CHURCHES IN AMERICA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12282, 8 July 1914, Page 8

CHURCHES IN AMERICA.

■ According to statistics recently pub- I lished the religious bodies in the. United j States made notable gains in membership I in 1913.. The Lutheran bodies show tlu> most surprising advance in the increase of j 1455 churches. The Methodists report 496, the Baptists 388, and the Catholics 375. A falling off of 742 is credited u> the Disciples of, Christ. From the statistical standpoint, six new churches' for every working day in the. year must be regarded as an encouraging, sign uf progress. The summary, of gains is given in Dr Carroll's Bulletin, sent out from Washington : —The net, increase of communicants is widely distributed. The Methodist bodies get nearly 220,000. the Methodist Episcopal Chmch having the largest gain for many years; the Roman Catholic Church comes next with 212,500, then the Baptists with 64,608, the Presbyterians fourth with 45,649, the . Lutherans fifth with 36,120, and the Disciples of Christ sixlh with 21,824. The net gain is, on the. average, one and . eight-tenths' per cent. If "only .those denominations which re-port increase, be'included in the reckoning, the only fair method, the percentage would be considerably larger—approaching 2 per cent. - As a matter of fact, 618,000 is reported as the net increase of bodies aggregating about 33,000,000. Dr Carroll points "out the fact that the proportion of growth is more noticeable in the small centres of population.