Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/81

 RELIGION 29

Assembly, the parishioners choose their own minister*. The entire endowments of the Chinch from all sources, including amount to ahout 392,000/. per atinum. The voluntary contributions of the congregations for religious and charitable purposes in 19l9 amounted to 39/. The number of communicants in 1919 was about 728,000; ministers, about 1,800; lay missionaries, 105 ; Sunday scholars. 192,50

On October 31, 1900," the Free Church of Scotland and tl Presbyterian Church of Scotland (formed by secessions at various t the Church of Scotland^ constituted themselves into the United Church of Scotland. A minority, representing 26 congregations, re- girding themselves as the Free Church of Scotland, claimed all tin ind endowment funds. A Royal Commission reported that tn< Church was unable adequately to carry out all U

The Churches (Scotland) Act, 1905, was passed foi f the

church property between the Free and the Un by an

Executive Commission of five, and the result was that funds amounting to 459,469/. were allocated to the Free Church (310,000?. for general provision and the remainder for College provision and various othef purposes). The United Church's foreign mission was extended in 1918 to the <jf the

Basel Mission (formerly under German domination) in the Gold Coast. The foreign mission agents including natites'i number 5,017, and income 395,000/. The United Church had, on December 31, 1919, 1,489 congregations, and 30 preaching stations ; 528,000 members, besides adherents ; 2,050 Sunday schools, with 21,647 teachers and 201,000 children in attendance. The Church courts are the General Assembly, 12 synods, 64 pr- and 2

continental presbyteries. Annual revenue from free-will offerings is over a million sterling. The Church has three theological colleges (at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen) with 19 professors and lecturers. The Free Church had in 1919, 150 congregations and stations, 89 ministers and probationers, and one college. Contributions to schemes amounted to 18,437/., and other income to 24,022/. There are in Scotland some small outstanding Presbyterian bodies and also Baptists, Congregations odists, and

Unitarians. The Episcopal Church in Scotland has 7 bishoprics, 416 Churches and missions, 320 clergv, and 56,000 communicants.

The Roman Catholic Church had in Scotland (1920) two archbishops, our bishops and one bishop-auxiliary : about 600 priests, 454 churches, chapels, and stations, and about 546,000 adherents.

The proportion of marriages in Scotland according to the rites of the various Churches in 1918 traS: Established, 3S - 5 percent.; United Free, 22-6; Roman Catholic, 11*0 : Episcopal, 3 "6 ; others, 7*1 ; irregular, 17 2.

3. Ireland.

The principal religious professions in Ireland, as recorded at the census of 1911. are as follows • —

— U-inster | Munster Ulster Connmu^ht | Tot-1

Roman Catholics. . j 990,045 j 973,805

Protestant Episcopalians 140.182 I 50,64* lP.Oin

Presbyterians. . ' IMN 4,130 421.410 2,069 I 440,525

Methodists. . . 8,068 4,175 1.323, 62,362

Other Professions. _ 2.6S9 j

Total. . . 1.162.044 l,n35,4>>5 _

The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is under lour archbishops, of Armagh, Cashel, Dublin, and Tuam, and 24 bishops, besides one bishop- auxiliary. On a vacancy the clergy of the diocese nominate a successor in whose favour they postulate or petition the Pope. The bishops