Albanian emigration to America is of recent origin, the result of the political unrest and strife of the whole region; but it is estimated that there are about 100,000 in the United States who have come from Albania, aside from those of Albanian origin who have come from the settlements in Greece and Italy. Ecclesiastical distinctions are not emphasized, and they have organized national, educational, and musical societies and clubs, of which the most important are the Albanian National Party, with headquarters in Worcester, Mass., and the Albanian Federation, Vatra, the "Hearth," with headquarters in Boston.

Their religious organizations are: (1) The Albanian Church, under the jurisdiction and supervision of the Russian Church, with headquarters in Worcester, Mass., and branches in Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Southbridge, Mass., etc. It follows the doctrine and the ritual of the Orthodox Church, the only difference being that it officiates the service in the Albanian language. (2) The religious society of the Moslem Albanians, with headquarters in Waterbury, Conn., whose aim according to its constitution is, "To explain clearly and unmistakably the religious teachings, which preach love, brotherhood, peace, love for fatherland, progress and righteousness in full agreement, to print religious and educational books in Albanian, to open schools, to found mosques, to send out lecturers among

HISTORY.

national paper, and to help as much as possible its members."

American interest in Albania has found expression in efforts by the American Board of Foreign Missions (Congregational) to establish schools in different places, especially in Gortcha (Gorizia). The churches included in this report are under the supervision of the Russian Orthodox Church.

With the introduction of Christianity into Bulgaria as a state religion, in the second half of the ninth century, a Bulgarian church organization under an archbishop, sent from Byzantium, was instituted. As the Bulgarian state grew in political importance and territorial expansion, and the rulers of Bulgaria laid claim to the title of "tsar" or king, the head of the Bulgarian Church also assumed the title of patriarch, as the chief of an autonomous organization. This title was formally recognized by the Patriarch of Constantinople, with the consent of the Patriarchs of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, at a local church council held in the town of Lampsacus, on the Hellespont, in 1235, and was borne by the subsequent heads of the Bulgarian Church up to 1394, when Bulgaria lost her political independence to the Turks and her ecclesiastical autonomy to the Greeks. But in Macedonia, at the town of Ohrida, an archbishopric, founded in the latter part of the tenth century under the name of "Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrida," subsisted until 1767, when it also was abolished by a decree of the Turkish Sultan and its dioceses were incorporated with those of the Greek Patriarchate of

1See Introduction, p. 10.

Constantinople. Thus all the Bulgarians living in the Turkish Empire were placed under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Greek Patriarch, and, owing to the identity of religion, were classed as Greeks.

The first movement of the Bulgarians to secure recognition of their ecclesiastical rights as a national unit, distinct from the Greeks, started in 1859, when the demand was made that all dioceses or districts where the Bulgarians were in the majority should have Bulgarian bishops, that church services should be conducted in Slavic and not in Greek, and that in the schools the Bulgarian language should be the medium of instruction. On the refusal of the Greek Patriarch to meet these demands, on the ground that they were contrary to the canons of the church, the Bulgarian people, through duly appointed delegates, pleaded their cause for more than 10 years with the Turkish Government. Finally, in 1870, the Sultan issued a decree or charter instituting a Bulgarian church organization under the name of "Exarchate, " and in 1872 the first Bulgarian Exarch was chosen by a National Council. In the same year the Greek Patriarch called together a local church council in Constantinople, composed exclusively of Greek clericals, which declared the newly instituted Bulgarian

church schismatic, on the ground that it introduced racial distinction as an innovation into the church. The Patriarch of Jerusalem alone, of those present at the council, refused to sign the decision, considering it unjust. As the Bulgarian Church organization was merely a question of administration, implying no change in dogmas, doctrines, rites, or ceremonies, the Russian, Serbian, and Rumanian Churches likewise declined to accept the charge of schism as legal or valid. The Bulgarian Exarchate, therefore, is not a separatist body that has seceded from the Eastern Orthodox Church, to which the Russian, Rumanian, and Serbian Churches also belong, for it has not changed in its beliefs, tenets, creed, and form of polity, which remain exactly what they always have been and what they were when the Bulgarians were under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Greek Patriarch.

Prior to the Macedonian insurrection of 1903 there was very little Bulgarian immigration to the United States. Those who did come, however, sent back such attractive stories of the situation and the opportunities in this country that, when the conditions in Macedonia became intolerable, large numbers from that section found homes in the United States. These in turn were followed by considerable immigration from Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia. No figures are available, as the immigration report gives all these as coming from European Turkey, but it has been claimed that as many as 20,000 a year came over, until the total exceeded 100,000. For some time there was very little done for their spiritual or ecclesiastical care, but a few churches have been organized, with priests from Bulgaria belonging to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Those included in this report do not represent all the Bulgarian communities, but only those which have organized churches. Since the outbreak of the war there has been some return migration to Bulgaria, but not so great as to other European countries.

DOCTRINE AND POLITY.

The state religion of Bulgaria is that of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, but all other denominations are allowed free exercise. According to statistics for 1910, furnished by the Bulgarian Legation at Washington, the whole population was 4,306,329; and of these, 3,643,136 belonged to the Eastern Orthodox Church; 32,149 were Roman Catholics, and 6,254 Protestants. The rest were distributed among other bodies, Mohammedans numbering 602,084.

The Bulgarian Church is governed by a Synod of which the Exarch, as primus inter pares, is the president. The religious affairs of non-Orthodox Christians (that is, not belonging to the Eastern Orthodox

Church), and of adherents of other faiths are managed by their own spiritual heads, under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Worship.

As national education is provided by the state, the Bulgarian Church has nothing to do with it, except that it maintains two seminaries or theological schools for the preparation of priests. It has no missionary enterprises either inside or outside of the country, and its attitude toward other creeds is that of complete toleration. Under the initiative of Dr. John R. Mott, a movement for Christian work among students was started. The church, in the person of its highest dignitaries, met the movement with favor and sympathy, and Dr. Mott, and those of his coworkers who have visited Bulgaria at different times, have been invariably asked to address the young men who were preparing for the ministry in the seminary of Sofia. The same tolerant attitude is maintained toward missionary enterprise in the country. The temperance movement, initiated some years ago by the late Dr. J. F. Clarke, one of the oldest American missionaries in Bulgaria, had the hearty support of the church as well as of the Government of Bulgaria. The translation of the Bible into modern Bulgarian, made under the auspices and at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society, is not only freely circulated among the people, but not infrequently is used by the clergy in the church services, whenever they wish to read portions of the Scriptures in the people's vernacular.

STATISTICS.

The general statistics of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church for 1916 are given, by states, in the next table, and the relation of these statistics to those of other bodies is shown in the general tables in Part I.

This denomination was reported for the first time in 1916. There were 4 churches, with a membership of 1,992; 4 church edifices; and church property valued at $18,500, on which there was a debt of $4,000. Church expenditures amounting to $5,051, reported by 4 churches, cover the general items passing through the church treasury.

The number of members under 13 years of age, reported by the 4 organizations in 1916, was 212, constituting 10.6 per cent of the 1,992 members reported for the denomination as a whole.1

Of the 4 organizations, 2, with 1,258 members, reported the use of Bulgarian only in the conduct of church services; 1, with 300 members, Bulgarian and Slavic; and 1, with 434 members, Slavic only.

Of the 4 priests in charge of the churches, 2 reported annual salaries averaging $850.

I See Introduction, p. 10.

Since the census of 1890 the number of Greeks immigrating to the United States has increased greatly. Some have come from Greece, some from the Greek islands of the Aegean, and others from Constantinople, Smyrna, and other parts of Asia Minor. They have been largely unmarried men, or, if married, they have left their families behind them and have scattered over the country, those from the same section usually keeping together. As they have become to a certain extent permanent residents, and especially as they have been joined by their families, they have felt the need of religious services, particularly in case of marriage, or sickness and death. Accordingly, application has been made by the communities to the ecclesiastical authorities of their own sections, and priests have been sent to this country, sometimes by the Holy Synod of Greece and sometimes by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. These priests have formed churches in the larger centers and also congregations in places within easy reach, which they visit more or less regularly as convenient.

As in the case of the early Russian churches, there has been no central organization, each priest holding his ecclesiastical relation with the synod or patriarchate which sent him to this country. The Patriarchate of Constantinople has resigned its ecclesiastical relations to the Greeks in America in favor of the Holy Synod of Greece, so that now all Greek (Hellenic) priests are under the ecclesiastical supervision of that synod, which has decided to send to America a Greek (Hellenic) bishop.

1 In view of the very general use of the term "Greek" to describe the entire Eastern Orthodox Church, in all its branches, the term "Hellenic" is used to designate specifically the Greek Church of Greece, governed by the Holy Synod of Greece.

* See Eastern Orthodox Churches, p. 250.

DOCTRINE AND POLITY.

This church shows a considerable increase in the more essential features. The number of organizations dropped from 334 in 1906 to 87 in 1916, a decrease of 74 per cent, but this is explained by the adoption of a somewhat different basis of presentation -in 1906 the different communities were reported, but in 1916 only those churches which were well organized were reported. The number of church edifices increased from 29 in 1906 to 59 in 1916, and the value of church property advanced from $385,800 in 1906 to $1,115,464 in 1916, showing a gain of 189.1 per cent. There was a corresponding increase in debt on church property, the total reported in 1916 by 36 organizations being $322,423 as against $139,900 reported by 15 organizations in 1906. There were 6 parsonages, with a value of $13,200, reported in 1916, as against 2, with a value of $2,800, in 1906, an increase in value of 371.4 per cent. Sunday schools increased from 4 to 17, and the number of scholars from 371 to 1,088, or 193.3 per cent.

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 amounting to to $230,288, reported by 74 organizations, cover running expenses, outlay for repairs and improvements, benevolences, and such other items as passed through the church treasury.

The number of members under 13 years of age, as reported by 80 organizations in 1916, was 8,140, constituting 9.4 per cent of the 86,271 members reported by these organizations. Assuming that the same proportion would apply to the 33,600 members reported by the organizations from which no answer to this inquiry was received, the total number of