The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-06-03
CONNECTICUT CHURCH CLUB
FIFTY MEMBERS 1T MERIDE1
 LAST EVENING.
Charles E. Graves Presided-Burton Mans
 fields Strong Address.

The Church club of Connecticut held meeting in Meriden at the Winthrop hotel last evening.
 Vice President Charles E. Graves of this city presided. There were about fifty members present.
 The speakers of the evening were General w. w. Skiddy of Stamford and Burton Mansfield of this city, treasurer of the club, who said:
 The missionary work of the Episcopal church in this diocese is in charge of the missionary society of the diocese, of which society every member of the Episcopal church is also member. This society is nearly as old as the cen tury, and was incorporated at first un- der the name of the Christian Knowl- edge society.
 Without going into the history of this society in detail. it has had a continu- ous existence in various forms, with greater or less degrees of activity, from the time of it's organization to the pres ent time. It is now controlled by a board of fourteen directors, of whom the bishop is head, and on which each of the six archdeaconries are repre- scented by two persons-one clergy man, known as the archdeacon, and one layman.
 The system of archdeaconries was in- augurated in 1S77 This diocese was the first to introduce the system in the United States, and the late Rev. Dr. Tatlock was the first archdeacon in the United States. The diocese is di- vided into six archdeaconries, four of which are coextensive in territory with the counties which bear their names, while two embrace the four other coun- ties of the state. These two are Hart ford, comprising Hartford and Wind ham counties, and New London, com prising New London and Holland coun- ties. The society's work is general throughout the diocese, but the eastern part of the state, or that portion east of the Connecticut river, is more par ticularly its missionary field. In pro- portion to the population, there are twice as many communicants west ot the Connecticut river as there are east of it-one in every twenty-two persons being a conlmunicant of the Episcopa church in the western part of the state and one in every forty-seven in the eastern part.
 The work of the missionary society is of two kinds-the sustentation of olc parishes and the establishing and main. tenance of mission stations. There are forty-five aided parishes in the diocese and eighteen organized missions. Be sides, the society also engages in gen eral missionary work where opportun. ity and occasion present themselves and these opportunities and occasions are not at all infrequent, inasmuch a: in sixty-two of the 167 towns of thu state the church is not otherwise rep resented.
 There are upon the rolls of our aided parishes and mission stations over 4,10t communicants, being about one-seventf of our total number, and more than are registered in any one of twenty diocese. in the United States-three of which arc in New England and one in the middle states the rest being in the south anG west There is also one missionary Jurisdiction of the eighteen or twenty which the church has organized 1T which there as many communicants as our own missionary society reaches We administer to over 2,000 families about 2,500 scholars, and in the neigh. borhood of 5000 individuals.
 The aid extended to these places is due to them for many reasons. Firs ! because they are members of a com. E mon church and seek the blessings anG s cancellations of common service. Sec. E ond, because they aid themselves. as |i far as their abilities allow-every one E of them contributing it's proportionate |t share to the general fund which the |s diocese raises. Third, because of tho help which they have given so many o1 | our larger and stronger parishes, par. ishes now largely supported by tht brains and contributions of person: |swho received their early church edu' cation and training in the assisted par. ishes os the country town. Aid is ex stended by general offerings to whicf every parish and mission station, a: above stated. contributes, by donation: for special work and by the way O H missionary boxes. A number of oul present strong and self-supporting par ishes have at some time in their his tory received aid from the society, anc