New-York tribune., 1901-11-24
ST. GEORGES CHURCH.
DR.. RAINSFORD DENIES THE DECLINE IN
CHURCH ATTENDANCE

DR. RAINsFoRD DENIES THE DECLINE IN
CHURCH ATTENDANCE.
To the Editor of The Tribune
Sir: Sunday is a busy day with me- and I
often find no opportunity to glance at The Sun
day Tribune. Such was my i'll fate last Sunday
and your editorial In that issue therefore escaped
my attention until to-day. May 1 ask you TO
be so kind as to insert this letter in your next
Sunday issue? 1 will make it very brief, but
I cannot allow editorial such that with
which The Tribune has favored and my
work to pass without note or comment
l know no paper in NewYork that takes
such pains to be fair in Church matters, is
generally more intelligently informed in relation
to Church affairs, than is The Tribune 1 am
therefore greatly surprised that your editorial
writer should have fallen into the mistake that
in my judgment, he has made 1 nowhere in
the Introduction to my Year Book-which is the
source of his information. evidently-say that
there is a decline in the general attendance of
St Georges Church or it's kindred institutions.
This is not the fact l do say there is a slow
falling off in the evening service Cthere are five
other services each Sunday. though to arrive
at this conclusion I have to be guided by quite
a series of years. This led me to criticise state
ments made in The Tribune last winter in ref
erence TO church attendance. I said that to my
ments were widely Inaccurate but I never
blamed The Tribune for such inaccuracy, but
pointed rather to the fact that the methods
employed by the churches are not those that
we generally expect to find in the reports of
secular businesses. And this is so. As long as
the attendances at services are merely guessed
at, and heads are not counted, there will be
gross exaggeraton in the returns made.
1t is not at all necessary that L should burden
the readers of The Tribune. take up your
valuable space by speaking of the relative sue
cess or failure OF my own work. Suffice 1t is to
say that though--as everybody who knows
New-York is aware-the position III which St
Georges Church stands is g dtS7cult one, the
attendance at the morning service, at the COM
munion services and on the institutional organ
izations of the church are sreater Than they
l would beg you to believe that only write
this because The Tribune has seen fit in speak
ing of St. Georges as illustrating the decline IN
church attendance to indicate that such decline
would TO point to the failure Of the IN
stitutional" church. 1 admit sorrowfully that
the So-cailed INSTITUTIONAL church Is not reach
ing the people the people ought to be reacheo,
but there is no comparison whatever between
its success and the success OF the CID time pew
owned church among the working classes or the
poor L do not hesitate to say that all VINO are
in touch with the lives of the plain people IN our
cities will support my contention mere Mutu-
tudes OF men. both poor cnQ Tich, are IaIInS
away from attendance on all churches. ana we
will not fit ourselves to win them back oy lgnor-
ing this significant fact.
Your writer quotes a paragraph out Of my
Year Book being my explanation or TINS
fact He does not quote enough. L cannot be-
lieve he has read the introduction with which
he deals, If he has read it, he has not read 1t
through
The burden of my plea in a line is this: The
spiritual hunger among our people is not dead
l do not believe 1t is less acute than II was
generation ago. The multiplicity OF religious
fads and sectlets that spring UP Ike mush-
rooms in the night proves this. The vast sums
of money raised by crude forms Of modern re-
ligion prove this. But orthodox church methods
are too stiff and hide bound and there are, COM
paratiyely spea king, few men who know how TO
reach the people by their preaching.
Finally, where we fail, the blame Is not to be
placed on the so-called institutional church.
That method of church life is only an effort TO
take the starch out of our organizations, and TO
bring men who believe in God and in each other
together. Faithfully yours,
W s. RAINSFORD,
ST Georges Rectory, No, 200 East Sixteenth
st, New-York. Nov. q, 1901.