Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980, 1920-02-03
MINISTER PLEADS
FOR UNIFICATION
OF MANY CHURCHES

New York. Feb. 3.---charging that
.-the competitions and rivalries of
evangelical denominations in the Uni
ted States have resulted In astounding
waste and ineffieiency and that Sc
rer cent of the Protestant churches
have a total seating capacity of more
than s3.0e0.000, or three times their
requirement, the Rev. DIR. Robert
IvestIy Peach, pastor of a Reformed
Episcopal church in Newark, N. j.,
makes a plea for organic union Of ~
national church bodies
DIR. Peach's recommendations to-
eether with others. will be discussed
by the Interchureh Council on Organic
Union which begins a four days ses-
sion in Philadelphia today. The New
ark clergyman is one of SO composing
the Ad Interim committee represent
ing various Protestant denominations
which was appointed last December
upon an invitation by the Presbyterian
church, to approve a plan for bringing
about a merger. In his statement,
minority report. he declared that Pro-
testants had built perhaps 100000
superfIuous churches at a cost OF
$500. 600. goo"
Too Many Churches.
''If not a single church had been
built in the past 1S years" he said,
those standing in 1906 would accom-
modate at a single service every Pro-
testant communicant of the year 1913
and every Roman Catholic in our
country, baptized infants included,
and, besides. every man, woman and
child in Canada, Cuba, and Porto Rico
and there would stlll be much room
to spare
These s6 per cent OF our churches
reported over three sitting for every
COMMUNICATE AT the same time, the
Roman Catholic churches reporting
had one sitting for every two and one
fourth members-a ratio of neariS
seven to one In our disfavor. The Ro
man churches are crowded, ours. on
ap average less than one-quarter filled
for II is the exceptional church
which, at its principal Sunday service,
has an attendance equalllng 80 per
cent OF It's communieant roll"
The upkeep and the salaries incidvnt
to maintaining services in Protestant
churches. DR. Peach said, make neg
ossary the raising annually of millions
of wasted dollars make necessary, |
moreover. gruelllng efforts to raise
this money. Inevitably there has aris-
en- the Great Protestant Order of Men
dicant Pastors and Sisters unlncorpor-
atea. Inevitably also has followed a
widespread detection of church mem |
Btrs. weary Of continual solicitation to
give outright and to buy tickets for
suppers. entertainments, bazaars, etc, |
Not the giving has repelled, in most
instances" continued Or. Peach. tor
the American people are generous
but the needless calls for uneconomic |
giving.
Burden Grows Heavy.
Upon members who remain stead
fast have fallen the heavier burdens"
ne said "fhis detection also Is main
Iy responsible for increasing the two
out OF three empty pews caused by
ovcr~churehing to three out Of four,
Let not the pastors and members OF
exceptional congregations blindly ques
tion the general validity of these esti
mates wlthal, we have thousands of
unsettled communities without single
church. In Ohio, for example, the re-
cent Methodist Episcopal survey has
discovered scores of townships, six
miles square, without single resident
IL. .t.t.. a a