Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1902-01-09
A Layman's Views of Episcopal Con-
yention at San Francisco.

| ed this year of our Lord 1901 at San Francisco,
California, October 2nd and closed October 18th.
| 1t was two weeks Of closely attended five hour
| sessions each week day, with multitude of
| special services on Sundays, closely attended,
because the delegations were largely composed
of ofkuown ability in church. financial or
business affairs, who have acquired the recogni-
/ ton and confidence of the world by strict and
constant and steady attention to matters in their
charge.
San Francisco papers said that one of the most
interesting features of the Convention the
personnel of the Convention itself.
One of course expects to see every Bishop in
his place in the upper house. and every clerical
member of the lower house in attendance, this is
their work. But vastly more striking is the
regular attendance and work of the lay deputies.
What an impressive example 1t must have been
to many of the people of San Francisco who
spend most of their Sundays at the theatres or
social dances. But above all it ought to arouse
every business man everywhere out of the awful
apathy into which they have fallen in their rela-
tions TO church work; to know that there was at
that Convention, giving up five weeks of their
time, watching with deep interest and entering
into every detail of the Churches work and re-
garding that work apparently ofsuperior interest
to their own personal gains; two men. partners
in the greatest financial concern in the country
also, men high in the protesting of letters, law
yers, shining lights at the bar, eminent jursts
from the bench, and men standing high in every
commercial relation men who are not just be-
9nners in putting on religion, but who all their
lives have been active Church workers, holding
fast to the form Of sound words as they received
them, and still anxious to spread the comfortable
Gospel Of Christ for the uplifting and saving of
all men,
Prominent among these might be mentioned
Mr.. Robt. Treat Paine of Boston, one of the fore
most figures in philanthropical work in America,
grandson of the signer of the Declaration of In
dependence by that name, and for thirty years
President of the Associated Charities of Boston,
and who has given 100000 as endowment in
trust to the Paine Association for charitable pur-
poses. Massachusetts also sent Dean Hodges,
whose sermons are widely read. Judge Stiness
ofthe Superior Court of Rhode Island, Mr.. Burton
Mansfield, the distinguished lawyer from Con-
necticut, Mr.. j. p. Morgan the banker, Mr.. +. l..
Stetson the lawyer, and DR.. Greer. all from New
York, the venerable white haired citizen of
Florida, Mr.. Geo. II. Fairbanks, Maryland sent
Mr. JOS Packard one of her leading citizens also
Mr. E. Tatnal Warner, man of vast business
interests, who is warden of the oldest church in
Wilmington and an active Sunday School worker.
Then from Pennsylvania were Judge Hugh NJ.
North also Francis A. Lewis and Chas. Clement,
prominent members of the bar.
In the Milwaukee delegation was l.. H. Moore
house, representing the largest and most ener-
getic publishers of church literature in America
We should also mention Mr.. Geo. c. Thomas
the Treasurer of the General Board of Church
Missions, who is head of the banking house of
Drexel, Morgan Co., of Philadelphia, but who
finds time and takes pleasure in active church
work, besides being Superintendent of one ofthe
largest Sunday Schools in America, that of the
Holy Apostles of Philadelphia, having | think
about 1900 scholars.
To attempt to write of all who were present or
what was accomplished would require much
space Suffice it to say that there were about 20
Bishops present who sat in the Sunday school
room of Trinity Church with closed doors and
acted as a law-making body by themselves they
having full charge fan Missionary work of the
church, with the making or disposing of Priests
and Bishops and the setting forth Of special
prayers for special occasions, excepting that no
change can be made in the wording or use of the
! Prayer Book or the translation of the Bible, nor
can any newly elected missionary Bishop be
I ConseCrated until such change or election is ap-
proved and concurred in by the House of Lay and
Clerical deputies voting in general assembly in
manner prescribed by the Constitution and
Church Canous, nor can any change be made in
/ the Constitution or Canons unless it receives the
concurrent vote in both Houses in two consecu-
I tive triennial Conventions. The House of De
puties sat in the main body of Trinity church nd
consisted of four Laymen and four Clergymen
from each of the fifty-nine dioceses entitled to
4
with the representatives of missionary districts,
who were not entitled to vote, made about 700 of
an attendance at the Convention proper. Then
there were the Womans Auxiliary, the Kings
Daughters, the st. Andrews Brotherhood and the
Board of General Missions with their delegates
and friends, making an estimated total of 1000
Epscopalian visitors in San Francisco during
the Convention.
The remarkable thing about the Convention
was not that Mr.. Morgan and Bishop Potter
should sit so long and so attentively at Church
Convention for they have attended several Gen
eral Conventions, before, but to my mind it was
truly remarkable that these two men should sit
as members of the Board of Domestic and Fore
ign Missions of the church and that the Treas
urer of such Mission should report deficit of
over 100000.
This is not because Bishop Potter is careless in
money matters or that Morgan is neither inter
ested in Missions nor liberal with his money.
Mr.. Morgan's father before him gave largely
to the Church, and he himself in quiet way
gives largely and regularly to the Church, as
well as to many outside institutions for the good
of his fellow men. The world does not know him
for his goodness, yet his goodness seems equal to
his greatness 1t is reported that he gve 81 900 COO
to endow the Harvard Medical School, $500, 900 to
Loomis Hospital for Consumptives, s33, 900 to st.
Georges Church, New York. 100000, to the Y.
NJ. c. A., also liberal subscriptions to the Calves.
ton Relief Fund and to preserving the Palisades
of the Hudson River, and has established u hos
pital at Aix-Les Bains, France, thercforeit would
seem there is shortage in the funds of the Mis-
sions Board not because Mr.. Morgan and other
wealthy members of the Board of Missions have
not paid their shares, but perhaps because of our
Lords teaching that each and every one should