The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-01-30
MISSIONARY WORK.
Conference Last Night Of
the Brotherhood of
St. Andrew.
HELD AT ST. J%OHN'SCHURCH
Address by Rev. Mr.. Mann Of
Orange-Subjects Discussed
Rev. Dr.. Stoddard's
Welcome.

A ClOUllCs
The Brotherhood Of st. Andrew of the
Newark Diocese held a conference last night
in st. Johns Free Church, Summit avenue.
st. Johns chapter is the only one in Jersey
City, and the youngest one in the diocese.
Out of the twenty-five societies which there
are in the diocese eleven were represented.
The ladies of the Altar Guild provided a
supper for the out of town delegates, forty
of them partaking of it and enjoying their
hospitality. The chairman of the conference
was Mr.. Wood and the secretary, Mr..
Thorne, both of Newark. The singing OF
several hymns opened the meeting, after
of Grace Church, Orange, was introduced
as the speaker of the evening in the abs ence
! of Mr.. Zabriski who had arranged to address
them. Mr.. Mann said:-''I regret that the
speaker is not present, as l believe that you
should be addressed by a layman. The
Brotherhood of st. Andrew is a laymen's as
ISOLATION. Clergymen wear the button and
favor the work, but they ought to let the
| laymen run it. What | say to you tonight
must be from the standpoint OF a clergy
man.
1.-THE Brotherhood of st. Andrew has UNI
doubtedly come into the Church OF America
l ~ Udf 1Oudl ~ ulItDt1 OFSL wv
and $4,000 members. 1t is the largest society
in the American Church. Thus the question
is not, Is it going to survive! but rather,
What is it going to do? Is it going to be a
power for good or a power for bad.
What is to be the function OF
not an educational society; it is
| not for theological advancement, it has no
legislative function, it exists in the parish
| not to take the place of the vestry, to raise
| the church debts or inform the rector how
the services should be run. What then is its
| functionss 1t is simply n purely mission
ary. What is its secret of success! Its rule
of prayer and rule of service. | believe it is
because it has held to those two simple rules;
it is because it has minded its own business
that 1T has had such a success. 1t cannot do
better than to cultivate this missionary
spirit"
SOCIETIES REPRESENTED.
Secretary Thorne called the roll, and the
following chapters answered:-St Johns,
Jersey City; st. Paul's, Newark; St.
Stephens Chapter of st. Barnabas Church,
Newark; House of Prayer, Newark; Trinity,
Newark; St. Johns, Elizabeth; Grace,
Orange: Grace, Rutherford; st. Paufs,
Paterson; Ridgewood P. E. Church, st.
| Luke's, Montclair.
A hy1nn was sung, and the chairman an
nounced that there would be a discussion on
ssWhat the Brotherhood Has Doue for Me
| and NV PARISH He said that he wished as
many as possible to tell in a few words what
it has done for them, and what through them
for the people about them. He first called
on Mr.. Throop, who was chaplain of the
| First Chapter of the Brotherhood, that of
| St. James, Chicago. He said:-sI remem-
Der the formation of the Sixth Chapter OF
the Brotherhood for. this reason, that when
the news came in we for the hrst time began
to grasp the idea that it was to become a
| national institution. From that time on it
began to spread rapidly. 1t was brought east
by a poor ~workingman. He was SO
poor that he had to walk from Chicago to
Philadelphia, where he founded a chapter,
Since | was Chaplain OF st. James, l have
\ never been for more than a few months IN
| any parish where there was not a chapter. l
nave always found Brotherhood men loyal
| men, always ready to stand by their rector,
| although what he is doing may not coincide
| with their views. I W. found that they
are young man striving to live lives near to
God and striving after a higher ideal than
| the Young men around them"
There was some heSltancy TO speak on tne
| part of the delegates.
WHY THE MEMBERS R
After a rather lengthy pause Secretary
| Thorne arose and Said:-"I think that the
| reason we men are so backward in speaking
| is that it is a new thing for us to hold Meth
odjst experience meetings as we are expected
to do tonight. We are asked for a personal
experience and this is a new departure in the
Episcopal Church" He said that the Broth
erhood should take up Bible
study, that there is not enough
of it in the Episcopal Church;
A very young man from the Rutherford
| Chapter said that he thought that it was the
duty of the brotherhood to back up the
preacher, spur him on, and make the future
look bright for him. He was followed by a
| business ike young fellow, who told what
the Brotherhood had done for st. Johns and
other churches in Elizabeth. His, with the
one exception of st. Stephens Chapter of
| st. Barnabas' Church, Newark, is the only
| chapter that showed having done any practi-
cal missionary work. st. Johns, Elizabeth,
is the only chapter in the
diocese. Its representative was Mr.. l.. b.
Ronnett. He said:-When we started six
wears ago we had a field for work already
| open for lis. 1t took us a year, however, to
find out what we had to do. We then started
a mission chapel and since then we have a
complete charge of it and we have furnished
readers ind speakers for the Wednesday and
Sunday services. Lately the work has
eTown SO that the Parochial Association has
| undertaken to engage an assistant rector
who will relieve us of part of our work.
| Our chapter started with forty-eight MEM
bers. Now we nave twenty-eight and we
are Just as strong as if we had more. After
we had started the work in our own parish
| We SSU 10 WOIh W GAL Ii cHS
| Brotherhood in other parishes and we had
the pleasure of seeing two more chapters
formed"
REV. DR.. sToDDARD'S ADDRESS.
Mr.. Stoddard was called upon to speak.
He thanked the delegates for turning out in
| such force on such a bad night, and said that
| it showed that the Brotherhood has done a.
great deal for the diocese. He said that he
does not believe that the laymen have ever
| had a fair show in st. Johns Church. sit
would be a great help to me-" he said, Ito
have the laymen get up and tell their ex-
periences. 1t is the only way clergymen can
know what is going on. | believe that you
should tell what your experiences have been;
make it a sort of a Methodist class meeting.
| 1t would help me and / am sure it would help
YOU. Ours is the baby chapter of the diocese.
| I'VE started last summer with two menu
bers, now we have %. We have
only a one resignation and only
one member dropped. We shall drop them,
however, Just as fast as is necessary. This
is a thorough working body. We publish
the parish paper and usher on Sunday even
ings. The Brotherhood men have, in addi-
ton to personal calls, made SO appointed
calls. We have no statistics to tell what we
are doing. The Brotherhood has done so
much for me that I can't believe of being in
a parish without a chapter" A vote of
thanks was rendered to Mr.. Stoddard and
the Altar Guild and with the singing of a
hymn the meeting ended.