The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1920-02-16
Or ALL
RELIGIOUS FAITHS


The Year Book OF the Churches
UT usse, the Official volume issued AN
nually by the Federal Council of the
Churches Of Christ in America CON
talns the usual annual Statistics for
all the leading denominations al fur
nlshed by their officials. In the case
or some of the smaller bodies II was
necessary to take the United states
census figures for 1916.
For 1919, in spite OF Disturbed -.
c'al conditions due to recon.tructton
the various religious bodies az the
country report total growth II
membership of 2.S61.1s2 over the cen
sus Of 1916. There Is also an Increase
OF S,s19 ministers and of Gar churcb
organizations. The total number Of
churches now stands at 233saA
There are 1885 ministers, priests
ard rabbis with 44.7sS.036 members
of these various organizations Tho
total Roman Catholic baptized menu
bership is reported as l7,549324 The
report of Jews who hold membership
in various synagogues Is only 100000,
in spite of the large population of per-
sons of Jewish ancestry. This is ac-
counted for by the factsthat member
slip In Jewish congregations is. in
NEST cases. restricted to heads or
families and these only are reported
In the table. The two Mormon bodies
report membership Of 4s4.3ss. The
Greek Orthodox church reports 1ls.-
.sIl, while the Russian Orthodox
church has a mem bership of 9s.6SI
Another Oriental body, the Syrian
orthodox church. has $4,000 members
in this country. The total Protestant
enurch membership reported is 25.-
sS0.&56 ia
The Roman Catholic figures repre-
SAINT baptized members. both ohildrsn
o. Ist1t-
figures are simply for the communi-
cant members
The membership of the bodies max
Ing up the federal council has In
creased sle,s22 over that OF 1918
This is in part due TO the admission
NJ the Christian Reformed church and
the Churches of God in North America
general. eldership. but represents also
very considerable gain by many de-
nominations reported last year. The
total membership of the federal cour-
Gil bodies Is given RS 19.5HA.1o2 this
YEAR, as compared with fs.eST,1so re-
ported a year ago.
The new figures show an increa~e
90 SOFA in the number of Sunday
schools reported. but loss In this
number of persons under formal re-
ligious instruction amounting to ses.-
5a4. the present number OF Sunday
school pupils being af.2afasT. The
Congregational churches and thu
PRESBYTERIAN church In the r. s. A.
made no report on the number of sun
day schools. The figures used in thess
Instances were those og the 1915 CEN
sus, Some of the lutheran synodical
bodies also made no report as to ths
number OF Sunday schools, so that the
total number OF sunday schools given
for the Lutheran churches Is much
smaller than is actually the fact. The
figures given for the I.utherans. how
ever, are those printed in the Lutheran
Church Year Book for 1890. Even
these circumstances do not seem tn
explain away the apparent loss in the
number 49, persons under religious IN
sttuction in the United States.
The expenditures Of the churches
have fallen on during the yeR-
80 2o4s the total for 1919 betng
sSes EST sSt Church leaders account
for this chiefly through the decrease In
local church building enterprises due
to disturbed conditions and high
prices. While no fguros have been
re ported to show the Increase for
missions and other general heneva-
le1:ces, II Is known that on account of
the enormous sums raised by Meth
odists. Preshyterians and other bodies
during the past year. these figures
have far outstrippcd those of any pre-
Stt5aH yearv---------------4--
The mem bership Of the larger Pro-
testant bodies Is follows Method
tst Episcopal. North. 4.t75. 5t2 South
ern Baptist convention. e.ssf.a2s.
Methodist Episcopal, South. 2.1sss-4:
PRESBYTERIAN In the l.. s, A. i,soa0ss;
Northern Baptist convention. 1893
SAL: Disciples u Christ, 11sa4ss;
Protestant Episcopal. i,os5,s.S; Con-
gregational churches. sns.12e: the
newly formed United Lutheran
church in America. 7se,so7 fthe mem
bershlp Of the twenty Lutheran bodies
ia the United States totals 24s1.s97):
the four leading coiored denoninA-
tions, National Baptist convention. Az
r,can Methodist Episcopal, African
Methodist Episcopal Zion and Coiored
Methodist Episcopal. total 4.isi.2s1.