The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1919-10-31
SURVEY OF RELIGIOUS CON-
DITIONS THRUOUT U. S. A.
Movement Entirely NOn-DenOmina-
tiOnal. Object is to Determine if
Christianity is Gaining or Losing.

as part OF the worldwide surveys be-
ing made by the Interchurch World
Movement of North America is being
carried out. A county council and
other preliminary steps have been
completed.
Every Evangelical denomination
has been invited to cooperate in the
work. The survey is to be made by
competent Investigators who are sat
isfactory to all the churches. The OBJ
ject is to obtain an impartial and COM
plete summary of all the facts relat-
ing to the conditions of every church
in the county as to its finances, its
membership, whether growing, sta
tionary or declining; whether it has a
resident pastor; what families are in
cluded in it's ministry; how often its
people are visited by pastors; what
families in the county are without
pastoral oversight, etc.
The surveyors are also expected to
report upon church groupings, upon
conflicts in parish boundaries, upon
areas without Christian influences,
upon community centers or social
buildings, such as lodges and oranges,
and upon any other matters that will
throw light on the problems of the
churches in this county.
The county council will be expected
to assemble this information. 1t will
then be sent on for tabulation to the
state council, but in the meatime the
facts will be laid before all the lead
ers in all the denominations of the
county, who will be invited to attend
conferences where local programs to
fit the ascertained facts will be work.
ed out by common agreement.
In the course of time the Inter
church World Movement expects to
have on file map of every county
in the United States which will show
every railroad, trolly line, road, vii
lage, hamlet, church, lodge, school and
where every isolated farmhouse
stands in relation to some church or
other religious center.
The Interchurch Movement is CO.
operative effort of the missionary
boards, church extension societies, ,and
similar benevolent agencies of all the
Evangelical churches to work out a
Unified Christian program. It is
a movement for organic church union.
On the contrary, it expects each de-
nominational society to preserve its
own identity and work with it's own
machinery. The idea is to make sys-
tematic and complete study of every
thing that is to be done and to have
all the constituent bodies get together
and agree upon which part of the
work each is to undertake.
Realizing that no adequate program
of cooperation cauld be worked out un-
til all the facts are known, the move
ment already has begun its surveys.
The foreign survey was put under the
general care of Ralph A. Ward, au-
thority on China. The home survey
was put in charge of R. E. Diffendorf-
er, who did similar work for the Meth
odist Centenary.
The home surveys may be divided
roughly into two parts, rural surveys
and city surveys. The rural surveys
are under the direction of d. Edmund
S, Bunner, of the Moravion Church,
leader in rural matters, and Her.
mann N. Morse of the Presbyterian
Board of Home Missions. City sur
veys are under the direction of w. P.
Schriver, Henry P. Schauffler, Will
liam r. Patterson, and Walter Laid
law. In addition there are surveys of
special problems, such as the immi-
grant question, the foreign-language
colony, work among the negroes, work
among isolated people, such as those
of the mountain countries, etc.
For convenience the United States
has been divided into the ten geogra-
phical groups, each with a regional di-
rector. For each State a Council,
consisting of one clergyman and one
layman for each denomination, and
representatives from all the other in
terests involved is formed. This coun-
Gil sits in advisory capacity for the
county councils. The county body is
really the basis unit of the whole or
ganiaztion.
The data will be forwarded to the
State council and that body will make
up complete report and analysis for
the entire state. This in turn will be
forwarded to the National organiza-
tion for final analysis, after which, it
will be possible to get at the salient
points of information for any locality
in the United States that may be de-
sired, and at the same time, to study
the general phenomena of particular
groups and environments.
The Interchurch World Movement