Arizona republican., 1912-01-21
CHURCH UNITY EVENT

! In church unity annals, January | Q. 1912. will be set down by the church historians as a landmark. In New York on the evening of that
 day a dinner was given by the Mis-
 siorary Education Movement of the ] United States and Canada, and at | tended by the foremost home and 1 foreign organized missionary agencies | The two hundred and fifty men pre- sent represented s56000.000 eXpend | iture year for missions. Hardly d
 society in North America. any con- i siderable size or any religious body. | hut had men present.
 The significance of the dinner. its i historic character. was that home and foreign men came together. With in the past few years much has been said about union of separated re | ligiOus bodies But the separation between Protestant bodies of differ ent names has hardly been greater than that between home and foreign organizations in the same religious bodies. Strange to say. there have
 been times and bodies wherein the two interests had hardly more in
 
 olics Competition and not cooper ation obtained i~ all directions. The Missionary Education Move ment was. Until recently. the Young Peoples Missionary Movement IL has already ranked as d foreign pro- paganda. although giving some at tention to home work. Its secretary. Mir Harry Wade Hicks. was form erly a secretary of the American
 board of the Congregational foreign society. It was this movement that ventured to bring leaders of the two interests together at dinner. The oc cas was the meeting of the Foreign Missions Conference, representing all societies in North America, and the early assembling in New York of the Home Missions Council. representing the home organizations of the United States
 At the dinner the topic was"The Unity of Missions" The speakers were classed by those present as three foreign to one home but the home people said they were gratified at that measure of recognition. The principal speakers were the editor of a Toronto newspaper, Mir. J. A. Mcdonald. the Rev Arthur J. Brown of the Presbyterian Foreign Board and chairman of the Continuation Committee of the last World Con- ference on Foreign Missions; MT Harry Wade Hicks of the movement which arranged for the dinner; and the Rev. Dr. Hubert Herring of the Cor gregational Home Missionary SO- ciety.
 This bringing together of the two great missionary agencies. held to be an achievement second only to bringing together prominent religious bodies of different names. is one of the outcomes of the new interest in missions on the part of laymen. It is said on all sides that the Lay men's Missionary Movement. the Men and Religion Movement and similar campaigns have had share in it. Sep aration was due to over zeal on both sides, and the conviction of strong men that the task which they had set themselves outstripped in impor- tance all other missionary tasks. The Unity of Missions as urged at the dinner just held, is regarded as an advance in Christian, even church. unity that is the most inn portant yet attained out of the re- cent unity agitation.
 For the benefit of any who are un- familiar with technicalities of Pro- testant Christian work. it may be ex- plained that the home missionary agencies are those which labor on United States soil. and who pro- claim that America is both a force to convert the world and a field to he evangelical. the latter a necessary preparation for the former. At least 4O.00O.OO0 a year is spent. although all of that sum does not go through the home society treasures. The for eign people are those who work in foreign fields. of course. The money gifts of the United States and Can ada to foreign work, now outrank- ing those of any other country. and nearly half more than Great Bri- | tain. amounted last year to $12.29O, | 900.