The Corporation of the Church House,

DEAN'S YARD, WESTMINSTER, LONDON,ES.W.

President:

HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

Pice-Presidents:

HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF WESTMINSTER.
THE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON.

VIEW OF THE WEST FRONT OF THE CHURCH HOUSE, SHEWING THE GREAT HALL NOW
APPROACHING COMPLETION.

Some ways of helping to complete the Church House.

(1) By Donation to the Building Fund.

(2) By becoming a Member of the Corporation.

Membership of the Corporation may be acquired by persons of either sex (being members of the Church of England or of any Church in full communion therewith) by an Annual Subscription of at least One Guinea; Life Membership by a Donation in one sum of at least Ten Guineas.

(3) By becoming an Associate.

Associates, who must be recommended by a Member of the Corporation, are admitted to the Library and Reading Room on the payment of Five Shillings a year.

(4) By taking a Collecting Card.

(5) By giving a Drawing Room or Garden Meeting.

(6) By organizing a Parish Meeting.

(7) By Church Offertory.

(8) By Legacy.

Communications should be addressed to the Secretary, SYDNEY W. FLAMANK, Esq., Church House, Dean's Yard, Westminster, S. W.; or to the Organizing Secretary, the Kev. J. A. BETTS, Church House, Dean's Yard, Westminster, S. W.

PREFACE.

HE Thirty-fifth Meeting of the Church Congress, held in the city of Norwich for the second time, will rank with the best of the long series of Congresses, notwithstanding the gloomy predictions which went before, and the caustic criticisms which followed after it.

The value of a Church Congress cannot be accurately appraised by the syllabus of subjects, or by the list of invited Readers and Speakers, or by the muster roll of its members, or even by the amount of interest and enthusiasm it arouses, but by the character and quality of the principal papers and speeches; and, judged by this standard, Norwich Congress falls no whit behind its predecessors. There have been larger, more lively, more brilliant, and, perhaps, more conspicuously successful Congresses, but estimated by the chief contributions to the discussions, none of greater and more permanent! practical value.

rest.

A glance backward over thirty years to the first Norwich Congress, held in 1865, reveals great changes. In this interval -long indeed when regarded in the light of a transient life, but inexpressibly short when measured by the life of a Church which reckons its history by the centuries-many who took a prominent part in the earlier Congress have passed away, and have entered, we trust, into the everlasting Among these we can recall the Archbishop of York (Dr. Thomson); the Bishops of Norwich (Dr. Pelham); Oxford (Dr. S. Wilberforce); Lincoln (Dr. Wordsworth); S. Andrew's (Dr. Chas. Wordsworth); and Grahamstown; the Deans of Canterbury (Dr. Alford); Ely (Dr. Harvey Goodwin, afterwards Bishop of Carlisle); and Chichester (Dr. Hook); Archdeacon Allen; Dr. Pusey; Dr. J. S. Howson 334115

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(afterwards Dean of Chester); Dr. Goulburn (afterwards Dean of Norwich), Dr. J. S. B. Monsell; Canons Norris and E. Hoare; Rev. T. L. Claughton (afterwards Bishop of Rochester and S. Albans); Lord Arthur C. Hervey (afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells); Dr. Hessey; Lord Harrowby; Sir R. Phillimore; Mr. A. J. B. Beresford Hope, and Mr. Robert Brett.

Though the Earth dispart these Earthlies, face from face,
Yet the Heavenlies shall surely join in Heaven,

For the Spirit hath no bonds in time or space."

A few who were at Norwich in 1865 and took part in the discussions are still with us. Among them the Bishops of Derry, Exeter, and Liverpool; Archdeacon Denison; Canons Heaviside and Meyrick; Dr. Salmon; and, though last mentioned, always first in the thoughts of Congress members, Archdeacon Emery, Permanent Secretary and reputed "Father of Church Congresses," to whose unique experience, genial oversight, wise counsels, and unsparing labours Congress mainly owes its vigorous life and growing capacity of useful service for the Church of God in this land.

In 1865 the Church Congress was little known or heard of beyond the immediate neighbourhood of the few places in which it had been held. To-day it is a household word among Churchmen, and the great popular Church assembly of the year. This development of the Congress is only one index of the wonderful growth of interest now manifested by all classes in the affairs and work of the Church both at home and abroad. The Church Congress has been held in nearly every diocese in England and Wales; the exceptions being London, Rochester, S. Albans, Truro, Bangor, Salisbury, and Hereford. But London, Rochester, and S. Albans have found themselves within casy distance of Congress at Brighton (1874); Croydon (1877); Reading (1882); and Folkestone (1892); and, it may be, the Permanent Committee has still sinister designs upon the two former populous dioceses. Plymouth (1876) and Exeter (1894) brought Congress into the far west. Bangor joined hands with S. Asaph in the welcome given to Congress at Rhyl (1891); Salisbury and

Hereford are agricultural dioceses, and yield no town large enough to receive Congress and its numerous visitors; but next year Shrewsbury will be a most convenient centre for the diocese of Hereford, and it will break new ground in the dioceses of Lichfield and S. Asaph.

A comparison of the programmes of 1865 and 1895 still further marks the growth of the Congress. In 1865 eleven meetings (six being sectional) were held on three days; in 1895, twenty-six meetings (fifteen being sectional) were held on four days. It appears to have been an unwritten law of Congress in its early days to limit the number of papers and prepared addresses to four, viz., two readers and two speakers. In recent years the programme has been heavily weighted with invited readers and speakers; and, mainly in consequence of this, the discussions of the subjects by voluntary speakers have often been very limited. A good deal of criticism has been directed against this comparatively recent innovation, and Subjects' Committees in future years will be wise if they aim at meeting objections which have been very emphatically expressed, and are undoubtedly widely felt. Again, in recent years the subjects selected have been elaborately dissected and subdivided; whereas in earlier years they were briefly designated in general terms.

The annually recurring complaint, "There are no new subjects," was reiterated with troublesome persistence this year in the daily and weekly journals. Norwich was in no sense a "Congress of Novelties," such as Wolverhampton in 1887; but it presented for discussion some new subjects, as well as some old subjects, of present interest and urgency, in a new light, and it made some experiments. For example, "National Education in England as compared with (a) the Colonies, (b) the Continent, etc."; "The National Church: its continuity, etc."; "The Church's Ministry, Doctrine, and Worship Confirmed, etc."; 'The Church's Care of the Deaf, etc., were new to Congress. The meeting for men only, to consider "Social Evils of the Age" was a new departure, and proved one of the finest and most serious meetings of the Congress.

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The discussion of "Hindrances to Christian Unity was carried over to a second session-a plan advocated for a long time, but only adopted this year. It proved a signal success. I have prepared for the Preface of this volume a Comparative Table of Subjects" debated during the last ten years, and have classified them under some general headings. This Table may be of use to Subjects' Committees in the near future, and may possibly remove some misapprehension about Congress programmes of the past.

The Norwich Committee, with praiseworthy zeal, endeavoured to make Congress useful to all classes of the community. Day and evening tickets were issued without any limit of number. Working-men's meetings formed an integral part of the Congress programme, and were held every night in one of the large Halls. Meetings were also held in connection with the Congress in the principal towns of the dioceseGreat Yarmouth, Lowestoft, East Dereham, Fakenham, Swaffham, Harleston, and Ipswich. Working-women had a special meeting in one of the Congress Halls. The Sundays preceding and following Congress were utilized to the fullest extent by the clergy of Norwich and the neighbourhood, and the Mission aspect of Congress was well brought

out.

The Official Report has been prepared with great care; and the Editor sends it forth on its mission in the belief that no serious defect will disfigure its pages, and that it will be found in every way worthy to take its place among its companion volumes, the Reports of previous Church Congresses. A serious difficulty has confronted us the great length of many of the papers. This is by no means a new feature; but the difficulties of Editor and Publisher have been accentuated this year in ways we had not previously experienced. Nothing can be more disappointing to a writer than to have his paper cut down; but a process of excision will have to be faced unless Subjects' Committees in the future can persuade Readers to keep their papers within the limits of the allotted time.