The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-08-09
THE CHURCH, 1.-THE PEOPLE, AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS
Rochester Experiment in Reaching the ' Un Churched
 Masses Through Peoples Sunday Evening

How can the church better reach
 "the people?'' That's the problem | that clergy and laymen are trying to | meet the country over. That the church has lost its grip on the masses, | that it is only touching the edges of the real, every day questions of life is the belief of many 1nstitutionalize | the church, is their remedy. Organize clubs, baseball and basketball teams
 and install gymnasiums. That the difficulty lies in another direction, that the churches work of moral leader i ship and inspiration to a larger life | un1erlies and iis greater than any
 particular reforms as expressed by Hayes Robbins in The Atlantic Month | ly is the theory of others. The fol- editor of the Rochester Evening Times
 decribes a successful experiment in organizing a peoples church." Next week an article by Jeffrey R. Brack- | cit, director of the Boston School for Social Workers, will present the other | side of the question that "the church generally speaking should not try to l become the organ of any particular
 Livy S. Richards, Editor Rochester
 Evening Times.
 (Exclusive Service The Survey Press Bureau)
 To carry the message of the church to the large number of city dwellers who do not attend church and who are more or less out of touch and sym pathy with the spirit and methods of
 rnent tried last winter in Rochester,
 N. Y. Its inception and workings
 make an interesting story.
 The author of the plan and the lead CT in it's execution was Rev. Paul Moore Strayer. pastor of the Third Pres byterian Church MT. Strayer's church is located on East avenue, Rochester's show residence street,
 sx, v@.Sv, of beauty and wealth of lawns and homes. The church's congregation is drawn from well-to-do homes. Many of it's pew holders are wealthy. By cumstances of it's congregation, it car ries to outsiders unacquatnted with it's spirit the impression of an arist- ocracy, in which the man in a cheap suit or the woman in calico gown might not feel at home.
 MT. Strayer had been and still Is the fraternal delegate of the Rochester Ministerial Association in the central council of the trades unions of Koch ester. He had found among the repre- sentatives of the labor organizations and in their rank and file as well. not only marked indifference but actual hostility to the church:
 If these people would not come to the churches to hear their message and learn for themselves it's real spirit MT. Strayer thought 1t would be worth while to see if the message could not be taken to them in a way to invite and command a hearing. He consult ed with many both in the ministry and in the labor movement and the outcome was a series of twenty meet ings in the largest theatre in Koch ester, called the Peoples Sunday Ev- ening, but commonly abbreviated into the P. s. E. With him in the planning and associated with him in the minis try were Prof. Walter Rauschenbusch n author of Christianity and the Social Crisis, and Rev. pr. Henry H. Steb- bins, known as Rochester's social mis- sionary-at-large. These selected to counsel with and assist them a com mittee of fourteen. striking in the di- versity of interests represented.
 The chairman of this committee had been a college professor and president but is now a successful manufacturer The vice-chairman is the business agent of a. labor union. The secretary Is the editor of a labor journal The treasurer is the general manager Of one of Rochester's largest industries. Two of the committeeman are leading one is president and the other was until recently secretary or the Chamber of Commerce: one IS ga ton, representing 13,000 unionized wa ge- -earners; one paper jobber, is also the most active civic worker in the city; one is a. small merchant and one IS the eQllOT OI OilO O1 lhO 0aiiy
 MT. Strayer's church freed him for these twenty meetings and loaned its quartette. Friends in his congrega- ton voluntarily contributed nearly one-third of the expense. The meet. ings cost, in all, little less than $175 apiece, for rental of theatre; adver- Using, which followed theatrical pre- cedents; programs. music and one other time to be referred to later. Be fore a meeting was held, those not known to be contributors to any church were solicited for funds until there was in hand enough to finance the series, provided the theatre audi ences should contribute an average of forty dollars an evening. The audi enceS did a little better than this, and the great bulk of their offerings was In pennies-often the collection produc- | ed as many as 1900 coins. The only | salaried person connected with the se- ries aside from the orchestra mem- | bers, who were included in the theatre | rental, was a secretary, who charged | for: only half her time, although she gave it all
 The meetings were unconventional. | The orchestra played for half an hour | before the curtain rose. Ministers, | members of the committee and guests | the front of the stage, while | behind them was massed a chorus | and to one side were piano and the | 1uartette, In every way the endeavor  ! sense of personal participation in l the meetings.
 The subjects treated during the | twenty meetings covered a wide range. For illustration, one night was given over to a discussion of the public health of the city. Physicians told of | he fight on tuberculosis and other diseases and the health officer threw upon a screen pictures of local bad tenement conditions, accompanying hem with timely warnings. The prob em of unemployment occupied one evening, the speakers being an unem- ,loyed man who told of his search Or work, a large employer who told | low difficult it was. to provide work n a time of business depression and speaker who explained in detail just what the organizations of betterment n Rochester were doing to cope with restitution. A debate on what to do with the saloon, between the attorney If the German-American alliance, who ldvocated more stringent regulation, md former Governor Glenn of North