The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-01-28 00:00:00

CHURCH EXTENSION-HOW TO ACCOMPLISH
IT.

In the report of the sub-division of parishes commis-
sioners it is stated, " The result of our inquiry shows that
there is an immediate and pressing demand for the erec-
tion of about 600 new churches." The commissioners
calculate the cost at £2,100,000, on an average of £3,500
each church, and express an opinion that if a sum of
£1,000.000 sterling could be supplied from some general
fund, local subscriptions and the liberality of churchmen
would supply the rest. To provide each clergyman with
an income of £2OO would require £120,000 per annum,
and to endow each church with £5O a year more for the
maintenance of the fabric would require an additional
yearly sum of £30,000; £150,000 a year, therefore, must
be provided for the support of the 600 new churches and
their officiating ministers. It would also be desirable to
provide parsonage-houses; and taking each parsonage-
house to cost £BOO, a sum of £129.000 (supposing a like
sum were granted by the Bounty Board) would be suffi-
cient to make a grant of half the cost, leaving the rest to
the liberality of the congregation. Her Majesty's com-
missioners already referred to recommended that the bene-
fices now in the gift of the Lord High Chancellor of En-
gland, amounting to 777, with an aggregate annual value
of nearly -£200,000, should be placed at the disposal of
the Church Building Commissioners, who should be
empowered to dispose of as many of them as would pro-
duce a sum equal to the amount required for insuring the
erection of 600 churches. •
To provide the annual sum of £150,000 to endow these
new churches we turn to the report of her Majesty's com-
missioners appointed in 1849 for the purpose of inquiring
into " episcopal and capitular revenues in England and
'Vales." It is shown that from the revenues of the
Church itself ample funds will be forthcoming in a few
years if their recommendations are carried into effect.
The real property of the Church belonging to the several
classes of dignitaries and corporations consists of houses,
lands, manors, mines, minerals, and tithes (or tithe rent-
charges) ; but under the present system of leasing, the
lessors do not enjoy so much as one-third of the gross
annual income. It is shown that eventually a surplus
may be obtained of more than half-a-million per annum,
and thus the means are at hand, by a fair and judicious
management of church property, for the endowment of
600 churches and der

The founding of schools for the poor in every new
parish and district will follow as a matter of course upon
the erection of the church and the appointment of a
minister; and it may reasonably be expected that in a
few years increased school accommodation for more than
200,600 children would be provided.

There must not be omitted in any scheme for extend-
ing. parochial efficiency the Scripture reader. The ob-
'llmg jections which, before experience, were entertained to the
'ered. office of the Scripture reader, have been so thoroughly
.hers. answered and removed by their ascertained
, aid to the clergyman, that their employ
tained the sanction of almost the whop
?s on If there are no public funds available for providing 1000
neral ouch men

tent has now ob-

)r the new formed parishes, it may safely be
left to the laity in their respective districts to, furnish the
small stipends required.

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