organizations, which mean a united church life and a united church effort successfully to meet the problems of our common Christianity.

Respectfully submitted,

RAYMOND CALKINS, Chairman.

Rev. EDWARD A. STEINER.

Rev. HENRY A. MINER.

Rev. FRANK T. ROUSE.

Rev. ROCKWELL H. POTTER.

GEORGE E. PERLEY.

Rev. ALBERT J. LYMAN.

Rev. E. B. SANFORD.

EDWARD H. PITKIN.

THOMAS C. MACMILLAN.

Rev. JOEL S. IVES.

Rev. WASHINGTON GLADDEN.

Rev. ALBERT E. DUNNING.

Rev. WILLIAM H. WARD.

Rev. GEORGE A. GATES.

Rev. G. GLENN ATKINS.

Rev. WILLIAM A. BARTLETT.

Rev. M. H. BUCKHAM.

Rev. WILLIAM H. BOLSTER.

Rev. DOREMUS SCUDDER.

Rev. ASHER ANDERSON.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MINISTERIAL EDUCATION.

To the National Council, Fathers and Brethren:

Your Commission on Ministerial Education begs leave to report as follows:

APPOINTMENT AND CHARTER.

It will be recalled that the appointment of this Commission by the National Council at its Cleveland meeting in 1907 grew out of a report on ministerial training presented to that body by the Polity Committee. Of the recommendations adopted by the Council and referred to the commission, it was understood that the most pressing was the one concerning help for pastors on the field. The commission felt bound to begin its work at that point, and did so with no little hope of furnishing the desired help within a short time. So much thought and patience have been required for this one thing that the other matters charged upon the Commission have had to wait.

OBSTACLES AND DELAYS.

At the time of the Cleveland meeting there were indications that sufficient funds could be secured to command the services of an expert leader, as suggested in the report of the Polity Committee, a man well fitted to be our director in a thoroughgoing denominational policy for sustaining the numbers and quality of the Congregational ministry. That labor seemed too great to carry forward without such a special agent, and worthy enough to appeal to the best talent. Two or three splendid men were then available. But almost immediately the financial panic of 1907 put an end to such hopes and postponed seriously the work of the commission. If anything were to be done, it must be work new to Congregationalists, on lines not clear at first, by coöperation of men and institutions long used to volunteer action in independent ways. The desirable thing seemed to be a united undertaking involving our theological seminaries and two of our national societies. The enlistment of these in a movement so substantial as to insure both fruitage and perma

nency required time and patient labor. No early meeting of the Commission was possible, the members being distributed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the funds of the Council being distressingly small for committee work.

COÖPERATION OF THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES.

In October, 1908, the Conference of Congregational Schools of Theology voted to "coöperate to the fullest possible extent with the Commission of our National Council on Ministerial Education," and to that end appointed a coöperating committee composed of one member from each theological faculty. This committee has given very cordial and valuable assistance, and must be reckoned an equal partner with the Commission.

MEETINGS AND ACTION.

The joint body - Commission and Coöperating Committee - has held two regularly called meetings, both in New York. At those meetings there was provisionally adopted a partial schedule of correspondence courses representing the great departments of ministerial instruction, a schedule regarded useful as a beginning of larger things. The principal points passed upon at those meetings are the following:

1. That it was not expedient (the officers of those two societies concurring) to turn over the work of the Commission to the Congregational Education Society or the Congregational Home Missionary Society.

2. That the Congregational denomination ought not to depend, for the proposed maintenance of its ministry, upon outside agencies, such as the Young Men's Christian Association, the Institute of Sacred Literature, or the training schools of other denominations.

3. That our correspondence courses should at first be adapted to those men in our ministry who are intellectually neediest, lacking college or seminary training, or being so engaged in home mission work as to lack means and impulse for further study.

4. That all our Congregational theological seminaries be invited to coöperate, members of the faculties to serve as instructors for the correspondence courses.

5. That negotiations be opened with the Congregational Education Society to supply for the present the labor and expense of office headquarters; and with the Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society for the necessary printing and publication as well as for the sale of the books and other supplies required by the pupils.

WHAT THE COMMISSION FINDS.

The general conditions, as they appear to the Commission, are as follows: There are two classes of men in our Congregational ministry needing this kind of help. First, untrained men are entering our ranks in all parts of the land. They come only in part from other denominational bodies. We are all aware of them, and perplexed concerning them. Our associations are uncertain about admitting them, but in most cases give them the benefit of the doubt. The other class is composed of men older in our ministry, many of them graduates of both college and seminary, who are now in conditions unfavorable for sustaining their own growth. Both classes are creations of the modern day. There are now so many of them, and they lack so much of equipment, growth, and power, as to constitute a menace, invite self-defense, and demand radical measures of fraternal service. It is impossible to dismiss them from our ministry, most of them being decidedly useful on fields not otherwise to be supplied. It is equally impossible to bring any large fraction of them to our seminaries for regular instruction. They must go unaided, or measures must be installed for helping them at home.

The need of mental and spiritual help for pastors is felt more keenly and widely than ever. Men who desire it are calling for it. They are not content to labor on without hope of enlargement. More favored pastors and state leaders are recognizing the duty of aiding these aspiring men and thus promoting personal growth and denominational efficiency. Local associations and state conferences are devising new reading courses. Interest in seminary extension work and the function of this Commission increases. Letters of inquiry came from all parts of the country. This awakening of need and purpose will persist. The problem of sustaining our ministry is being seriously undertaken.

WHAT THE SEMINARIES ARE DOING.

It was natural for the Council and the Commission to turn, in this pressing interest, to the theological seminaries. The latter, as already stated, offered their services in the form of a committee with assurances of active support. Correspondence has been had with them all. Different conditions obtain among them, and differing convictions have been encountered. They are all continually answering individual inquiries for guidance and stimulus. Andover has conducted most helpful institutes in its own halls, and is making a circulating library of nearly two thousand volumes useful to pastors in their homes. Bangor sustains annually a notable Convocation Week. Hartford has held retreats, designed for intellectual quickening and spiritual uplift, which have proved extremely valuable to pastors within reach. Pacific has provided summer sessions, well attended and profitable. Three of the seminaries -- Andover, Yale, and Oberlin are so involved in university connections that they do not yet see their way to engage as faculties in the proposed correspondence work. Three others, - Bangor, Hartford, and Pacific, not now doing such work regularly, believe heartily in it, and readily accepted the Commission's invitations to general participation and specific tasks. Chicago and Atlanta have carried for several years certain forms of extension work, and will cordially coöperate in wider plans.

Atlanta, first in the field, has no extra equipment for it and is heavy laden with its regular work. Nevertheless it has had in the past year a list of more than forty non-resident students, most of the instruction being given by President Hood. He writes of it: "The results abundantly justify the effort. It has inspired many men. It has led to our seminary many who otherwise would never have come at all. It has incited many to continuous, systematic effort. It has increased the efficiency of many teachers and pastors. It has added to our sense of fellowship. It has enlarged the opportunities of the stated gatherings of the churches. It has deepened the spiritual life by guiding wisely the thought of men who had been giving time and strength to unprofitable reading."

Chicago Seminary has this year made this work one of its main lines of advance. In connection with the eighteenth