Norwich bulletin., 1917-03-29
Annual Report of Norwich District
Presented Wednesday by District Superintendent Scvener New England Southern Conference in Providece- Two Hundred and Fifteen Received Into Preparatory Membership and five Into Full Membership

Gods grace can sustain the bereaved family and comfort the sorrow ing church. Moses Esten of Millville died at the age of s1: For 72 years he was a member of the church and for. 5S years a regular reader of Zion's Her aid. Time and space will not permit the names of others none the less worthy. Their record is written ip the Lambs Book of Life. Their lives challenge us to greater faithfulness and their deaths remind us that we too. must render an account. God help us to be worthy as they were. the Well Done of the Master. But this report is not an obituary or a funeral dirge, it is a record of work accomplished, battles fought and victories won. We pause just a mo- ment to pay a loving tribute to those their faces to the foe. or who having finished their course in faith do now rest from their labors.
 Reports Should Have Proper Space. Notwithstanding the earnest re- quest of the editor of the Year Book, abbrev:ate reports, I feel that the re- port of 60 churches for a year is inn portant enough to demand a proper amount of space in the annual min- utes and a reasonable amount of tune in the annual conference. It is inn possible with the space now at our disposal to do more than briefly out line the various activities and tabu- late the results achieved. Church ac- tivities are so numerous and varied that it grows increasingly difficult to know what to put in an deven more difficult to know what to leave out. It is not unusual for this district superintendent to be remained after mention the fact that the Ladies Aid Society had purchased a carpet for the parsonage, the WOmen'S Home Missionary Society had sent a barrel of clothing to Texas and that the name of the pastor who had secured ten new subscriptions for Zion's Her aid had been entirely omitted. Con- cerning these and other important matters we can only generalize.
 Spiritual Work.
 This first and all important work of the church is difficult to anaiyze and tabulate. We cannot measure spiritual progress with a speedometer, neither can we add spiritual results on a calculating machine. A very large part of what comes under the department of spiritual work must in the nature of ttle case escape the pen of the statistician. We can, how- ever, give some figures. Two hundred and fifteen have been received into preparatory membership and 265 in- to full membership in tie chrIch- The evangeIistic note has been sound ed in all the churches and pers onai work has been undertaken in many cases but observation and experience testify to the fact that. the number of unconVerted people attending the reg ular service is exceedingly small and those pastors who have used the pro- tracted meeting with the aid of an evangelist confess this to be their ex- peFience also. Consequently the evangeIistic work of the local church is largely restricted to those who are definitely committed to its constitu- ency and new recruits must be gath cred from families directly identified with the church. While we regret this restriction and must labor to add the uninterested to our constituency we have been driven to concentrate our efforts upon those definitely committed to our charge. Thus the Sunday school is proving a fruitful field for evangeltistic effort and the unconvert- ed members of families connected portunities for personal work and the gatherings of a harvest which will gladen the heart of the faithful pas tor.
 and methods are the training classes for personal workers, Sunday school teachers and social service, all of which are represented on the district.
 Sunday school workers are feeling a greater sense of responsibility.
 Extension Work.
 Sunday school institutes, graded lessons and Bib e classes for me, are increasing in number. Many Sunday schools are studying the local situa- ticn and reaching out for better things and greater results. This is especially noticeable in the schools at Yer sailles. Mapping, Burnside. Manches- ter, South Manchester. Mystic and New Essadon.
 The Epworth League is coming to
 
 society and while in a large measure it ministers to the social life it fur nishes opportunity for spiritual ex- pression, missionary, social service and Bible study.
 The Women's Home and women's Foreign Missionary societies are well represented and the reports given by these societies at the Fourth Quarter ly confluence are worthy of and ought to have larger hearing. Last year these two societies reported S3059 and they are the chef agencies in provid- ing missionary instruction and in spiration. Associated with these are the Standard Bearers, Queen Esthers, Kings Heralds and Mothr's Jewels, and with the Junior League truly no church is better equipped than ours to care for the children and train the young people for Christian service.
 The Boy Scouts are found in many of the churches and we welcome this organization as one of the agencies which is training our boys to be clean courageous and courteous.
 BenevoIences.
 Closely allied to the spiritual work are the benevo!ences, in fact they are the spiritual guage indicating the churches obedience to the great com mission, Go ye into all the world" As much for others as for our5e'ves is the slogan of the Benevolent Boards. We are slowly struggling to this lofty pinnacle of Chris, ian stewardship. Twenty-Five churches report an increase in benevole1ces Several will meet apportionments in full. Millville, Gales Ferry, Mapping, North Grosvenordale are the banner churches in th5 respect. Mystic re- ports an increase of 200 per cent over last yeaA Uncasville about 50 per cent. incAase. Moosup and Burn side have made a splendid advance It may be of interest to note that dur ing the past three years, Norwich dis trict has increased the disciplinary beneVolences S1T20. Had the entire conference increased in the anne ra tiO