ENGLAND AND WALES.

 

Established Church (§ 1).

Presbyterians and Methodists (§ 2).

Congregationalists, Baptists, Calvinistic Methodists (§ 3).

Salvation Army, Minor Denominations, Roman Catholics (§ 4).

Theological Schools (§ 5).

 

England and Wales constitute two divisions of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. They are divided into fifty-two counties, forty in England and twelve in Wales, and have an area of 58,323 square miles and a population (1901) of 32,526,075. The established Church is the Church of England (see ENGLAND, CHURCH OF), but all other religious bodies are fully recognized and tolerated, and no civil disability attaches to any class of British subjects because of their religious beliefs or unbelief. Since no religious census of Great Britain has recently been taken, the statistics of the present article are drawn from year-books and other sources, so that the figures represent not only different years, but also refer sometimes to England alone, sometimes to England and Wales, and sometimes to the British Isles.

 

1. Established Church. In the Established Church in England and Wales there are two archbishops, thirty-five bishops, thirty suffragan and two assistant bishops. Under the bishops are thirty-two deans, ninety-five archdeacons, and eight hundred and ten rural deans. For the management of ecclesiastical affairs, each of the archbishoprics, or "provinces," has a council, or Convocation (q.v.), consisting of the bishops, archdeacons, and deans in person, and of a certain number of proctors as the representatives of the clergy. These councils are summoned by the respective archbishops in pursuance of the king's command. When assembled, they must have the king's license before they can deliberate and also the sanction of the crown to their resolutions before they are binding on the clergy, so that their actual power is extremely limited. The number of civil parishes (districts for which a separate poor rate is or can be made) was 14,900 at the census of 1901. These, however, seldom coincide with ecclesiastical parishes, which, during recent years, have lost their old importance, the ancient parishes having been frequently divided into districts, each of which is virtually an independent parish. Of such parishes there were 14,080 in 1901, including those of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Since 1818 the Church Building Society and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have formed upward of 3,000 new ecclesiastical parishes. Each parish has its church, presided over by an incumbent in priest's orders, and known as rector, vicar, or perpetual curate according to his relation to the temporalities of his parish. Private persons possess the right of presentation to about 8,500 benefices; the patronage of the others belongs mainly to the king, the bishops and cathedrals, the Lord Chancellor, and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The census returns for 1901 gave the number of the clergy of the Church of England as 25,235. In 1905 there were 14,029 incumbents and about 7,500 curates and unbeneficed clergy, while the non-active list comprised about 4,000. The church accommodation, according to returns by 13,948 incumbents, was as follows: in parish churches, 5,774,608; in chapels-of-ease, 674,038; in mission-rooms, etc., 733,607; total 7,182,253. The number of communicants was estimated at 2,223,207; of Sunday School teachers at 209,338; of Sunday School scholars at 2,467,902. The gross annual income of the clergy in 1904-05 was estimated at £4,539,350, and the net income at £3,574,430. The amount of the voluntary contributions in 1904-05 was put approximately at £8,029,714, of which £2,290,247 were expended by central societies, institutions, etc., for home and foreign missions and other educational and philanthropic works, while £5,546,029 consisted of funds applied to local purposes, such as elementary education, the support of the clergy, and general parochial work, and £193,437 were for the extension of the episcopate in England. Of 29,632 churches and chapels registered for the solemnization of marriage in 1904, 15,538 belonged to the Established Church and 14,094 to other religious denominations.

 

2. Presbyterians and Methodists. The Presbyterian Church of England had, in 1907, twelve presbyteries, 345 congregations, fifteen preaching stations, and 85,755 members. It has a theological college and supports seventy-eight missionaries abroad, including thirty-three women. In 1905 the amount raised for all purposes was £304,613. Other Presbyterian divisions in England are the Reformed Presbyterian Synod, Eastern Reformed Synod, United Original Seceders, and Synod of the Church of Scotland in England (see PRESBYTERIANS). Under the general designation of Methodists (q.v.) are included all those religious bodies which owe their existence, directly or indirectly, to the efforts of John and Charles Wesley. The most numerous and influential of them are the Wesleyan Methodists, the original body founded in 1739. They are governed primarily by the Conference and secondarily by the Synods, the latter being semi-annual meetings of the ministers and selected laymen in each district, with a chairman appointed by the Conference, which is now composed of 300 ministers and an equal number of laymen, with a ministerial president and secretary elected annually. There are likewise quarterly meetings of the ministers and lay officers of each circuit. The authority of both the latter bodies is subordinate to that of the Conference. They reported for Great Britain in 1907 2,445 ministers, 19,672 lay preachers, 539,146 church members, 7,566 Sunday Schools, 133,108 officers and teachers, 1,000,819 scholars, and 8,520 churches with seating capacity of 2,326,228. Various divisions of Methodists have been formed, the most important being (1) the Methodist New Connexion, formed in 1797 by Alexander Kilham, (2) Primitive Methodists, (3) Bible Christians, and (4) United Methodist Free Churches (see METHODISTS ).

 

3. Congregationalists, Baptists, Calvinistic Methodists. The Independents or Congregationalists reject episcopacy and presbyteries. In 1907 they had fifty-one county and other associations in England and Wales, with 4,661 churches and preaching stations containing 1,694,879 sittings; the number of ministers in the British Isles was then 3,253. Of these 238 were temporarily without pastoral charge, seventy-nine were engaged in collegiate and tutorial duties, forty-four were occupied in secretarial work, and 378 had retired from the active pastorate because of old age or ill health (see CONGREGATIONALISTS). The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, with forty-four chapels and mission stations, is the outcome of the eighteenth century revival. It is governed by nine trustees assisted by an annual conference of ministers and delegates. The Baptists, like the Congregationalists, are grouped for the most part in associations of churches, the majority of which belong to the Baptist Union, formed in 1813. In England and Wales there were, in 1907, 6,706 churches and chapels and 1,972 pastors. The members numbered 405,244, the Sunday School teachers 57,240, and the Sunday School scholars 564,939. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Connexion (see PRESBYTERIANS) is the only church of purely Welsh origin, and embraces a very large section of the Welsh-speaking population. The form of Church government is Presbyterian, and the Church is in federation with the United Free Church of Scotland and with the Presbyterian Church of England. In 1906 the denomination had 1,411 churches; 1,620 chapels and places of worship; 1,248 ministers and preachers; 5,946 deacons; 189,164 communicants; 3,050 on probation; 27,112 Sunday School teachers; and 195,227 Sunday School scholars. For the concerted movement of non-conformists against prelacy see FREE CHURCH FEDERATION.

 

4. Salvation Army, Minor Denominations, Roman Catholics. The Salvation Army (q.v.) is one of the most recent religious denominations and one of the most successful. In Aug., 1906, the number of officers, cadets, and employees was 20,077, of corps and outposts 7,680, and of local officers 45,320. Connected with the Salvation Army are numerous philanthropic institutions under various denominations, including 110 rescue houses for fallen women, 132 slum posts, fifteen prison-gate homes, 183 shelters and cheap food depots for the homeless, 102 workshops and factories, forty-five Labor bureaus, thirteen farms, etc. Among the minor denominations the most important are the Unitarians with about 350 ministers and 345 chapels and other places of worship. The Society of Friends (q.v.) has 18,466 members in Great Britain, 424 recorded ministers, including over 150 women, and 421 places of worship. The Churches of Christ have 13,844 members and 179 churches in the British Isles, with 153 Sunday Schools, 1,583 teachers, and 16,041 scholars. The Moravian (q.v.) have about fifty congregations and preaching stations. The Free Church of England (q.v.) has twenty-four ministers, twenty-seven churches, 1,352 communicants, 8,140 sittings, 361 Sunday School teachers, and 4,196 Sunday School scholars. The Reformed Episcopal Church has twenty-eight ministers, 1,990 communicants, 6,000 sittings, 256 Sunday School teachers, and 2,600 Sunday School scholars (see REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH). The Catholic Apostolic Church (q.v.) has about eighty churches; the New Jerusalem Church (q.v.) has seventy-five societies, with 6,063 registered members; the Mormons (q.v.) have eighty-two churches; and the Plymouth Brethren (q.v.) have twenty-three places of worship In London and its suburbs. In the United Kingdom there are about 196,000 Jews, mainly in London and other large towns. They have 200 synagogues, with about 200 ministers and readers. The Jews support their own poor and raise about £150,000 annually for religious and benevolent purposes. The Mohammedans have a mosque. The Greeks have churches in London, Manchester, and Liverpool; the Armenians possess churches in London and Manchester and the French, Dutch, Swedes, and Swiss have places of worship in London, Norwich, and Canterbury. The Roman Catholic Church has in the British Empire thirty archiepiscopal and 106 episcopal sees, thirty-four vicariates, and twelve prefectures apostolic. Including two delegates apostolic, seven coadjutors and seven auxiliary bishops the archbishops and bishops now holding office in the British Empire number 180.

 

5. Theological Schools. There are in the British Isles fifty theological schools, divided as follows: Church of England twenty-one, i.e., sixteen theological colleges,--Aberdare (founded in 1892) Cambridge (Ridley Hall, 1881), Chichester (1839), Cuddesdon (1854) Edinburgh (1845), Ely (1876), Isle of Man (Bishop Wilson Theological School, 1897) Leeds Clergy School (1876), Lichfield (1857), Lincoln (1874), Oxford (Wycliffe Hall, 1876, and St. Stephen's House, 1876), St. Aidan's (1846), Highbury (St. John's Hall, University of London, 1863) Salisbury (1861), and Wells (1840)--and five missionary colleges,--St. Augustine's (Canterbury), Islington, Burgh (Lincolnshire), Dorchester (Oxfordshire), and St. Boniface (Warminster). The Methodists have eight colleges, i.e., the Wesleyan Methodists five,--Richmond, Didsbury (Manchester), Headingley (Leeds), Handsworth (Birmingham), and Belfast; the Primitive Methodists and the Free Methodists one each at Manchester; and the Methodist New Connexion one at Ranmoor (Sheffield). The Congregationalists have nine,--New (London, 1696), Western (Bristol, 1752) Yorkshire United (Bradford, 1756), Hampstead (1803), Lancashire (Manchester, 1816), Mansfield (Oxford, 1886), Nottingham (1863), Memorial (Brecon, 1755), and Bangor (1841). The Baptists have seven,--Bristol (1680), Bangor (1862), Rawdon (Yorkshire, 1804), Regent's Park (London 1810), Pastors' (1856), Manchester (1866), and Cardiff (1807). The Presbyterians have a college at Cambridge (Westminster), the Calvinistic Methodists two at Bala and Aberystwyth, and the Unitarians one at Oxford (Manchester), while an undenominational theological school is located at Carmarthen (founded in 1689).

 

Bibliography: For the statistics and details concerning the Church of England there are available the annuals The Churchman's Annual; The Official Year-Book of the Church; Nye's Illustrated Church Annual; The National Church Almanac, and Crockford's Clerical Directory. For the other communions recourse must be had to the year-books of the separate bodies; to the Free Church Year Book; The Review of the Churches; The Proceeding, of the National Council of the Evangelical Free Churches, The Nonconformist and Independent (a weekly, 1881-1900 continued as The Examiner, 1900 sqq.). Consult further besides the literature under ENGLAND, CHURCH OF, and that under the articles on the individual bodies: R. Winslow, Law Relating to Protestant Nonconformists, London 1886; J. G. Rogers, Church Systems of England in the 19th Century, ib. 1891; A. S. Dyer, Comparative Table of English Nonconformity and the English Church, ib. 1893; H. S Skeats, History of the Free Churches of England, ib. 1894 W. Lloyd, The Story of Protestant Dissent, ib. 1899; C. S. Horn, History of the Free Churches, ib. 1903; H. R. Haggard, The Poor and the Land; a Report on the Salvation Army Colonies, ib. 1905. Consult also The Statesman's Year Book.