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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 79

Drifted Out of Touch

Drifted Out of Touch.

That the Churches have in recent years drifted out of touch with the people cannot be gainsaid. In a book recently published by the Rev. Henry Carter, entitled, "The Church and the New Age," the drift is shown to be quite alarming. He makes an elaborate examination of Church statistics, which show a remark-able break taking place about the year 1906. He admits the difficulty of measuring Church life by statistics: "Hearts cannot be read as heads are counted." But when this has been said the position revealed by the statistics of the several Churches deserves very serious consideration. The Roman Catholic Church in England publishes no statistics, and owing to a change of method in computing Church membership made by the Anglican Church during the decade 1901-1910, with which he deals, the figures from that denomination are not easily comparable or conclusive. Taking the eight largest denominations of those usually designated the Free Churches, viz., Wesleyan, Congregational, Baptist, Primitive Methodist, United Methodist, Calvinistic Methodist, Presbyterian, and the Society of Friends, he finds a significant break in the year 1905-1906. In the first five years of the decade 1901-1910 all the Churches named had a substantial increase every year in the number of Sunday School scholars, with the single exception of the Calvinistic Methodist Church, which reported a decrease in the year 1902-1903; the total is crease of all the Churches for the five year period being 231,975. In the following five years nearly all the afore-[unclear: me] tioned Churches reported every year [unclear: a] substantial decrease in the number [unclear: of] scholars. The total decrease for [unclear: the] second five-year period was 127,373,[unclear: wis] out the figures for the Congregation and Baptist Churches for the last of [unclear: th] five years; these figures not being [unclear: avai] able at the time the table was [unclear: compiled] The figures regarding membership for [unclear: the] same Churches give a very similar [unclear: res] In the first five years of the [unclear: decs] every one of the Churches, without [unclear: exc] tion, had an increase in membership, [unclear: f] total increase for the five years [unclear: be] 229,772. In the second five all but [unclear: th] of the eight Churches had a decrease [unclear: i] membership, the total increase of [unclear: the] two being only 2,542. Three out of the [unclear: ei] Churches had a substantial [unclear: decre] every year, the total decrease of the [unclear: me] bership in the eight Churches during [unclear: fi] five years being 40,615, without [unclear: includ] the figures from the Congregational [unclear: a] Baptist Churches for the last of the [unclear: fin] years. An examination of some [unclear: chu] attendance censuses which have [unclear: been] taken reveals a similar drift of the [unclear: people] away from the Churches. For [unclear: exmple] censuses taken in the Everton [unclear: district] Liverpool give the following [unclear: result] 1881, 40¼ per cent. of church sittings [unclear: oc] pied; 1891, 31¼ per cent. of church [unclear: s] tings occupied; 1902, 25 per [unclear: cent] church sittings occupied; 1908, 12½ [unclear: per] cent. of church sittings occupied.