The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-09-28
I|NTERCHURCH WORLD
 MOVEMENT MEETING
R. M. Archibald Discusses Conference at Yonkers.
 Anderton Supervisor for Georgia

R. M Archibald. supervisor of the rural survey in Alabama of the Inter church World Movement, has just re- turned from a conference at Yonkers N. Religious leaders representing all the evangelical churches attended the conference In addition to MT. Archi- bald, Judge H. l.. Anderton of Birming- ham was also present, and was chosen as supervisor of rural survey for Geor- gia, succeeding Robert M Huff of Geor- gia MT. Anderton will remove to Att lanta to take up his new work at once.
 Both he and Mir. Archibald took prom
 inent part in the deliberations of the
 conference at Yonkers and were mem-
 bers of some of the leading committees In discussing the work of the confer ence yesterday, Mir, Archibald said:
 'Astonishing revelations of how the
 140 or more Protestant evangelical de-
 nominations of the United States have
 overlooked vital religious needs in this
 country came to light at national con-
 ference of religious leadersat Wallace Lodge. Yonkers, N. Y. which has just
 ended. It was discovered that, while
 each denomination had been working
 intensively in its own fields, because Of
 a lack of cooperation in methods and
 purposes among them many fields had
 been overlooked entirely.
 "The conference was called by the 1n-
 terchurch World Movement of North
 America, which has undertaken com prehensive census and survey of reli-
 gious conditions throughout the world
 said Mir. Archibald. "It was composed of the men appointe dto supervise the rural survey in each state. Although the
 men came from a great number of de- nomination s, 1t was remarked as an in- stance of the spirit of the lnterchurch Movement that nobody thought at the time to find out which particular
 churches were represented.
 Each delegate was asked to make a brief preliminary statement of present
 conditions in his own commonwealth. 1 Practically without exception they re- l ported whole communities, counties and
 even larger districts in which Christian work is at standstill and in which ! there were no living churches or active
 ministers Not infrequently these would | be surr ounded by communities so full 1 of churches that they got in one .an 1 others way, but struggled along in-
 effectively without any we'll developed sense of community usefulness.
 | lne DISCUSSIONS TeSulteu III aSTee- | ment as to all the details of the survey 1 to be made in each rural county in the
 country. Scientific standards were re- vised for a statistical investigation of 1 the existing environment of every
 American family with relation to all the
 religious and social agencies of the country.
 When the census is complete, the
 facts will be analysed and tabulated They will then be available for every
 denomination. The Interchurch World
 Movement, it was agreed. exists for the strengthening of every denomination
 and not for the weakening of a single
 one of them. It was hoped that the as certained facts would afford bases for l local statewide and national cooper
 ative efforts that would enable prot l estanism to see it's tasks as whole and undertake them in a sane and business l like way
 1 "Interdenominationa advisory coun- I cils were reported as complete in 29 states and in process of formation in the others. More than 200 county councils have been formed. Surveys are com = | plete in 26 counties and half or three 4-quarters complete in more than 150. | "DR Edmund de s. Brunner of the | Moravian church, an expert on rural
 church and head of the rural survey department of the Interchurch World | Movement, presided"