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Show tyre Divine Worship Xh an Ever Before I By p- v- I Bfre to The Tribune. 'K: -ISept. 17. We in New gMtnntl to bo pessimistic re-, 'Kfork of the church. The R timt the number of those jlKfotmrch affiliations is ao IfHiicb in evidence, the open Ete! American idea of the E'fWant, t-hat ifc is not pfeel that the church is H It is gratifying, there-JKithat there-JKithat this feeling is not fEful A comparative study IHtion ficures Riven out by jHre'au with the growth of jKrent as has been .the m-MtAfinn m-MtAfinn since 1900 m New York, the accession in church membership member-ship has been a little greater. In nil five boroughs of the city in 1900 there were 1,233.677 members of Christian churches. This was 35,9 per cent of the population. While- the church membership figures for this year are not complete, by taking those for 1909 and assuming thai, the increase in the last year of the decade has boon the same average for the entire decade, the number of church mombers in the five boroughs this year will bo 1,751 -214. This number is 37.2 per cent of the new census figures, or 1.3 per cent ahead of population growth. This increase is evenly distributed between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Cath-olics. In 1890 there were 353.812 Protestants, Prot-estants, actual members, and 909 925 Itomnii Catholics. The method of count, mg in the two divisions of Christianity is quite different from tho figures first given, not including many who call themselves Protestants, but are not regular attendants and contributors. In 1910 it is computed that there are 440,-783 440,-783 Protestants and 1,310,431 Roman Catholics. In 1900 tho ratio of Protestants Protest-ants was exactly 10 por cent; in 1900 the Roman Catholic ratio was 26.4 and m 1910 it is 26.9. One of the men who assisted in getting together these statistics sta-tistics said: "These figures are for the Christian churches, all denominations. A. great in-crcaso in-crcaso in the population figures has been caused by Jows. To nold their own in tho figures with the Hebrew growth is remarkable and surprises even tho Christian leaders. Tho Protestant Pro-testant showing, while a very small fraction poorer than ton years ago, is encouraging when Manhattan condi- I tions are taken into account. The Ho-mnu Ho-mnu Catholic church has been helped by immigration which is now almost -wholly from Italy and southern Europe.' A sentiment is crowing that it is,a mistake to close trio city churches in tho eurnmor time and each year as it passes the number of churches closed is growing less. While it is recognizod that the hard working city pastors are entitled to and should have a vacation, 1 b' tho employment of assistant pas-tore, pas-tore, the sending of substitutes from other cities, tho necessity for closing the churches is growing steadily less. The Catholics havo held tho. center of tho religious stage for tho past week or two. Tho great Eucharistic congress con-gress at Montreal was perhaps tho greatest religious gathering ever held in tho western hemisphere. Thousands of devout Catholics from the four cor- nersiof tho earth were gathered in the CanaVdian metropolis, and the church was greatly glorified. Noxfc week 200 eminent Catholics,. presicVod over by Cardinal Gibbons, and representing tho Catholic Charities of the United States, will hold a conference confer-ence 3t the Catholic university, Washington. Wash-ington. Tho subject of children and tho dantgers to which girls are Bub-jected will beparamonnt themes. Papers will be readSby Very Kov, James Sullivan, C. IT. Emmitsbarg, James E. Poo, Boston; Bos-ton; William J. Dougherty, New York; Joseph W, Brooks, Baltimore; Timothy D. Hurley, Chicago; Patrick Mallon, Brooklyn; A. B. Eeid, Pittsburg; Mrs. Thomas Hnghes Kelly, Now York; Miss Teresa R. O'Donohuo, New York; Mies Grace O'Brien, Brooklyn; Mrs. James Byan, Baltimore; Mrs. Harry Gaynor Wilson, Chicago. |