The Washington herald., 1913-05-04
RELIGION AND SOCIAL SERVICE
NEWS AND COMMENT
OF RELIGIOUS WORLD

convention. II will open on Wednesday
October s, 1918, and will last about thre'
weeks.
Once in every three years Diocesan
Conventions choose four clerical deputies
and four lay deputies, and missionar,
districts choose one clerical and one lay
deputy, to the General Convention. Upor
the morning of the first day of the Gen
eral Convention about 10 bishops. and
600 deputies, equally divided between
clergymen and laymen. representing
about one million communicates, viii
gather for service in the cathedral Of
st. John the Divine. They will come
from sixty-eight dioceses.> twenty-thret
missionary districts, and ten foreign
jurisdictions of the church.
The convention sits as two houses, the
house of bishops and the house OF
deputies. each having a veto upon the
other. Its primary object is TO make
laws for the government of the Profess
tant Episcopal Church in this country
TO some extent in the form of constitu'
tional provisions. requiring action by two
successive conventions, but generally In
the form of resolutions adopted by each
convention for itself, and in the termi,
nology OF ecclesiastical law known as
canons.
Last Sunday Augusta. Ga, was the
scene of a large and distinguished gath
ering of Catholic clergy, and the theater
of notable religious observance, mark
ing the centenary of the establishment
of that faith and the golden jubilee of
the conservation of ST. Patrick's Church.
Owing 10 the early proscriptive reli-
gious laws there was scarcely a single
Catholic to be found i'm the entire State
of Georgia until the close of the Revo-
luton Today they number about 1900,
and they are mnistered to by one bishop
and over seventy priests, while there are
twenty parish and twenty-nine mission
churches. Three of the former are in
Augusta. Tradition reports that place
of worship was established there as
early as 1900 but it was not until eleven
years later that regular church was
erected. The congregation was largely
made IN of Irish and French refugees,
the latter coming from Santo Domingo
at the time of the instruction of 179S.
Those were stirring days for the Catho-
lies. because of the widespread bigotry
and prejudice. And il was in this crisis
that the famous Bishop John England
came TO the front Because of his ac-
tivity he was nicknamed THE Steam
Bishop of America and in him his CO.
religionists found a dauntless leader and
an able expounder of the tenets of their
faith. Many time did he preach in old
ST. Patricks Church, where the celebra-
ton of last Sunday was held He was a
noted controversialist, and eloquent
preacher and one of the greatest authors
produced by the Catholic Church in
America. st. Patricks Church is in
charge OF Very Rev. l.. F. Y. Baxin. also
vicar general of the diocese. The parish
has a school for boys and another for
girls, with a combined attendance Of
about 800.
Clergy Of Rome are expressing them
selves as pleased with the Pope's ap-
pointment OF Cardinal Pompili as vicar
general Of Basileo. in succession to the
late Cardinal Resphigi. Popes of Rome
are so busy administering the Catholic
Church i'm all the world that their work
as the bishop of Rome is delegated to a
vicar general. Cardinal Pompili was born
in Spoleto but went to Rome as a stu
dent at the age of eighteen years, and
has ever since remained there. He stud
led at the Vatican Seminary and the
Apollinare, and after his ordination in
1881 remained TO study canon law in the
Congregation of the Council, and applied
him to the evangelization of the poor of
Rome, often helping at churches too poor
TO maintain large STATS of clergy.
When the late Cardinal Cavignis entered
the Sacred College he made Pompili an
assistant, with the task of young mems
societies in Rome, their growth and well
fare After the death of Cardinal Cavig-
mis- Pompil was made secretary of the
council, and himself reached the Sacred
College in 1911. Since then he has been
engaged in the codification of the church
canon law. 1t is stated that Cardinal
Pompili will, as vicar general. make
clean sweep of old employees in the vicar
ite the need for changes having been
nd Will in
force upon efforts to carry the church to
the poor of Rome.
remarkable paper was presented to
the Presbyterian Ministers Association
of Washington last Monday morning by
Mr. Charles F. Nesbit. Under the title
"A New Professionalism Mr.. Nesbit MAIN
tanned the thesis that the Protestant
churches must espouse the cause of
social democracy or fail. In closing he
said that one way out was to turn the
mid-week PRAYER service into an open
meeting, for discussion of live social
problems. He said:
Social democracy charges the Pro-
tc.rant Church with luke-warrlness in
the advocacy Of the democratic ideal.
She claims that even in our own time
prophets worthy to he named with those
of the Old Testament have again spoken
this word of God to men. 1t would be
possible even from the nineteenth CEN
fury alone to name men and women who
have done prophetic deeds similar in
character to those named in the eleventh
chapter of Hebrews. But the gifts of
the prophets had. with the words they
i'm consequence spoke, and the deeds
they in consequence did have never been
acknowledged by the churches of their
day as phrophetic. Now is il that words
which millions have welcomed con-
tanning the divine fire. words which have
proved themselves creative. how is ii
that acts which were creative have met
with neither hearing nor obedience from
the church? These prophets have kept
alive the true Christian faith, the demo-
cratic ideal. They still speak and are all
definitely rejected by the Greek and Ro-
man churches and not definitely Iecog-
nized by the Protestant Church
Now, the practical problem is this:
How can the Protestant Church affirm
and maintain the principles of social de-
mocracy? 1t is not easy but it is neces,
sary and can be done. I believe you gen.
you will make Washington as famous in
the future history of Christianity as Gen
eva was. Our mid-week services could be
made vital and interesting and they would
soon crowd buildings If the vital
questions of the social problem and its
solution were frankly and openly discuss
ed. Our church people, as rule, are
very ignorant of the whole situation.
They simply do not know and this ignor-
ance breeds prejudice which enlighten-