St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1910-05-11
Campaigning for the Country Church.
(From Vermont MISSIONARY.

country life movement has OF course
touched the rural church. But it's prob
lem is far from solved and is perhaps
more oppressive to the country pastor
than ever. The many conferences and
discussions often serve only to describe
anew conditions with which he is only
too familiar. What he longs for is some
practicable suggestions and a feasible
program for his work of regeneration.
Denominationallyt the Presbyterians have
approached this difficulty most energeti-
cally. Through their department of
church and labor several series of coun-
try church conferences have been con-
Quoted both east and west. During
April, meetings are being held in Iowa,
Missouri and Nebraska. AS heretofore
these conferences enlist also agricultural
experts, at present such as Dean Burnett
of the University of Nebraska, Dean
Curtiss of Iowa State college and others.
In this way those who know best the
country population and industrial con-
ditions are helpfully utilized The middle
west has certainly perplexing problems
ofits own in this matter, such as the
retirement of the farmer from the land,
''undigested prosperity and the like.
For some time church conditions there,
both in respect to pastorless charges
and Unsupported work, have troubled
religious leaders generally. Hence comes
this attempt not only to conduct a
thorough investigation but to preach
the gospel of federation both among
denominations and between the churches
and agencies like the school, the grange,
and the farmers union. In short, the
workers hope to establish new stand
ard of country life, morally and socially.
The department believes that the same
conditions tending to ALLEVIATE the work
ingmen from the church are affecting the
rural population. 1t will be interesting
to follow the results of campaign which
aims to be chiefly constructive rather
than analytical.
1t must be admitted that the sltua-
ton, as it now presents itself to
religious leaders. is serious. Not even
the news of such campaigns as these, or
of the country life assembly projected in
Maine for May, or of the investigation
of country church conditions likely to be
started under the Russell Sage Founda-
ton, give hope of very early relief. The
rural problem is too far reaching. That
the shameful over-churching pursued for
so many years is at its root few well in
formed persons will doubt. 1t has not
only Slapped the economic resources,
meagre at best, but has poisoned in
many instances, through sectarian dis
putes, the spiritual vigor necessary for re-
Eliot suggested state interdenominational
endowment to the New England Country
Church association in Boston last year,
he argued that such a plan could be
made to weed out dying enterprises and
reestablish the most hourishing. Add
to the conditions mentioned the fact that
rural churches learn more slowly of the
larger federative movement, and you
have a nut to crack indeed.
10or oil
to adopt institutional methods but most
of them are in the plight of one who
says: II need every penny to buy bread
and butter, and the church needs every
penny to pay my salary" Yet some are
managing to get around the pecuniary
obstacle by utilizing other agencies or
starting very modestly. In lack of
equipment, the schoolhouses and the
town halls are more frequently used.
New Hampshire parish has just held a
farmers institute in the church itself.
Sewing classes for the girls, parliamentary
drill and quasi-lodge limitations for the
boys, more social events for the adults,
are more frequently reported. In one
M Massachusetts, town all the churches,
including the Catholic, united to provide
an uplifting lecture course Tor the
winter. These are only samples of many
ingenious ways in which scattered
pastors are trying to measure up to
their task. Most of them, however, in
facing the conditions described, feel
sense of helplessness. And when formal
conferences adjourn without doing much
more than to advise the minister to be-
come better farmer, he naturally feels
resentment rather than gratitude. While
it is true that the pastor cannot have
too many points of contact in his parish,
to be an expert JACKIE all-trades hardly
reestablishes his church. One of the best
recommendations SO far was that offered
at the recent meeting of the New Eng
land Country Church Association in
Boston. 1t was to the effect that every
minister should specialize along the path
of his greatest talent, music, organiza-
ton, work with boys and young people,
and so on, and that each should then
devote himself in this respect to far
wider territory than his own parish,
possibly to the churches of county.
Such pooling of ability has been found
effective and the Massachusetts COngre-
gational Home Missionary society is
planning to make the experiment in this
state.
A remarkable phase of the country
church problem is the comparative indif-
ference of city neighbors, except theoreti-
cally. The country minister is often
conscious of gulf fixed. possibly by his
own backwardness and sometimes by
the other side, between his city co-work-
ers and himself. And yet if each city
pastor and his parish would assume as
part of its missionary endeavor an
interest in a needy rural field, the CO.
operation would work to mutual advan-
tage. This is not theory, for in scatter
ed cases it has been applied. A prosper
Gus Minnesota church went so far as to
engage an associate pastor specifically
to cultivate the rural vicinity. The
farmers have heartily responded to this
friendly interest and the influence upon
the young people of the farms has been
marked.
1t was said above that the city indif-
ference was Remarkable" So it is in