congregational Churches in educational matters is shown by the fact that Harvard,

founded in 1636, and Yale in 1701, were established as Congregational colleges; as were also Williams, Dartmouth, Bowdoin, and Amherst in the East; and Oberlin, Iowa, Beloit, Carleton, Drury, and others in the West. At present more than 40 colleges in the United States owe their origin to Congregationalists. Not including Harvard, in 1916 these employed 2,493 instructors, had an enrollment of 24,716 students, had 2,498,565 volumes in their libraries, and held productive funds amounting to $51,105,685. There were also 9 theological seminaries, Andover Seminary being the oldest, with a total of 72 professors, 57 instructors and lecturers, and 425 students.

The Congregational Education Society, the successor of the American Education Society, with which two kindred societies, organized for the establishment of Christian schools in Utah and New Mexico, were afterwards incorporated, includes in its present work assistance to colleges and academies, the support of mission schools, student aid, and promotion of Christian work in colleges and universities. In 1916 the society aided 10 colleges and 7 academies, with a total of about 3,125 students. It also aids Atlanta Theological Seminary, where ministers for Congregational Churches in the South are trained; a training school for women in Chicago, which furnishes wellequipped pastors' assistants, directors of religious education, and parish secretaries; the Schauffler Missionary Training School in Cleveland, Ohio, which prepares young women to aid the churches in work among the immigrants; and institutes in Chicago, Ill., and Redfield, S. Dak., for training ministers for work among the Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, and German peoples in the United States. During the year the society aided 154 students studying for the Congregational ministry. It aids in supporting 8 university pastors or student workers in universities. The social service work of the denomination is also a department of this society. The society is charged with the work of leading the denomination in its religious and missionary education work, and supports 11 religious education secretaries. The contributions for this work in 1916 were $67,553, which, supplemented from other sources, gave a total of $94,366. This does not, however, cover the entire amount contributed by the Congregationalists toward educational work, including the erection of new schools and the providing of endowments, of which there is no distinct record. The value of property belonging to the 17 colleges and academies aided by the society is estimated at $3,775,000.

In philanthropy, the Congregational Churches have given largely to institutions under the care of almost every denominational or undenominational enterprise in the country, but there are very few Congregational hospitals, orphanages, asylums, or homes, and of these there is no record.

The Board of Ministerial Relief was organized in 1887, and has since developed as the Congregational Board of Ministerial Relief, with members appointed by the National Council, "to secure, hold, manage, and distribute funds for the relief of needy Congregational ministers and the needy families of deceased Congregational ministers." The receipts of the board during the year 1916 were $79,835, not including conditional gifts. If we add these, with a special gift of $25,000 and a special legacy of $450,000, the total receipts for the year were $565,335.

The annuity fund for Congregational ministers, which in 1916 completed its third year, is organized under the contributory pension system to secure an annuity for those ministers who become members at the age of 65. Its total assets at the close of 1916 were $136,491.

In 1853 the American Congregational Association was organized in Boston for the purpose of collating such literature as might serve to illustrate Congregational history and of promoting the general interests of Congregational Churches. It owns a building in Boston, which is regarded as the denominational headquarters, and has a library of great value.

The modern movement for the organization of young people for Christian work was started by a Congregational minister, the Rev. Francis E. Clark, who formed the first Christian Endeavor Society, in Portland, Me., in 1881. Similar societies were soon established in other churches, and in 1885 a general interdenominational organization was effected, under the name United Society of Christian Endeavor. This has spread not only throughout the United States, but throughout the world, and has also given the impulse for a number of kindred denominational societies, such as the Epworth League, the Baptist Young People's Union, etc. In 1916 there were in the Congregational Churches of the United States 3,201 Christian Endeavor societies with 134,258 members.

Congregational publishing interests have chiefly been heretofore in the care of the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society. Since, as previously stated, the Sunday school work is to be taken over by another organization, this society will change its name, probably taking the name Congregational Publishing Society, and as such and through its trade name, "The Pilgrim Press," will continue the publication of Sunday school literature and of other periodicals and books, mainly of a religious nature. It also issues the leading denominational paper, the Congregationalist and Advance, formed by merging the Congregationalist and Christian World and the Advance. The different missionary societies publish their own monthlies, including especially the Missionary Herald, representing the foreign work, and the American Missionary, representing the combined home work.

For the better coordination of the various lines of denominational activity there have been established a number of commissions of the National Council whose duty it is to advise the various societies described above as to organization, methods, and policies, and to recommend to the council such action as commends itself to their judgment. These commissions are 9 in number, on Missions, home and foreign; on Social Service; on Evangelism; on Religious and Moral Education; on Federation, Comity and Unity, and Delegates to the Federal Council; National Service Commissions, having special reference to war work; Commission on Organization, having special reference to state and district organization and the local church; Pilgrim Fund Commission for raising a fund of $5,000,000 for pensions of Congregational ministers; on Temperance and Public Worship.

As shown by the table the denomination has gained during the decade in every respect, except in number of edifices reported. The total number of organizations in 1916 was 5,867 as against 5,713 in 1906, a gain of 2.7 per cent, and the membership was 791,274 as against 700,480, showing a gain of 13 per cent. The number of church edifices. was 5,744, a loss of 48, but, as shown by the table on p. 242, the number of halls and other places of worship reported for holding services was 205 as against 164 in 1906. The value of church property rose from $63,240,305 to $80,842,813, an increase of 27.8 per cent. The debt on church property amounted to

$3,928,253, as reported by 1,447 organizations in 1916, against $2,708,025, as reported by 1,206 organizations in 1906. The number of organizations reporting parsonages increased from 2,693 in 1906 to 3,049 in 1916, or 13.2 per cent, and the value of parsonages from $6,761,148 to $9,295,284, a gain of 37.5 per cent. The increase in Sunday schools and scholars was less than in the other items, though the number of scholars advanced from 638,089 to 654,922, or 2.6 per cent.

Contributions for missions and benevolences increased from $1,926,133 to $2,295,237, or 19.2 per cent, the gifts for foreign work increasing in greater proportion than those for domestic work, the latter not including gifts for philanthropic purposes.

Certain items not included in the above summary are church expenditures and number of members under 13 years of age, reported for the first time in 1916, and the languages used in church services.

Church expenditures, reported by 5,619 organizations, amounted to $14,220,133 and covered running expenses, including salaries of pastors, outlay for repairs and improvements, benevolences, and any other items that passed through the treasury of the local church.

The number of members under 13 years of age, as reported by 4,484 organizations in 1916, was 11,455, constituting 1.9 per cent of the 617,325 members reported by these organizations. Assuming that the same proportion would apply to the 173,949 members reported by the organizations from which no answer to this inquiry was received, the total number of members under 13 years of age for the entire denomination would be 14,683.1

Of the 5,867 organizations, 5,420, with 745,417 members, reported services conducted in English only, and 447, with 45,857 members, reported services conducted in foreign languages alone or with English, of which, 309, with 22,227 members, used foreign languages only. The number of foreign languages used was 20. Of these the leading languages used alone or with English were German, by 186 organizations, with 15,384 members; followed next in order by Swedish, used by 92 organizations, with 7,122 members; and Welsh, used by 60 organizations, with 7,303 members. As compared with the report for 1906, this shows an increase of 1 in the number of languages used, and a decrease of 19 in the number of organizations reporting the use of foreign languages, but an increase of 7,673 in the membership of such organizations.

1 See Introduction, p. 10. 102319°-1916

Of the 4,665 ministers reported, 3,427 were in pastoral work, and 1,238 were not in pastoral work. The number of pastors reporting other occupations was 83, the number of supplies, assistants, etc., 184. Of those not in pastoral work, 612 were reported as retired, while 121 were in denominational work, 197 in educational and editorial work, 135 in evangelistic and philanthropic work, and 173 in other or nonministerial occupations. The number of pastors reporting salaries was 3,156, and the average annual salary reported was $1,343.