Morning journal and courier., 1883-02-27
Board of City Missions.

Annual Meeting in North Church Chapel
 Reports of Omcers and City Mission
 ary.
 The annual meeting of the New Haven
 Board of City Missions was held in the North
 church chapel last evening. President
 Noah Porter presided. After hearing the re
 ports of the secretary, s. T. Dutton, and
 that of the treasurer, Prof. F. R. Honey,
 Mir. Mossman, city missionary, read his re-
 port in substance as follows:
 Mir. Mossman's report for the past year
 was the statement of his personal work of
 between five and six thousand calls made or received at his office, No. 47 Court street. A "Case List'' of seven hundred different families Cor persons living alone) in trouble of various kinds and receiving his personal attention 8, 161 different times during the year. and "Parish List' of 26O families otherwise without Christian care. Of these last I'll persons previously non-attendants were persuaded to attend church and IA of these were brought under the care of pastors of the various churches in the city. Ninety Christian people without other pastoral care were visited and cared for in their relicious life, and eighty-two destitute Christians were assisted in their temporal needs 721 calls were made upon seventy different sick per- sons. Bible reading, prayer and religious conversation was held with 228 persons, twenty two persons were persuaded to be- come Christians, of whom fourteen were re- ported to pastors for church membership and eight died without opportunity for join ing churches. Forty eight backsiders were restored and 1O4 other persons were reused to personal interest in religious life. In these various ways between two and three hundred persons have during the year been reached and either brought to a relie- ious life or toward it. Many others have promised to attend church, ta begin family
 prayers or engage in daily Bible reading and prayer, incorporate persons have been la
 bored with and some persons led to reform
 and temperance pledges secured. There were
 fifteen deaths during the year among the sick
 under the city missionary's care, ten funerals
 were attended and others provided for, sev- eral marriages soIemnized and number of baptisms of children.
 Mir. Mossman also reported his guardian ship of number of neglected or orphan children and final provision for them by
 adoption or otherwise placed in good homes.
 Assistance to begin better life had also been given to both men and women on their re- lease from the jail. Sick and feeble women and children, and sometimes men, had been sent into the country during the summer for the recovery of health and strength, loans had been made to those preferring to receive assistance in this way and special help given
 to those among the worthy poor not other wise comfortably provided for. Advice had been given at the request of churches Sab-
 bath schools and individuals in the distribu- tion of Thanksgiving supplies and Christmas gifts, addresses made in the churches in re- gard to the missionary work of the city as re- quested, visits to the sick at the hospital, as, sistance at temperance meetings, visits to the almshouse and to the jail.
 Other missionary work under MT. Mossman's s charge includes the division of the city into districts for the purpose of finding and bringing under the of the pastors of the churches or the city missionary persons not now attending church or under any regular Christian care. Visitors for this work are se- cured from the college, the theological school and the churches As many as twenty stu dents have been engaged st different times in this work, by whom and others asfforts of this kind have been made in twelve different 1 parts of the city. More than one hundred Bibles were also distributed during the year where there had previously been no Bible in | the house, but always on condition that they should be read at least once through. A corps of friendly visitors to the poor has also been formed and over one hundred names of \ ladies and others have already been placed ! upon the list as ready for such service when ever requested. A mothers meeting and 8 | training school for girls are also included | weekly in the city missionary work of city | missions.
 MT. Mossman gave number of cases in
 illustration of his daily work, and called atten- ! tion to several needs to the better doing of l religious and benevolent work in New Haven, ! among which are wanted lady city mission ary, larger number of district visitors and \ Bible readers, and a building for the com mon occupancy and use of the different so- cieties engaged in doing similar work. I A committee was appointed to bring the work to the notice of ministers meetings ! and another to arrange for meetings in the I churches.
 The following officers were elected for the I ensuing year: President, Noah Porter; vice president, Rev. Newman Smyth secretary, s. T. Dutton; treasurer, Prof F. R. Honey. ! The executive committee from the different l denominations were selected as follows Bap- | tist, Rev. T. S.. Samson, Prof. Francis Way ! land Congregational, Rev. H. c. Hovey, Philip Pond Methodist, Rev. c. H. Buck, ! Isaac N. Damn; Episcopal, Rev. R. T. | Thorne, c. P. Wurts.