New Britain herald., 1915-01-15
Assistant Pastors Report.


 ''The first thing to inquire when | one speaks of work done is to ask, has there been any progress? Your assistant pastor believes that there has been. The Sunday schools shows | a larger enrolment than for some | time past, and there is constant
 tendency to greater regularity of at- | tendance. The indications of all tbc l other work point to progress.
 One important factor in tho reg1i- | larlty of the pupil in the Sunday | school has been the work of the clAs- sif1catlon secretary in following up closely those absent three consecutive Sundays. The splendid growth Of tho l cradle roll under the leadership of | Miss Mary Whittlesey from fourteen ] to 142 is another important factor. 1 The zeal of every teacher in following | up closely every absentee has greatly 1 strength ened the school.
 | ''The school has made an added eff | fort to care for the needs of the pu- l pills. Last fall the problem of a hap py disp osition of four classes of older girls was agreeably solved by affilia-
 ton with the Philathea class, thus | strength ening all and pointing the way for future plans of graduation. | The Christmas party was repeated | this year with more present than last
 year. During the summer it was 1 deemed wise to have a Sunday school | picnic. This was held with much | success and served to give a midsurl- | mer outing for many who had no op- l portunity to leave the city for a vaca- l tion.
 l "A great deal of effort has been | ID. T ! ment. The department was com | pletely reorganized. Of the former 1 teachers, only two remained with 'Is. That meant an entirely new staff l Classes were balanced by transferring l boys from one class to another. Last
 year stunt nights in charge of the | different classes were introduced. | These strengthened the fellowship of
 the department and awakened the in- | terest of the boys.
 ITO provide channels for the more
 strenuous needs of the boys, a Junior | Baseball league was organized in the | city in which our boys entered a
 team. This league has just been en . | larged into the Boys Church Athletic
 association with provisions for basket l ball, baseball, tennis and field meets. | The past fall a field meet in compc- | tition with the Y. Nj. C. A. boys de- | partment proved valuable. In the
 early summer a camp for boys was
 conducted under the auspices of the
 department. And now recently a
 troop of Boy Scouts has been organ
 ized. It therefore seems that the
 work for and with boys is fairly well
 taken care of.
 1 "The boys themselves undertook
 the publication of 8 monthly paper,
 The Chronicle last winter, and
 while the paper has not resumed op-
 erations so far this year, it is due to | practical difficulties that will be over
 come.
 Another side of the work of the 1 Sunday school worth mentioning is
 that of efficiency. That is a much
 abused term, but neverthel it has
 been one of the important aims of
 the year to make our school efficient
 in actual work accomplished One
 of the strongest attacks made against
 Sunday schools in general is that they
 are not schools at all, merely child
 ren's services. We are working Hrn-
 estly to promote the worship side ol
 the lives of our young people. But we
 are working equally as much to really l
 | "One of the first steps in that dfrec-
 tion was the establishment last year 1 of the Round Table meetings for | workers from which so much that has
 marked progress in the school has | arisen. They have continued profit
 able this year. We have two success
 full training classes, one consisting of
 eight boys and the other of five | ,yi VI cf fuk kpn n l .he international examinations over
 ono of the text books completed. We 1 lad more teachers In attendance ct 1 :hn State Sunday sch ool convention.
 Within the year a missionary commit tee has been organized within the
 rchooI which has charge Of the fn- struction of the sch ools in all mission
 ary cndeavor. This committee like ;,1sc vitalizes the giving of the school nv giving information about the l places which our money goes.
 More recently we have appointed m efficiency committee to look into .rays and means Of accom- plishing and recognizing real work by the pupils. Another important factor in the prog ress of all schools as well os our own is the establishment of the New Brit ain Training school for Sunday school workers which conducts training courses for tcachers who teach. "In the work for young men we can say that pr Peck has taken up the teaching of the class. There are other plans of work for the young men of our church under consideration for the coming year which we believe will materially improve the whole effort to reach young men in the church.
 "As to plans for the year I may say that so much that we have under taken is at the present time so i'm