The Washington herald., 1911-03-26
Church and Allied Interests
the World Around
Helping the French.

| The French Episcopal Church, New
York. will begin on April l the support
| of the Rev. Abel Roufineau, in Saintes,
! France. Thus maintained, it is expected
that he will reopen two and possibly
three abandoned Huguenot churches.
Efforts are making to induce other
French Protestant congregations in
| America to take up the maintenance of
French pastors, and so enable them to
| reopen more closed churches. The rea-
| son for these closed churches, Catholic
| and Protestant, is the recent separation
] law. This law did not close the churches,
| but it did cut off the salaries of min
| listers, Catholic and Protestant alike,
from any advantage from the state for
religious purposes, and in the cases of
the Catholic clergy, from salaries as gov
ernment employees. The people have not
| been trained to give as in English-speak-
| ing countries, at least not for mainte-
nance Of public worship, and so churches
in thousands of instances have had to
| be closed. Many have been reopened by
the efforts of French people themselves.
! Many others have not been. Hence the
| movement to secure help from outside.
| The New York congregation mentioned,
| now Episcopal, was originally French
| Huguenot. and is one of the oldest
churches in that city.
| Leaving Downtown.
South of the southern end of Central
| Park. in the vast region of New York
City below Fifty-ninth street, Presby-
| terians are now reduced to seven church.
es, if the small and dependent chapels
and mission congregations be not count
ed. Within the last two or three years
| consultations downtown and fittings
uptown have gone on. until. with two
| changes just announced, but seven
churches that are attended by infiuen-
tial residents remain. The two last to go
are the Fourth Avenue, from lower
| Fourth avenue to the district on the
| upper West Side around Columbia Uni
| versity, and the West. from Forty-second
| street opposite Bryant Park and the new
New York Library to the northern end
of the island, at upper Washington
Heights. The last change. the West, oc-
cupies what many regard as the future
center of the city. With its departure
Presbyterians abandon the field. From
Ninth avenue Presbyterian churches
have recently gone to Washington
Heights, and from the lower East Side
consultations have taken place with the
lower West Side. The Greenwich, the
University Place, the Old First, the Madi-
son Square, which is Dr. Parkhursts;
the Brick, where was the Rev. DIR. Van
Dyke; the Central, and the Fifth avenue,
to which the Rev. DIR. Jowett comes,
alone represent Presbyterian strength
below Central Park. The West, offering
its property for s1,50O0O0. was once at
| tended by Russell Sage, Henry NJ. Flag
Ter, and other millionaires- 1t now con-
solidates with another Presbyterian
church on the upper West Side, and to-
gether they build on upper Washington
Heights.
Dixon for Jowett
Americans and Englishmen are trading
famous pulpiteers. At the moment the
Rev. DR.. J. H. Jowett, of Birmingham,
accepts the foremost pulpit in the Pres
byterian Church in America, the Fifth
Avenue. New York; the Rev. DR.. A. c.
Dixon, of Chicago, is invited to the pas
torate of Spurgeon's Tabernacle, London,
the greatest Baptist pulpit in England
in many respects in the world. An egg
shaped auditorium seating 5000 the pull
pit in the first balcony, the Tabernacle is
located in a residence section to the
south of the Thames, visited every year
by thousands of strangers, and one of
the religious focus points of the world.
The Rev. DR.. Dixon, coming of Bap-
tist family of preachers long famous
throughout the South. is pastor of
Moody's church in Chicago. 1t is Con-
gregational and over the question of
baptism the same controversy arose as
arose when the Rev. F. B. Meyer,
Baptist, went to a London Congregation
al church. and arises now when the Rev
DR.. c. F. Aked, Baptist, goes to San
Francisco Congregational church. Each
provided a baptistry, continued INNER
sion himself. but let an assistant sprinkle
such as were satisfied with that form. II
the Dew. DR.. Dixon transfers now from
Chicago to London he will go to an or
thodox Baptist church-that is, he will
return to his own. 1t is reckoned that
he will go. Pastoral salaries in London
are small when compared with Chicago.
London pastor who receives 5000 a
year is near the top. In great cities of
America he Is near the bottom.
Catholic Pilgrims.
1t is authoritatively announced, and
said to be intended especially for possible
pilgrims and other visitors from the
United States to Rome this year. that
the Pope desires Catholics and non-Cath-
Giles not to participate in the official re-
ccptions that may be given at the Quiri-
nal or on the Capitol IL they expect to be
received in audience by him. The pres
ent year the Holy See will observe as a
will be held in st. Peters OF the Vatican.
II is declared to be certain that Plus Y
will not accord audiences even to Cath
olics this year except in very limited
numbers. The Roman exhibition Is to
open on March "a and 40 members of the
Austrian Parliament are to attend. So
is the King of Norway. An elaborate
programme is mapped out, with excur-
sions to Naples, the Alban and Sabine
Hills. trip on the Tiber. and gala per-
formance at the theater, to be attended
by the King and Queen. A few Ameri-
cans are to be in attendance, apart from
members of the diplomatic,corps but this
year few American Catholics Of distinc-
ton will visit the Eternal City. II is said.
Missionaries for Italians.
One Of the great problems of Catholic
bishops in America is how to care spiri-
tually for the vast hunters of Europeans
immigrating hither. particularly from
Southern and Southeastern Europe, dur
ing the last ten years. Appeals to coun-
tries from which these immigrants came