The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-03-18

Grace CnuICn annually cNpe0uS aDOul
$4,000 on It's various enterprises, which
include ten boys clubs and the famous
choir school where boys receive the best
of care physically, mentally, morally.
muslcally. one Of this chUrchS many
clubs is known the Ben Nenutl. and is
for Italians But st. Bartholomew Is
perhaps the chuch most active In main
tanning special religious services, clubs.
classes and lectures for the several ma
tionalities with which II comes in contact.
1T Is n peculiar fact that many of tho
churches that are looked upon as being
arstocratic. so-called, are at the fore In
institutional work. st. Bartholomew S Is
the Vanderbilts' church" Among the
other wealthy and locally and nationally
famed parIshloners of st, Georges is none
other than j Pierpont Morgan. Grace
church is hailed far and wide as fash
ionable place of worship. likewise Trinity
church, Boston. Yet these churches get
right down to the poor man and his wants
-largerly So because they are so-called
fashionable churches. since money and
lots of II in the average case Is essential
to the proper pursuit Of institutional work
In large city.
The Salvation of Downtown Church.
Institutional methods have truly been
the salvation Of many a downtown church.
st, Georges was tottering weakly on It's
last legs when Dr.. Rainsford began insti-
tutIonal work there tWenty-thrce years
ago with the descendants OF its former
parlShoners scattered over upper New
York. Grace holds together by reason OF
boarding house and tenement dwellerS sur
rounding II In the lower numbered streets.
The Ninth Street Baptist church. down.
town, in Cincinnati, was In despair until
IL became institutional, now 1t is among
the Queen Clty's ecclesiastical leaders.
with nine buildings which are kept open
dny and night 1t holds over eighty SER
vices every week, nearly thousand girls
attend It's seven sewing classes and about
half that number of boys and girls re-
ceivo free singing lessons during the WIN
ter months.
Statistics collected in 1900 by DR..
Josiah Strong, president of the Amer
lean Institute OF Social Service snow
that all other things being equal, the
institutional church increases In MEM
beTship much faster tlan Its old line
sister At that time two of the twenty
three churches in the Miami association
OF Ohio were institutional. Both are
downtown I'm Cincinnati the hardest sort
OF field for a church to work In sun,
2O9 of the SIS additions TO all the churches
OF the association were TO the two instl-
tUtlonal churches, The gain OF these TWO
churches over their losses, which were
the suburbs, was Isl The associations
fetal gain over losses was III. 1t ap-
pears. therefore," said Dr. Strong. that
without these two churches the member
ship of the association would have been
smaller by four at the end OF tho year
than II was at the beginning
The churches In New York that show
the largest uniform growth are those
which are most extensively engaged In
Institutional .work-St Bartholomew's.
ST Georges, Grace. the West End Pres
1l2 Of the 4SS Protestant churches in old
New York We're institutlonol In whole
or in part. The number has undoubt-
edly Increased materially in the last five
years. but not all the churches SO work
Ing caro- TO be considered as institu-
t,onal churches, Nevertheless, and what
ever their aversion to tho classification,
that is their work. moro or less, and In
nest cases II has been noticeable that.
following the adoption of the new meth
ods. church membership has Increased.
and the church's hold on its neighborhood
and it's respect strengthened
During the first years of the now
Kind of church the Congregational de-
nomination led in the movement. a few
years ago this distinction belonged to
the Protestant Episcopal church. In
many quarters popularity supposed 10 hold
itsef aloof from the masses. The insti-
tutional church Is now found in prac-
tlcally every denomination. big and little.
and as the statistics Of Its spread in New
York City Indicate. it Is the church mill