RICH AND EMPTY CHURCHES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 26 September 1908, Page 2

RICH AND EMPTY CHURCHES.

A remarkable light was thrown on the

aeseri.-u cvuuw.v" ~- London city churches by a witness in a tithe - claim, inquiry

held in the vestry-room of St. Olave s Church, Tooley-street, who said that at a service at which he and his wife were present thov had onlv t' ree fellow-wor-shippers. Not long ago, says the "Westminster G<w*U.e," it wan stated that the agrgegato Sunday morning congregation of ton city churches, the roctors of which, by the wav, receive £5700 a ■ year, numbered only 213 worshippers— ( an average of, roughly, 21 for each church ; while another writer who visited half-a-dozen of these churces on successive Sundays, found congregations

ranging from seven to 25. This paucity of worshippers is scarcely a cause for wonder when we consider that ten of these churches minister to an average of 147 parishioners - each, while seven others provide 1330 seate for 649 parishioners all told. Four of these churches ! would accommodate every possible wor- ' shipper in the 17 parishes.