New Britain herald., 1929-10-28
But Contributions Have Not Kept Step With Gain ill Members Wealth, Statistician Says.

The increase of giving by Congre- gationalists for missions and other beueVolcncoS has n0L been ,ts great as their gain in personal wealth, Ebert 4. Harvey of Boston, Mass, reported in t paper read at the an- nual regional meeting of New Eng land Congregational church in south church Sunday afternoon. The re- port was read by Rev A. D. Hein- finger of the First church.
 MT Harvey is an investment counsellor and prominent layman, serving as memler of the National Congregational Laymcn's advisory committee, and as treasurer of the Boston City Mission society. He is 9 former moderator of the Massachu- setts Congregational conference.
 Lr;~l Protcstants Per Capita
 Our bcncVOlenccs in actual dol lars" Mir Harvey stated, gained 52 per cent in the 15-year period from 1913 10 1927, but, after allow anCc for the change in the purchas- ing power of money the gain Was only two per cent Our gain of two per cent compares with q gain of 20 per cent for all PrOtcStants. Notwithstanding this comparative decline, however, We are still giving more per capita than the average, in 1927 our per capita benovolcnces being $4.79 as compared with a SLY average for all Protestants. The conclusion seems to be clear that whereas We have made a bet ter record in respect to gain in membership and are still financially on a plane somewhat above the average for Protcatants we are dis tinctIy falling back in respect to the effort with which We are backing our missions. It is, however, pos sible that Congregational gifts 10 schools, colleges, hospitals and other outside beucvolcnCes have shown sufficient gain to make Congrega- tional giving commensurate with i that of other denominations where the gifts flow more fully through 1 church treasuries
 i Foreign Missions Successful "A further point regarding giving for Congregational beneyolences is that our foreign mission enterprises have been far more successful in obtaining support than have our home missionary enterprises. Tho ! foreign mission work is getting i larger percentage of the total than before the war and @ very much i larger percentage than in 1920 when ] drives were at their height
 Home Mission TGrld Smaller
 q am not Criticizing this greater success on the part of foreign mis- sionary forces. In fact, 1 think this result could be definitely explained and justified. Our own country is i more and more occupied. The from tier is disappearing and our church activities are more and more in the hand of solf-supporting churches. i At home our hospitals and schools are almost wholly in the hands of : the community and do not require support through the churches. Fur thermore, much of all our denom- national effort which we classify largely under the name of home missions is dcnominational expenses of a wholly different sort; namely, the taking care of aged ministers and the providing of dcnominational material for our Sunday schools and churches. The support for these things all come within the shrinking home missions budget. It is possible that the support of these things would be greater if they were se- grcgatcd from homo missions and made Q part of our general denom- national machinery. Therefore, it is not surprising that church be- neVOlenccs for home missions are not keeping pace with other church
 efforts
 Tn our foreign missions that sit
 uaton is quite different. The terri
 tory occupied is expanding Famil-
 iarity with what is going on is be-
 coming greater and our missionary
 enterprises are supporting not only cv"ngclstic effort but schools and
 hospitals which have q greater
 drawing power for funds.
 'I do not think we shall get any
 where by concluding that our for
 cign forces have been taking funds
 from our home forces and attempt
 ing to divert the flow. Our church
 mem bers will support those efforts
 of which they know and approve.
 I am convinced that vastly greater
 support than we now receive from
 our church members can be ob- taincd if these church members can be made to realize the vital work that the missionary societies arc doing around the world in the churches. schools and hospitals which they arc operating.'