Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-02-28
THE MAINE tNTERDENoMI-
NATIONAL COMMISSION MEETS
tContinued fr~n Page one.)

In making plain the work of the COM
mission, which should be distinctly
understood at each annual meeting,
] must repeat in part statements made
in previous reports. During the period
of its existence the commission has
accomplished the following results;
II has removed much destructive
competition between churches, con-
eentrating religious effort in small
towns where one church was enough.
In several notable instances it has
formed church partnerships for the
commencement of religious work IN
new communities, in which conditions
were not permanent, and the wisest
UNCONVENTIONAL agency for cultiYating
the field not at the outset apparent.
The commission in many instances
has prevented the occupancy by one
denomination of field when py
right belonged TO another.
1t has awakened and cultivated
Good Samaritan spirit amongst de-
nominations, according to which the
officials of one denomination have ac-
tually protected and aided the work
of another denomination.
The commission has inaugurated
plan of reciprocal exchanges, in ae-
cordance with which denominations
have willingly withdrawn from various
fields, leaving to other denominations
their own peculiar interests and re-
ceiving in exchange from the denomi-
nations, thus benefited, equivalent or
similar concessions in other towns,
thus putting into operation in a Chris
tian spirit a practical plan of reciproc-
ity.
The commission has encouraged a
wiser and more business-liSe care of
all church and religious interests in
the State. Ii has not encouraged
spending less money for church work,
but it has insistently demanded great
er economy in the use of home mis-
sionary funds, so that the money ex
pended shall go farther and accom-
plish more good. II has tried to elm
mate bitter riyalries and destructive
competition.
1t has given anxious thought to the
presence of large, numbers in our
State, who have come from others
lands without our American and
Christian ideals, and has brought to-
gether in repeated conferences the ac-
tive agents of the denominations in
the State to plan for a larger relig-
ious work among the foreign speaking
people of the State.
1t has sought to ally in all our rural
communities the three greatest fac
tors in social life and Improvement
the Church, the School, and the
Grange, having held conferences upon
these subjects and issued a circular
of information and appeal. This move
ment. while not as yet issuing in what
some would call practical results, has
nevertheless raised the standard and
helped create spirit of no small val
ue to our State.
The commission has been, perhaps,
the most effective agency within the
State, during the last 20 years, in pro-
noting the spirit of comfy and good
will among Christians of different
names and different organizations. At
the outset there was no little opposl-
ation and some unkind feeling to over
come. This opposition, and these feel
ings are of the past In fraternity, IN
a spirit of good will and cooperation,
the denominations of the State bear
each other mutual respect and are de-
srous of assisting, each the others,
in promoting what is known to be the
common welfare of all, the better re-
ligious life of the State.
During its activity the commission has
resisted the tendency TO become a CEN
trail and powerful organization 1t has
steadily sought to efface its own per-
sonality and functions, and to serve
rather as clearinghouse, or forum FOR
the exchange Of ideas and ideals. 1t has
seemed better TO the commission TO keep
its own expenses and activities at the
minimum with the purpose of suggesting
10 the different denominations methods
and policies to pursue, and leaving To
their agents the task of working out de-
tail and putting into operation the plans,
so that the combinations, while in CO.
operation. should do their work in 4
wiser and larger way without che in
crease of an outside, although intimate
ly related, separate organization. In all
the years of its existence the commits
sion has not averaged to eXpend $75 a
year Il has created, therefore. no paid
eAe7EEtt4tSt Gnu tNFtAtTift piliNNf ~ NNiiApNA
some machinery.
Some are inquiring now, from without
the State even more than from within.
whether the commission ought not %
change its name and its character some
what SO as TO gather under its auspices
in one central organization all the va
rieties OF cooperative work which the
denominations are now conducting. or
should undertake. Such as the Forward
Missionary Movement, the Men and Re
liglon Forward Movement, Temperance
and Moral Reforms, Work for Boys. and
the great variety of forms of social Scr