The Portland daily press., 1898-06-09
THE Maine UNITARIiAS.
Their Annual Conference Held In
SacO.
EIGHTEEN CHURCHES ANSWERED
ROLL CALL.

ROLL CALL.
Only One Parish In tho State Denominated
Without Pastor-Talk of Discontin-
uing Publication of Church Register.
ESPECIAL TO THE PREss.1
Saco. June S.-Ths Maine Unitarians
were favored with delightful weather at
their annual conference, today. There
was an unusually large attendance.
Rev. Fl. II. Woude of Castine prea ched
sermon and conducted the devotional
service in the early forenoon. The bust
ness session was conducted by Hon.
Joseph W. Symonds, of Portland. He
extended congratulations to the old Saco
church, which has so long and prominent
" peen come ,ted with the denomination.
he expressed pleasure at seeing in attend
ance Rev. DR.. John T. G. Nichols of
cambridge, for forty-six years the pastor
OF the Saco Unitarian church. He con.
graduated the conference on the buovancv
OF the new hope, the expectation and the
faithful endeavor manifest in the denon,i-
nation.
On motion of Rev. J. G. Perkins of
Portland, the discussions of all tonics
were limited to five minutes each.
Rev. j. L. Marsh of Saco reported in
formally as secretary of the conference
he said that the vote of the last confer.
ence, ordering all churches to make in
dividual report, formal report from the
secretary was unnecessary. The parishes
in general are furnishing. Only one
church, that of Brunswick, is without a
pastor. Two new pas tors have come into
the state during the year, at Wateryille
and Presque Isle. There has been no
aggressive new missionary work reported.
The hardest work in missionary lines has
been done at Pennington An old church
at Standish, SO long closed, has been re-
opened. The Hancock county conference
has done excellent auxiliary work.
Rev. W. R. Hunt, Of Ellsworth, gave a
detailed report of the doings of the Han
cock county conference during the year.
The church at Bar Harbor, which was
formerly open only during the summer
seasons, is now having regular services
throughout the year. At Sullivan lay
meetings are held fortnightly. Lamoine
has formed branch of the Woman's
Alliance
Rev. S. A. Eliot of Boston supple
mented this report, complimenting the
work done by Rev. Mr.. Hunt outside his
own parish.
The executive committee of the confer
ence submitted brief report, a chief
point of which was the suggestion that
more system be observed in choice of dele
gates and reporting of contributions.
Then followed a lengthy discussion con-
corning the Church Exchange, the stated
UNCONVENTIONAL paper. published at Far
mington. Rev. W. FL. Ramsey of Far
mington, read the annual report of the
manager, Henry G. White, which showed
that the paper had been self-supporting
during the year. The report contained
the intimation that it might be we'll to
disc antinue the publication of the paper,
as he was suspicious that some of the
subscribers are supporting the paper only
from sense of duty.
Rev. Mr. Ramsey said that some of the
ministers have been slow to respond to re-
quests for literary contributions to the
papers columns.
Rev. Mr.. Perkins of Portland, ex.
pressed the hope that the paper will not
suspend publication. Last year he had
cd re y,,,tl ,o
had changed his mind, and as long as the
paper is self-supporting he believed it
should be continued. Rev. S. @. Beach
OF Bangor criticized the nature of the COR
respondence published in the Church Ex-
change and the manner of collecting it's
subscriptions. through the ministers. He
thought that the ecclesiastical gossip"
published in the Exchange was not of
sufficient interest to merit an extensive
patronage.
Rev. DR.. Nichols of Cambridge had no
objection to the publication of what the
previous speaker had termed ''ecclesias-
tical gossip" but he believed 1t the duty
OF the ministers to see that the doings of
their churches and the extension of their
work are regularly reported in tbs col
umns of this UNCONVENTIONAL organ.
Mrs. E. O. Jordan of Portland, con-
sidered the Church Register absolutely in
dispensable in the UNCONVENTIONAL work,
and she hoped the laymen would cooper
ate with the ministers in its support.
This matter was finally referred to a
special committee, Revs. Ramsey, Marsh,
Newbert and Beach and Mrs. B. b.
Hamilton of Saco, with instruction to re-
port at this conference.
Rev. Mr.. Newbert, Major Belcher of
Harrington and Mrs. Jordan of Portland,
were appointed a nominating committee.
The forenoon exercises concluded with
three interesting addresses: "Our Sun
day Schools by Rev. Walter r. Hunt
Ellsworth; "Our Alliance" Mrs. Sarah
+. Hamilton, Saco; "Our Denomina
tions," Rev. S. A. Eliot, Boston.
The last speaker, who is secretary of