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 yC-NRLF 
 
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 .HE CHURCH and 
 SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 BEING THE REPORT OF A COMMITTEE 
 
 APPOINTED BY 
 THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 
 
 Is. net. 
 
 S.P.CK 
 
V;. 
 
THE CHURCH AND 
 SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 BEING THE REPORT OF A COMMITTEE 
 
 APPOINTED BY 
 THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING 
 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE 
 
 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1920 
 
///Y3/ 
 
 
J 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE 
 
 Sir Cyril Jackson, K.B.E. (Chairman). 
 
 The Bishop of Chester (Dr. Paget). 
 
 The Rev. G. K. A. Bell. 
 
 The Countess Ferrers. 
 
 The Rev. Canon T. G. Gardiner. 
 
 Miss T. M. Morton. 
 
 The Rev. H. vS. Pelham. 
 
 Miss Constance Smitii. 
 
 Mr. Denton Woodhead. 
 
 Mr. H. L. Woollcombe. 
 
 Dr. L. F. Browne (Hon. Secretary), 
 
 452311 
 
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 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/churchsocialservOOIondrich 
 
TERMS OF REFERENCE 
 
 **To consider and report upon the ways in 
 which the Clergy, Churchworkers, and Church- 
 people generally can best co-operate with the 
 State in all matters concerning the social life 
 of the community." 
 . ) 
 
 I 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 I. Introduction : 
 
 (a) The Object of the Inquiry . 
 
 (b) The Church a Brotherhood . 
 
 (c) The Spiritual Nature of Social Work 
 
 II. Some Particulars of Social Service 
 
 (a) Social Conditions and the Church 
 
 (b) The Growth of Legislation . 
 
 (c) The Need of Salaried Agents 
 
 (d) The Need of Voluntary Agents 
 
 (e) Services Employing Voluntary Agents 
 (/) An Example : the Period from to 18 years 
 (g) Adult Education 
 (h) Summary ..... 
 
 III. The Clergy and Social Service : 
 
 (a) Christian Principles and Social Action 
 (6) Social Study before Ordination 
 
 (c) Social Study after Ordination 
 
 (d) Further Suggestions 
 
 (e) The Clergyman and the Community 
 
 IV. The Laity and Social Service : 
 
 (a) Introductory .... 
 
 (b) The Church and Industrial Life . 
 
 (c) The Church and Women in Industry 
 
 (d) Church Work . . 
 
 (e) Lay Readers .... 
 (/) Church Workers (Women) . 
 (g) A Suggested Course of Training . 
 
 V. The Parish and Social Service : 
 
 (a) The Christian Community ». 
 (6) Parochial Church Councils . 
 
 (c) Co-operation .... 
 
 (d) Civic Councils of Social Service . 
 
 (e) Interdenominational Councils of Social Service 
 (0 The Parochial Area 
 
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viii CONTENTS 
 
 VI. Rural Problems — ^A Note : page 
 
 (a) The Needs of Country Life 47 
 
 (b) The Opportunities of Rural Clergy and Laity . . 49 
 
 (c) The Village a Community 51 
 
 VII. Conclusion: 
 
 Summary of Principal Recommendations .... 53 
 
 Appendix I. 
 
 Outline of a six months' course in Social Study for Candi- 
 dates for Ordination ....... 56 
 
 Appendix II. 
 
 Training Centres for Social Service ..... 58 
 
 Appendix III. 
 
 Women's Work in the Parish : An Experiment ... 60 
 
 Appendix IV. ^ 
 
 Parochial Church Councils and Councils of Social Service . 61 
 
 (a) The Constitution of the Parochial Church Council ac- 
 
 cording to the Rules for the Representation of the Laity 
 
 in the National Assembly of the Church of England . 61 
 
 (b) St. Mary Lambeth Parochial Relief Committee . . 62 
 
 (c) Warrington and District Council of Social Service . . 65 
 
 (d) The Wakefield United Christian Social Council . . 69 
 
THE CHURCH AND 
 SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 (a) The Object of the Inquiry, 
 
 (h) The Church a Brotherhood, 
 
 (c) The Spiritual Nature of Social Work, 
 
 (a) The Object of the Inquiry, 
 Your Grace, 
 
 1. We have held twelve meetings, and have heard verbal 
 evidence from witnesses representing different aspects of 
 social service. We have considered written statements kindly 
 furnished to us by men and women of proved experience both 
 in Church and State ; and have also examined certain docu- 
 ments and memoranda which we felt would be useful in helping 
 us to make the inquiry upon which we have entered at your 
 request. 
 
 2. We could, without doubt, obtain further information 
 upon the whole subject. But we believe it to be essential 
 that we should offer you a Report as early as possibly, in 
 view of the urgent need of practical action, and of the recon- 
 struction of our whole social life which is now in progress, 
 
 3. The terms of reference which you gave us were as follows : 
 
 " To consider and report upon the ways in which Clergy, 
 Churchworkers and Churchpeople generally can best 
 co-operate with the State in all matters concerning the 
 social life of the community." 
 
 4. We shall, in the course of our Report, have certain recom- 
 mendations to make with regard to each of the three classes 
 indi cated in these terms of reference . But we think it important 
 that at the very outset of our work we should explain the general 
 attitude from which we approach the subject as a whole. 
 
 (b) The Church a Brotherhood. 
 
 5. We understand that in appointing us as a Committee to 
 inquire into certain aspects of social service, Your Grace had 
 in view the Report of the Archbishops' Fifth Committee of 
 Inquiry, Christianity and Industrial Problems* and that you 
 wished our work to have some relation to the work of that 
 
 ♦ S.P.C.K.. London. 1918. Is. 
 
2 THE CHURCH A^ND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Committee. We' desire, therefore, in commencing, to associate 
 ourselves with the statement of Christian principles and their 
 social application which that Report contains.* In accordance 
 with the spirit of that Report we would lay stress on " the 
 twin principles of human value and human comradeship " as 
 " the master keys of true progress." But most of all we wish 
 to assert our strong conviction that the Christian Church — ^that 
 is, the community of Christian disciples — has as such a corporate 
 responsibihty for seeing that all members of society have the 
 opportunity of a good life. To quote the words used by the 
 Fifth Committee-P' The Church, in short, is a society which 
 must insist upon the obligation of its members to maintain 
 the distinctive standard of social ethics revealed to men in the 
 New Testament. It should not merely preach brotherhood ; 
 it should be a brotherhood, "f And again, to borrow the 
 quotation, a few hues lower down, from the Report of the 
 Lambeth Conference of 1897 — " The Christian community as 
 a whole is morally responsible for the character of its own 
 economic and social order." J • 
 
 (c) The Spiritual Nature of Social Work. 
 6. We are, of course, aware of the view held in many quarters 
 that " social work " is not the proper work of the Church ; in 
 brief, that it is not " spiritual." We do not agree with this 
 view. Indeed, we desire to affirm precisely the opposite. 
 We beUeve that as Christ came to save, so the mission of the 
 Church is a mission of salvation, a salvation which includes 
 both body and soul. We believe that as Christ came that men 
 might have life, and might have it more abundantly, so the 
 Church should itself be the messenger and herald of life in the 
 largest sense. Christ said, " I am the Light of the world," 
 and He taught men to love God and their neighbour as He 
 loved them. In the same way the Church should be the 
 bringer of life and light and love. It should not only heal 
 those that are diseased, but fill with joy the ordinary labour 
 and recreation and everyday business of men. In other words, 
 Christian action, to be worthy of the name, must be social action, 
 and social action of such a kind as shall in each age be best 
 adapted to meet the needs of the age. Further, it must be 
 not only the action of individual Christians, important as that 
 is, but of the Christian Society as such. All Churchworkers 
 and Churchpeople, if they are to carry out the teaching of the 
 Gospels, must support whatever tends to improve the welfare 
 of the community. The community which is the Church must 
 serve and help that other community which is the Nation. In 
 such service Churchmen and Roman Catholics and Free 
 Churchmen can and should unite, so that the efforts of all who 
 
 * Christianity and Induairial Problems, pp. ^-25. t ^b. p. 20. } lb. p. 21. 
 
INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 call themselves Christians may be directed to a single end. 
 Indeed, through social work we may come nearer to a reunion 
 of the Christian body. 
 
 7. It is, we believe, the failure to recognise the social impli- 
 cations of the Gospel, and the false distinction between spiritual 
 and material, to which this failure leads, that is responsible for 
 the frequent indifference of the Church to social progress. We 
 believe that the time has passed when the charge of indifference 
 is generally true. But there is no doubt that there still lingers 
 among some clergy and Churchpeople the feeling that complete 
 sympathy with those whose conditions ought to be improved 
 is " dangerous," and not quite " respectable." 
 
 8. On the other hand, while the practice of the Church has 
 been inconsistent and inadequate, history certainly shews us 
 that from the first the Church has accepted secular work as, 
 in principle, included in the Divine commission. The very 
 appointment of Deacons in the earliest days to attend to the 
 daily ministrations of the widows indicates this. We do not 
 mean that there was not here an allocation of particular tasks 
 to particular " ministries," but the principle was admitted 
 that the Church was responsible for the due ministration being 
 given to the widows concerned. So, again, in the Middle Ages, 
 the Church was extraordinarily many-sided in its activities. 
 It had not only to do with the " worship " of the people, but 
 with their civil affairs, their health, their wealth, their poverty, 
 and their amusements. The Church was, in a very true sense, 
 the mother of the Arts, music, painting, drama. It was the 
 centre of the education of the people, of their religion and, 
 generally, of their life. We may, perhaps, draw special atten- 
 tion to the place occupied in our own country not many 
 generations back by the parish parson. An examination of 
 mediaeval, and even more modern,* records shews that in civil 
 as well as " religious " affairs he was, in no small number of 
 instances, the leader of the parish. Great duties were vested 
 in him. Large funds were entrusted to him. He was an 
 administrator in his own person of secular business on a con- 
 siderable scale. And this business had been committed to him 
 as the parish officer, because of the confidence which had come 
 to be reposed in that officer after an experience lasting a very 
 long time. Further, it is to be observed that the parson is, or 
 was, thus trusted, because of his position as officer of the parish. 
 This last point might appear to have little importance at first 
 
 * As a modern instance it is interesting to note that the great West Riding 
 Miners' Permanent Relief Ftmd was started in 1877 by the Rev. H. J. Day, M.A., 
 then Rector of Barnsley. Mr. Day was chairman till he ceased to be Rector ; 
 and ever since the Rector of Barnsley has acted as Vice-President and a regular 
 acting chairman of its meetings, xmtil ten years ago when the eutxangement ceased, 
 not because the miners did not wish it to continue, but because a new Rector 
 found himself unable to serve. 
 
4 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 sight. Yet its real and potential importance is considerable, 
 for it introduces the vital matter of the parochial system. The 
 Church has something quite unique in the matter of organisa- 
 tion. As Dr. Burge said recently, in a letter addressed by him 
 when Bishop of Southwark to the clergy of South London — 
 " She is established in every parish of the land, and our land 
 is all parishes ; whether we like it or not, however difficult or 
 unpromising the work and the prospect may be, she must be 
 there. That is to say, we offer a system which may provide 
 in every parish throughout the country an incumbent and his 
 staff of Church workers. There they all are ready, not simply 
 to ' proselytise,' but to help to promote the well-being of the 
 parish, and this well-being, so the principles of our religion 
 declare, implies the welfare of the whole man — body, mind 
 and spirit." 
 
 9. We would refer again to the sentence already quoted from 
 the Report on Christianity and Industrial Problems — " The 
 Church is a society which must insist upon the obligation of 
 its members to maintain the distinctive standard of social 
 ethics revealed to men in the New Testament. It should not 
 merely preach brotherhood ; it should be a brotherhood." 
 What is to be the relation of this Church, this brotherhood^ to 
 the social conditions and problems of the present day ? 
 
 II. 
 
 SOME PARTICULARS OF SOCIAL SERVICE. 
 
 (a) Social Co^iditions and the Church, 
 (h) The Growth of Legislation, 
 
 (c) The Need of Salaried Agents. 
 
 (d) The Need of Voluntary Agents, 
 
 (e) Services employing Voluntary Agents, 
 
 (J) An Example : The Period from 0-18 Years, 
 (g) Adult Education, 
 (h) Summary. 
 
 (a) Social Conditions and the Church. 
 
 10. In what we have just said we have approached our 
 problem from the point of view of the Church. But it will be 
 useful to approach it also from the point of view of the actual 
 community, in and for which the Church works. In other 
 words, it will assist the discussion of the whole subject if we 
 consider it, not only from the point of view of what the Church 
 can or should do, but from the point of view of what the social 
 conditions of the present day require or demand. 
 
 (b) The Growth of Legislation. 
 
 11. .The history of the last few years makes it abundantly 
 cjear that a new situation has arisen ; or rather that a series of 
 
SOME PARTICULARS OF SOCIAL SERVICE 5 
 
 new situations have succeeded one another with starthng 
 rapidity. Since 1832, since 1870, and still more since 1914, 
 the whole system of our social life has been changed. A vast 
 web of new social machinery has been created. A long series 
 of legal enactments dealing with the education, the health, the 
 employment, the homes of the people, has been passed. The 
 general motive of this legislation has been to secure better 
 conditions of life for those who have not always been able to 
 help themselves ; and its general tendency has been to vest 
 more and more power in the Community or the State, to leave 
 less discretion, or choice, to the individual, and to shew that 
 no individual has a right to any liberty which has been pur- 
 chased at the cost of the hberty of the whole society. 
 
 (c) The Need of Salaried Agents. 
 
 12. All this new social machinery, set up by Acts of Parlia- 
 ment, and administered by rapidly developing Government 
 Departments, calls for the service of official and salaried agents. 
 We may give an example. Miss Anderson, the Principal Woman 
 Inspector of Factories, in the Memorandum which she prepared 
 for the Ministry of Reconstruction, at the request of the Women's 
 Employment Committee, has much to say on the new services 
 which are being established, and on the need of an increased 
 supply of trained women from all classes. The chief directions 
 in which organisation for this new supply is called for are stated 
 to be : — (a) Midwives ; (h) Home Helps ; (c) Sanitary Inspectors 
 and Health Visitors ; {d) Maternity and Infant Welfare Centres 
 for Schools for Mothers ; (e) Nursery Schools and Day Nur- 
 series ; (/) Mothers' Pensions ; (g) Play-centres and Play- 
 grounds, Country Holidays ; (h) Public Baths and Laundries 
 of cottage type, with women attendants ; (*)Pure clean milk 
 supply ; (j) Invalid Kitchens ; {k) Superintendents and Fore- 
 women in Factories ; {I) Care Committee organisers ; Boys' 
 and Girls' Club organisations ; (m) Pohce Women and Women 
 Patrols ; (n) Probation Officers ; (o) Orderlies in Hospitals. 
 
 13. Of what character will these inspectors and organisers 
 and superintendents and visitors and officers and agents of all 
 kinds be ? By what spirit will they be informed ? It is 
 obviously of the highest importance that such agents should 
 be women (or men) who do their work with the right spirit, 
 not simply as the salaried officials of the Board or Ministry 
 which employs them, but as the willing servants of the com- 
 munity, and loyal and devoted co-operators for the common 
 wealth, or the common good. Undiluted bureaucracy is 
 soulless. In the service of the State, especially the salaried 
 service, we want above all else to retain the spirit of the volun- 
 teer. We believe that the Church could do much by pro- 
 claiming the great opportunities for Christian service which 
 
6 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 such work provides. We should wish it to call upon men and 
 women with the highest ideals to enter the public service, and 
 to shew those enrolled in that service that the voluntary 
 spirit is fortified and maintained, best of all, by the inspiration 
 of the Christian religion. 
 
 (d) The Need of Voluntary Agents. 
 
 14. But it is not only the service of salaried officials that the 
 ne^v legislation summons to the assistance of the State. A vast 
 number of unpaid volunteers — volunteers, that is, in the strict 
 sense of the word — are required. And it is with these that we 
 as a Committee are, as is natural, more closelj'' concerned. We 
 may, therefore, suitably deal with them in somewhat fuller 
 detail. 
 
 (e) Services Employing Voluntary Agents. 
 
 15. Apart from temporary Food Committees, War Savings 
 Committees, etc., the following Departments of State are en- 
 gaged in directing social services which employ voluntary 
 workers : 
 
 (1) The Ministry of Pensions, through local War Pensions 
 Committees. 
 
 (2) The Ministry of Labour, through local Advisory Com- 
 mittees on both adult and juvenile employment. 
 
 (3) The Ministry of Health : (1) through County and Borough 
 Councils, in Infant Welfare Work and Tuberculosis work ; 
 
 (2) through local Boards of Guardians on the Poor Law side ; 
 
 (3) and through National Health Insurance Committees. 
 
 (4) The Board of Education, through local Education 
 Authorities using School Managers and Care Committees. 
 
 16. These departments cover, in some way or other, the whole 
 period of life from infancy to old age. Thus : — 
 
 The Period of Infancy (0 to 5 years) comes under the Maternity 
 and Child Welfare Act, 1918. The central State department 
 is the Ministry of Health ; and the local authority is the 
 Borough Council. 
 
 Th^ Child at School (5 to 14 years) is the subject of the 
 Education Act, 1918, the Education (Provision of Meals) Act, 
 1906, the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907, and 
 the Children Act, 1908. The central State department is the 
 Board of Education ; and the local authority is the Education 
 Committee, acting through School Managers and School Care 
 Committees, etc. 
 
 The Period of Adolescence (14 to 18 years) is dealt with by 
 the Education Act, 1918, sections 10 and 17, the Labour 
 Exchanges Act, 1909, and the Choice of Employment Act, 
 1910. The central State departmentgs ^^e the Board of Edu- 
 
SOME PARTICULARS OF SOCIAL SERVICE 7 
 
 cation and the Ministry of Labour ; and the local authorities 
 are the Education Committee and the local Advisory Com- 
 mittees on Juvenile Employment. 
 
 Adult Life comes under the operations of the Labour Ex- 
 changes Act, 1909, the Trade Boards Acts, 1909 and 1918, the 
 War Pensions Acts and Regulations.* The central State 
 departments are the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Pen- 
 sions, and the Ministry of Health. The local authority for the 
 Poor Law is the Board of Guardis^ns. 
 
 Old Age is dealt with by the Old Age Pensions Acts. The 
 central State department is the Ministry of Health. The local 
 authority is the Statutory Committee of the County or County 
 Borough Council. 
 
 17. This list is not exhaustive, but it is obvious that in all the 
 services indicated above thete is considerable scope for the 
 volunteer worker. The element of assistance is, no doubt, 
 present in most of the activities controlled by the different 
 Ministries of Pensions, Labour and Health, and by the Board 
 of Education. But in none (except possibly in Poor Law work) 
 is it the main issue. The essential aim is always prevention 
 rather than cure, or the removal of hindrances to the good life ; 
 and this, involving personal, individual and educational work, 
 and the exercise of the spirit of neighbourliness, calls for the 
 service of volunteers. Special emphasis is laid on home visiting. 
 The Church, through her parochial system of district visiting, 
 can reach every home. If the Church's visitors were trained in 
 the details of the various speciahsed services, they could under- 
 take the State work — at any rate for families already regularly 
 visited — blinking it on to their definitely Church visiting. In 
 this way they would prevent the multiplication of visitors, 
 already a serious difficulty in towns, and would the more easily 
 win acceptance for the standard of life which the community 
 has set because the advice offered would be that of a known 
 friend. 
 
 (/) An Example : The Period from 0-18 Years, 
 
 18. It may be useful to give more particular examples of 
 what might be done in the period from to 18 years — that is 
 to say, the period which has formed the main province of 
 " reconstruction " legislation. This period, if only because of 
 the close connection between the Church and Education, may 
 be considered to a special degree as the concern of the Church. 
 
 19. There is, first of all, under the Maternity and Child Wel- 
 fare Act, 1918, the work which may be done by voluntary 
 
 * It may be well also to note possible or proposed legislation with regard to 
 Public Assistance (Reform of the Poor Law) ; and to such institutions, as the 
 Joint Industrial Couftc\l8 recQnar^eRded in the Whitley Report. 
 
8 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 workers for Infant Welfare Centres and Schools for Mothers. 
 The essence of the work lies in the adoption by the mothers 
 of the medical and hygienic advice given at the centres and in 
 their carrying it out in the home. Obviously, there is great 
 scope here both for the expert visitor and the ordinary friendly 
 visitor with common sense. Many parishes employ a parish 
 nurse. If care is taken to see that she has full nursing training, 
 preferably with the Central Midwives Board Certificate in 
 addition, there is no reason why she should not be used as the 
 recognised health Visitor. Indeed, if we may judge from a 
 recommendation in the Local Government Board's Report on 
 Maternity and Child Welfare, such use is much desired. " The 
 co-operation between a local authority which is carrying out a 
 scheme and the voluntary agencies working in its district must 
 be as close as possible if the full value of the voluntary effort 
 is to be obtained." * 
 
 20. Legislation from 1906 onwards has tended to make the 
 elementary school the centre for relief and remedial work in 
 order, in the words of the 1906 Act, that the children may be 
 "fit to profit " by the instruction given. Poor Law reform 
 may remove the actual relief work of the provision of meals 
 and free medical treatment to the Public Assistance Committee, 
 but there will still remain much educational work in the homes 
 if medical inspection is to be followed up by treatment and all 
 hindrances to the educational work in school are to be removed, 
 while all that is summed up in " after-care " is intimately 
 the affair of the school. Managers of schools, both provided 
 and non-provided, and members of children's care committees 
 have, through the children, an easy and pleasant approach 
 to the friendship of the family. The value of such voluntary 
 work is cordially recognised in the Annual Report for 1915 of 
 the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education. " Not- 
 withstanding the many and diverse claims evoked by the war, 
 there is abundant evidence in the Reports of the School 
 Medical Officers that excellent work has again been accom- 
 plished by voluntary agencies in matters concerning the well- 
 being of children in attendance at Public Elementary Schools. 
 .... I am satisfied as to the extreme value of this co-operation 
 between the voluntary and paid worker in the sphere of child 
 welfare, and the services of such voluntary agencies is most 
 warmly appreciated." 
 
 21. The day continuation classes, made compulsory by the 
 1918 Act, from 14 to 16, and later on to 18 years, will, when 
 
 * Special Report of the Local Government Board on Maternity and Child 
 Welfare (1917). Page v. 
 
 t Annual Report for 1916 of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Educa- 
 tion. Cmd. 8338. Page 9. 
 
SOME PARTICULARS OF SOCIAL SERVICE 9 
 
 the appointed day* comes, bring the period of adolescence 
 under the purview of the State. 
 
 The " young person " will be for seven or eight hours a week 
 under discipline. Club work and after-care work generally 
 will be in some respects easier ; for the educational work in 
 clubs can be made to supplement day classes in a definite 
 scheme. But it is obvious that the whole of this work will call 
 for a very large increase in the supply of teachers. The 
 methods by which the Church can co-operate with the State 
 best have already been fully considered by a Committee 
 appointed by the National Society, with the Bishop of Norwich 
 as chairman. We would draw particular attention to the 
 recommendation in that Committee's Reportf that the 
 Church should appeal to all who have any knowledge, or 
 culture, to offer their services as teachers in the new continua- 
 tion schools, making the need known and sounding the call 
 both centrally and through the different diocesan authorities. 
 22. Again, under section 17 of the same Act, wide powers are 
 given to local Education Authorities enabling them to assist 
 all forms of educational activity. Education has now been 
 declared not to be solely a matter of class-room instruction. 
 Indeed the hours of leisure are considerably more numerous 
 than the hours spent in school. It is of first rate importance 
 that this leisure should be properly used. A great develop- 
 ment of social training among young persons may be looked 
 for under the new -Act. But it is impossible to secure this 
 development unless men and women can be found who are 
 willing to undertake the work. We hope that such men and 
 women will be found, and we believe that social training of 
 this kind is a form of work which is much to be commended to 
 Churchpeople. The field is so wide and so varied that there is 
 room not merely for the expert and the specialist, but for 
 everyone who has a genuine desire to help young people, and 
 is prepared to devote a certain amount of time to this service 
 with regularity. 
 
 23. In this connection we would draw attention to the 
 operations of the Juvenile Organisations Committee, which 
 works in connection with the Board of Education. It has 
 already set up some 120 local committees all over the country. 
 The business of these committees is to bring together the 
 various organisations concerned with the recreation and the 
 social and physical training of children and young persons, 
 with the object of seeing what are the needs of the respective 
 
 * Mr. Fisher stated in the House of Commons on November 19th, 1919 : " The 
 date which I have in view as that at which every local education authority should 
 make some provision for obligatory attendance at continuation schools is . . . 
 the autumn of 1921." 
 
 t The National Society's Special Committee's Report on the Provision by the 
 Church of Religious Instruction for Adolescents, 1918 (National Society, 6d.). 
 
 B 
 
10 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 areas, and of making good deficiencies. They have accom- 
 plished much effective work in surveying the requirements of 
 their areas and the possibilities of future developments. They 
 will probably be presenting schemes to local education autho- 
 rities. We should like to see Church organisations fully 
 represented on those committees. But, more than this, we 
 earnestly hope that Churchmen and Churchwomen will give 
 all the help they can, in the work which these committees do, 
 at a time when the need for volunteers is so great, and when 
 so much turns on whether or not the existing organisations 
 are on sound lines and adequately manned. 
 
 24. We have taken the period from to 18 years in order to 
 give an example of possible and desirable co-operation between 
 the Church and the statutory authorities, partly for the reason 
 that this period, " if only because of the close connection 
 between the Church and education, may be considered in a 
 special degree as the concern of the Church." But the whole 
 field of education is so wide that we cannot, in this Report, do 
 more than touch its borders now and again. And we are the 
 more content not to attempt this special task when we remem- 
 ber how much that is valuable has been recently written on 
 the subject. We would specially call attention to (1) The 
 Education Act, 1918, with notes, etc., by Sir M. Barlow and R. 
 Holland, 1918 * ; (2) The Church's Work for " Citizens in Train- 
 ing.''"' A Report prepared for presentation to the Southwark 
 Diocesan Conference, 1919 t ; (3) The National Society's Special 
 Committee's Report on the Provision by the Church of Religious 
 Instruction for Adolescents, 1918 J ; (4) Christianity and Indus- 
 trial Problems^ 1918.§ (See Ch. V. Education.) 
 
 {g) Adult Education. 
 
 25. In what we have just said we have been dealing specially 
 with the " young person." But before we leave the subject 
 of Education altogether, and before we close this chapter, we 
 should like to make brief reference to the vitally important 
 matter of Adult Education. The passing of the Education 
 Act in 1918 was in itself valuable evidence that the country 
 realised the need of an improved and extended education for 
 the younger generation. But the younger generation cannot 
 stand by itself. Its needs are the needs of the entire com- 
 munity. It has indeed become more and more clear that 
 education must not end at 14 or 18 years of age, but must go 
 on continuously if the British democracy is to be a true demo- 
 cracy — that is to say, if our citizens are to be fit to exercise 
 
 * National Society, Is. 6d. t S.P.C.K., 6d. 
 t National Society, 6d. § S.P.C.K., Is. 
 
SOME PARTICULARS OF SOCIAL SERVICE 11 
 
 the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. It is this'growing 
 civic consciousness that arouses the sense of need for education ; 
 and the necessary conclusion, to use the words of a document 
 to which we shall shortly refer, " is that Adult Education must 
 not be regarded as a luxury for a few exceptional persons here 
 and there, nor as a thing which concerns only a short span of 
 early manhood, but that Adult Education is a permanent 
 national necessary, an inseparable aspect of citizenship, and 
 therefore should be both universal and lifelong."* 
 
 26. But if this is so, it follows also that provision must be 
 made for such education ; that all men and women everywhere 
 shall have the opportunity given them to realise this ideal ; 
 that, in a word, facilities for Adult Education should be syste- 
 matically and deliberately spread right through the land. The 
 question therefore arises as to how such systematic provision 
 can be made. It is obvious that in this Report we cannot 
 pretend to deal with so vast a theme in parenthesis. We 
 should, however, like to call the attention of Churchpeople 
 generally to a very remarkable and important document just 
 issued as the Final Report of the Adult Education Committee. 
 This Report goes into the whole subject exhaustively, giving 
 a history of Adult Education since 1800, explaining its nature, 
 possibilities and requirements, and pointing out the relation- 
 ships which have already been formed, and (still more) which 
 might well be formed, between the Universities, the Local 
 Authorities, and the State on the one hand, and the develop- 
 ment of Adult Education on the other hand. 
 
 27. There is further one particular aspect of this Report 
 which we should like to bring to the notice of both clergy and 
 laity — that is, the very prominent part accorded by the Adult 
 Education Committee to the work of voluntary organisations. 
 At the very outset of the chapter on Voluntary Organisations 
 and Adult Education the Committee pay the following tribute 
 to these organisations : "It will not, we think, be denied that 
 adult non-vocational education has owed its main inspiration 
 and the success it has attained to voluntary organisations of 
 various kinds, and particularly those established for educa- 
 tional purposes." f Here the Committee are speaking of the 
 past. But they are equally positive with regard to the future. 
 " Indeed, we would go so far as to say that, broadly speaking, 
 the advance of adult education can proceed only as quickly as 
 these agencies can stimulate, focus and organise the demand 
 for it ; and that, in the last resort, the volume of educational 
 activity is determined, not by the capacity of the Universities 
 and Education authorities to provide facilities, but by the 
 abihty of organising bodies to give shape and substance to the 
 
 * Adult Education Committee Final Report. 1919. Cmd. 321. Par. 6. 
 t Par. 202. 
 
 B2 
 
12 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 demand." * The main reason for the great importance which 
 the Committee attach to voluntary organisations is that in a 
 voluntary body there is " a definite point of view, a common 
 outlook, and a common purpose which give it a corporate 
 spirit of its own : a corporate spirit which is, perhaps, the 
 most valuable basis for group study." Members of voluntary 
 associations are potential students. " They are easier to 
 approach, because they are grouped together, than individuals 
 outside the orbit of organised activities ; they possess a social 
 interest which is known and which will ordinarily provide a 
 starting point for educational work."t Again, " Voluntary 
 agencies must be regarded as an integral part of the fabric 
 of national education, in order to give spontaneity and variety 
 to the work and to keep organised educational facilities 
 responsive to the ever-widening needs of the human mind 
 and spirit. "J 
 
 28. Finally, by way of emphasising the great weight attached 
 by the Adult Education Committee to voluntary organisations, 
 we should like to give the three broad conclusions and recom- 
 mendations which they lay down in the closing chapter of the 
 report : 
 
 " (a) Broadly speaking, the advance of adult education can 
 proceed only as quickly as voluntary agencies can stimulate, 
 focus and organise the demand for it. In the last resort the 
 volume of educational activity is determined not by the 
 capacity of the universities and education authorities to 
 provide facilities, but by the ability of organising bodies to 
 give shape and substance to the demand. The organising work 
 of voluntary bodies should, therefore, be maintained and 
 developed. 
 
 " (6) It is also highly desirable that the varied and less 
 systematic educational activities of voluntary bodies should be 
 extended. 
 
 " (c) We suggest that voluntary associations should give fuller 
 consideration to the needs of young adults between the age of 
 18 and manhood and womanhood. "§ 
 
 29. We have spoken with some fulness of the relation between 
 voluntary organisations and Adult Education, partly because 
 we wish to express our cordial agreement with what the Report 
 of the Adult Education Committee says upon this branch of its 
 subject, and partly because we wish to call the attention of 
 Churchpeople to the great field of service which this particular 
 demand for voluntary workers opens out. The Catholic 
 Church is, after all, the greatest voluntary organisation in 
 existence ; and it works through innumerable voluntary 
 
 ♦ Par. 204. t Par. 205. t Par- 209. § Par. 335. 
 
THE CLERGY AND SOCIAL SERVICE 13 
 
 organisations and associations. The Church, therefore, whether 
 in the largest town or in the smallest hamlet, is a potential 
 educational agent of the first importance. We earnestly hope 
 that, in very many and very various ways, it may take part 
 in the educational movements now going forward. We sug- 
 gest that Churchpeople should themselves form groups for 
 study of all sorts, should promote the formation of tutorial 
 classes, study circles, conferences, and discussions, and should, 
 in cases where they are themselves adequately instructed 
 and equipped, offer their services as teachers, or lecturers, 
 or leaders of study circles. To the individual Churchman 
 or Churchwoman with special knowledge or attainments, the 
 almost unlimited need of Adult Education and the task of 
 stimulating and focusing intellectual interests presents oppor- 
 tunities of service both in town and country of quite remarkable 
 interest and important. / 
 
 (h) Summary. 
 
 30. We have spoken of the extraordinary growth of legis- 
 lation which has marked the last few years. We have shewn 
 some of the ways in which this legislation demands the help of 
 fresh workers, paid and unpaid. We have given a brief outline 
 of the different branches of social service, and have spoken 
 particularly of a selected period in the life of the citizen, in 
 order to indicate ways in which the voluntary worker may 
 co-operate. We have said something of the opportunities which 
 open out in the wide and varied field of Adult Education. We 
 have not attempted anywhere to be exhaustive. But we have 
 said enough, we hope, to shew how vast is the State's need for 
 co-operation on the part of all its citizens. The simple state- 
 ment of what is being done and what is being planned is itself 
 a summons to action. In the chapters which follow we 
 are to try to discover in what way the Church, if it is to be true 
 to its principles and to the best traditions of its long history, 
 can respond to that summons. t 
 
 IIL 
 THE CLERGY AND SOCIAL SERVICE, 
 
 (a) Christian Principles and Social Action, 
 (h) Social Study before Ordination. 
 
 (c) Social Study after Ordination. 
 
 (d) Further Suggestions. 
 
 {e) The Clergyman and the Community. 
 
 (a) Christian Principles and Social Action. 
 
 31. The primary duty of the Christian Church is to bear 
 witness to her Master ; and it is the duty of the clergy them- 
 
14 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 selves, in a somewhat special way, to stand forth as witnesses, 
 and to proclaim the principles which are involved in the faith 
 committed to them. We should like, therefore, to emphasise 
 the fact that, apart from any specific form of social activity in 
 which they may take part, the ordinary life and daily work of a 
 faithful clergyman have a social value of their own. He con- 
 tributes to the community by being what he is ; and the 
 character of a loyal Christian priest, honestly giving himself to 
 the service of his brothers, is a contribution which no good 
 citizen can afford to despise. Indeed we would go further, and 
 say that a clergyman who does his duty as pastor, as teacher, 
 and, perhaps above all, as visitor, can do more for the social 
 welfare of the community than any other social worker. We 
 do not say that in actual fact the clergyman does perform a 
 greater sqcial service than any other member of the community. 
 But we venture to assert that his opportunities are unique, and 
 that in proportion as he uses those opportunities, the whole 
 nation will be the gainer. It is his personal knowledge of his 
 people (together with the gospel which he bears) that gives him 
 his great potential value ; and it is that personal knowledge 
 which we should endeavour, not to supersede but, to enrich, 
 develop and direct. 
 
 32. We should like to lay rather special emphasis on the point 
 which we have just made. We are indeed thinking of the 
 Clergy in connection with social service ; and this fact may 
 lead some to suppose that we wish to take the clergyman away 
 from his special task of personal ministration to rich and poor 
 alike in his parish, and persuade him to fill his time with the 
 study of books on social problems, with impersonal investi- 
 gations, or returns, or statistics of different kinds. We wish to 
 deny this charge in all earnestness. No social work which left 
 out the personal factor was ever of much value ; and certainly 
 a clergyman, who has little or no personal knowledge of, or 
 personal intercourse with, his people is of little value or none, 
 either as a social worker, or as a parish priest. We would there- 
 fore lay particular stress on the duty of regular personal 
 visiting, because by it, better than by any other method, is 
 such personal knowledge of the parishioners secured, and the 
 spirit of friendship, fellowship and trust maintained. We 
 believe, indeed, that such visiting should be the basis of all his 
 outward work. " The country parson," says George Herbert,* 
 " upon the afternoons in the weekdays takes occasion some- 
 times to visit in person now one quarter of his parish, now 
 another. For there he shall find his flock most naturally as 
 they are, wallowing in the midst of their affairs." And the 
 same should also be true of the town parson, and the afternoons 
 and evenings of his weekdays. 
 
 ♦ A Prieat to the Temple, ch. xiv. 
 
THE CLERGY AND SOCIAL SERVICE 15 
 
 33. Again, if it is the first duty of the Christian Church to 
 bear witness to her Master, it is her further duty to bear witness 
 to Christian principles in their social application. And here, 
 once more, we would emphasise the point that, while the duty 
 of witnessing to Christian principles in their social application 
 is shared by the whole Church, a special responsibility is laid 
 on the clergy. As the Report on Christianity and Industrial 
 Problems says : 
 
 "From whatever view their ministry is regarded, they may 
 rightly be expected to take the lead in the application 
 of the Christian Faith to social and industrial practice. 
 To them, as priests, the ministry of reconciliation has 
 been entrusted, and when men are really reconciled to 
 God, they enter on that way of justice and love which 
 leads to reconciliation among themselves. It is also 
 evident that the two great Sacraments of the Gospel, 
 of which as priests they are put in trust, speak of our 
 fellowship one with another in Jesus Christ. As 
 prophets, they take their place in the long Hne which 
 began with Amos and Isaiah, and if social righteousness 
 is not part of their scheme they are false to the best 
 traditions of their order. Doubtless there have been, 
 and still are, prophets among the laity ; and certainly 
 there are good pastors who are not endowed with great 
 prophetic gifts. But they have their special com- 
 mission as ministers of the Word. They are teachers, 
 if not prophets. They are bound to shew the relation 
 of Christian truth to vital issues and the applica- 
 tion of Christ's principles to the actual facts of our 
 modem life."* 
 
 34. This means that social study and social work are both to 
 be looked upon as natural parts of a clergyman's vocation. We 
 beheve that a first-hand and practical knowledge of social 
 legislation, and of the general working of the social system, will 
 make the clergyman's indirect social action all the more 
 effective, and extend his influence over a wider circle. Indeed, 
 it will often be found that it is his very participation in what 
 are known as " social activities," that will give him oppor- 
 tunities for exercising his spiritual ministry, which otherwise 
 he would never have had. The question which we have to ask 
 is this. How are the clergy to acquire the knowledge which is so 
 necessary ? And how are they to qualify themselves for wise 
 and effective participation ? 
 
 We would answer that here, also, as in the other more special 
 departments of his ministry, the clergyman must be trained. 
 
 • Page 102. 
 
16 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 (b) Social Study before Ordination. 
 
 35. The idea of special training for the clergy is one which 
 has always been slow in making its way. Sixty years ago it 
 was thought sufficient that a young man should pas-^ with the 
 barest training of a theological or pastoral kind from the 
 University to the Bishop's Palace, and thence a few days later 
 to the parish in which he was to work. To-day the need for 
 training is generally recognised, whether that training is given 
 in a Theological College, or by some other method of systematic 
 preparation under proper guidance. Even so, the special 
 training of the clergy is ridiculously short and inadequate. 
 Teachers go through an apprenticeship of two to three years in 
 a Training College. Doctors, quite apart from a preliminary 
 course of two or three years in a Medical School or University, 
 must have received three years' training in hospital. Yet the 
 average clergyman, at best, after a three or four years' ordinary 
 course at a University, is only required to go through one year's 
 special training at a Theological College or (sometimes) elsewhere. 
 
 Sixty years ago the conception of " pastoral work " was large 
 and vague. To-day a new and deeper content has been given 
 to the term. It is not unreasonable to suggest that a clergyman, 
 who will inevitably be thrown into the most complex social life, 
 shall at least have received some previous instruction on the 
 general conditions of that life. 
 
 Once more, it has been often said of late that the economic 
 question is, fundamentally, a religious question, and that the 
 industrial question is a religious question. We believe this to be 
 perfectly true. We also believe that no solution will be found 
 in the religious sphere without adequate knowledge of the 
 economic and industrial facts underlying the whole situation. 
 We believe, therefore, that it is of the highest importance 
 that the clergy, before they are ordained, should have received 
 a grounding in the elements of economic and industrial pro- 
 blems, and that after they have been ordained they should 
 continually refresh their memory and increase their knowledge 
 by being kept, and by keeping themselves, up to date. By 
 this we do not mean that we would simply ask for a '" ground- 
 ing " in the elements of industrial problems. We would ask 
 that the clergy should learn what are the physical, mental, 
 spiritual conditions necessary to the health of the body, mind 
 and soul, in town or country, and how to set about getting 
 them created or secured. Among these conditions we place 
 such things as pure air and water, proper nourishment, schools 
 that make education a pleasure, places of innocent recreation, 
 places where the beauty of Nature may be seen, museums in 
 which the mind can feed on the treasures of all parts of the 
 world, picture galleries where examples of the finest art can be 
 
THE CLERGY AND SOCIAL SERVICE 17 
 
 shown. Social study conceived in this generous spirit will, we 
 believe, help the clergy to become better servants of the 
 community, better ministers of truth, beauty and goodness, 
 and so better stewards of the manifold grace of God. 
 
 36. At the present time we find, as the result of careful 
 enquiry, that there is practically no systematised teaching on 
 social subjects to the students in our Theological Colleges.* At 
 best occasional lectures are given, sometimes in connection 
 with the course of lectures on pastoral theology. There are 
 also useful, unofficial debates and discussions on social problems. 
 As things are, in view of the shortness of the period of special 
 training for Holy Orders (normally, before the war, one 
 year for graduates, two years for non-graduates), it is ex- 
 tremely difficult to include adequate instruction in social 
 subjects as a regular part of the Theological College course. 
 We feel, however, that such instruction is essential ; and that 
 the need for providing it constitutes an additional reason for 
 the lengthening of the period of special preparation to at 
 least two years after the taking of a University degree, j The 
 failure to provide this instruction has meant that the clerg>^ 
 as a rule have gone straight out into their parishes with no 
 real knowledge of the conditions of Ufe of those among whom 
 they have to Uve. They have been confronted at once with 
 poverty, sickness, want of sanitation, overcrowding ; they 
 have had no acquaintance with the various statutory and 
 voluntary organisations that exist to deal with these and other 
 subjects, and they have had to learn gradually, and by chance, 
 what can be done for the social welfare of their people. Above 
 all, their lack of previous social education makes it impossible 
 for them to apply an independent mind to the problems before 
 them. 
 
 37. We recommend, therefore, that provision should at once 
 be made in or by every Theological College for suitable instruc- 
 tion, during a period of two terms, at least, in the history and 
 outhnes of economic and industrial problems, with special 
 reference to the present day. 
 
 38. This is a general recommendation which we wish to see 
 
 * We are glad to note, as a small beginning, that " The Christian Ideals, Personal 
 and Social," forms one of the subjects in the new Central Service Candidates' 
 Examinations. (See C. A.C.T.M. Paper No. 113(1919): Central Advisory Council 
 of Training for the Ministry, 19. Elm Park Gardens, S.W.IO). 
 
 t We should like to call attention to and to endorse the Recommendations of 
 the Archbishops' First Committee of Inquiry, The Teaching Office of the Church 
 (S.P.C.K., 2s.) with regard to the training of Candidates for Holy Orders (p. 62), 
 especially to the following : — 
 
 (6) That [i.e., the special theological] training should include : (a) the principles 
 and practice of education ; (6) some study of moral, social, and economic 
 questions ; (c) comparative religion and the philosophy of religion. 
 
 (7) That all candidates for Orders should receive a longer and more adequate 
 theological training than has been usual in the past. Graduates need a course 
 lasting at least two years, Non-Graduates a course lasting at least three years. 
 
18 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 immediately carried into effect.* We think, however, that it 
 is desirable that the recommendation of " suitable instruction " 
 should be interpreted in a variety of ways. In some cases it 
 will be possible for theological students to attend a course at 
 a neighbouring University, and to obtain a diploma or certificate 
 in Social Science. f Or again, it might be possible to use as a 
 Hostel an existing Theological College in some University town, 
 such as Birmingham or Leeds,t where a Social Science course is 
 already provided, or, failing this, to provide a special Hostel. 
 In either case, the object would be to pass the students through 
 such a College or Hostel for a limited period during their 
 two years' training. The study of Social Science would be 
 the main, but not the only, subject of the men's studies in the 
 Hostel. There is still another possibility provided by well- 
 worked settlements in University towns, such as Oxford House, 
 Toynbee Hall, or Liverpool University Settlement, to which 
 theological students might very properly be sent for a six 
 months' course, consisting partly of practical work under 
 skilled supervision, and partly of some definite study of the 
 history and the theory of Social Science in the Social Science 
 department of the University. In this connection we should 
 like to suggest that there is much to be said for introducing the 
 study of social problems at the beginning of the theological 
 student's course. Indeed, there might be men who have not 
 quite made up their minds whether their vocation is that of a 
 clergyman. A course in social study might be a real help to- 
 wards the testing of vocation, and even if at the end of it a man 
 decided that he could not be a clergyman, the training which he 
 had already received would be of use to him in any other 
 vocation upon which he might enter. It is also to be re- 
 membered that some students may have gone through a diploma 
 course before coming to a Theological College. This would be 
 best of all, and we should like to press upon the authorities 
 that it is most desirable to call the attention of candidates for 
 ordination to these courses in Social Science,§ which are open 
 both to undergraduates and graduates at the different 
 Universities. 
 39. If the adequate instruction, which we have recommended, 
 
 * See Appendix I. for an outline of a Six Months' Course. 
 
 t See Appendix II. Training Centres for Social Service : (o) University Courses. 
 
 X We understand that Leeds Clergy School is at present used to accommodate 
 Service Candidates for Holy Orders studying for an Arts course in Leeds Uni- 
 versity, or even in the pre -University stage, as an emergency measure. We 
 suggest that it might be possible to use the Clergy School as a Hostel for 
 social study for theological students in the way here described, by arrangement 
 with other Theological Colleges, instead of restoring it to the exact status which 
 it had before the War ; or, if this proved impracticable, to reserve certain places 
 in the Clergy School for the accommodation of such students. 
 
 § " The following subjects are those normally taught and regarded as covering 
 the field of the general formal instruction (as distinguished from the lessons 
 
THE CLERGY AND SOCIAL SERVICE 19 
 
 is to be given in the Theological College itself, we believe that 
 it would be best given by means of tutorial classes,* lasting 
 two hours each, in which the first hour would be devoted to 
 the lecture, and the second hour to a discussion on the lecture. 
 In this case, the course should be so planned as to last a year 
 on the basis of at least one tutorial class each week. The course 
 of study should cover both town and country, and should be 
 large enough to embrace such subjects as recreation, amuse- 
 ment, etc. — i.e.f social conditions in the widest sense of the word, 
 and not simply social " problems " through which the attention 
 is so often directed to what is abnormal. According to this plan 
 three or four colleges might share a lecturer between them. 
 Arrangements should, however, be made whereby each College 
 should be the headquarters for a term, at least, of the particular 
 lecturer, so that he might count as a regular member of the 
 staff, and enjoy the same opportunities for friendly intercourse 
 with the students as the other teachers. Again, a visiting 
 lecturer might be secured from the Social Science Department 
 of one of the Universities, or from soi*ne public body. It 
 would, in our opinion, be desirable in any case that one or 
 two outside lecturers, men or women, should be invited to give 
 occasional lectures in addition to those in the ordinary course. 
 We believe, further, that it would be a considerable advantage 
 if, during the vacations or, if practicable, during term time, 
 arrangements could be made for visits to industrial centres 
 (lasting two or three days at a time) where the students, under 
 proper guidance, could see, for example, the inside of an ordinary 
 factory, or go over a school, or a children's clinic, or an employ- 
 ment exchange, or have practical " lectures " on housing with 
 
 derivable from the concurrent practical training and the visits of observation 
 provided in connection with schools of Social Study) : — 
 
 (a) An historical account of the origin of existing social and economic conditions, 
 with particular stress on the more recent stages of their evolution. 
 
 (6) A description of present-day social and economic life. 
 
 (c) The analysis of economic facts, together with an introduction to methods 
 of investigation. 
 
 (d) The discussion of the principles and methods of social administration, 
 including industrial law, the functions and organs of local government, and the 
 working of voluntary agencies. 
 
 (e) A philosophical statement and examination of social principles, aim^s, and 
 ideals. 
 
 The name to be given to this last-mentioned subject (whether it be called 
 Social Philosophy, Social Theory, or Social Psychology) matters little, provided 
 that it is clear that the intention ia to make the student alive to what is involved 
 in the assumptions lying behind social practice and the eSorts at reform and 
 improvement. 
 
 In addition to these general subjects of study almost all Universities provide 
 special courses of lectures, dealing with the actual working of existing institutions 
 and agencies such as, e.g.. Employment Exchanges, Hospitals, Children's Coiirts, 
 etc., given, as a rule, by ihen and women engaged in the actual working of such 
 institutions and agencies. Such courses are often closely linked up with actual 
 visits of observation." ^ {So:ial Study and Training at the Universities. A Report 
 drawn up by the Joint University Council for Social Studies, 1918. P. S. King ; 
 6d. Par. 10.) 
 
 ♦ Cf. Advdt Education Committee Final Report. 1919. Pars. 107-116. 
 
20 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 real houses as illustrations. We do not doubt that considerable 
 assistance would be given in arranging such visits by the 
 authorities responsible for the Social Science Departments in 
 the different Universities, by Wardens of Settlements, by 
 Secretaries of Councils of Social Service, and similar bodies, 
 and by officials in the different Public Departments. 
 
 40. In what we have said above we have had in mind both 
 urban and rural clergy. We do not set out to produce " ex- 
 perts," but rather men with knowledge and possessed of the 
 pastoral instinct, and having a real love for the individual 
 human being. Such men will adapt themselves to their sur- 
 roundings whatever they may be. But it is true that some 
 men are more naturally gifted for work in the town than for 
 work in the country, and vice versa. Unhappily, it is easy to 
 forget the special needs of the country. Yet there is so much 
 for the right man to do in the country, that a country curacy 
 ought to be looked upon, not as a soft option, but as an anxious 
 and difficult post, with quite peculiar responsibilities and 
 opportunities. It should, we think, be the endeavour of the 
 Principals of Theological Colleges to look out for men with 
 special aptitudes and qualifications for country work during 
 their time of training, and definitely to encourage them to take 
 it up. Such men might be helped to extend their reading, and 
 their practical knowledge, " out of school," with a view to 
 adding to their qualifications. 
 
 (c) Social Study after Ordination. 
 
 41. We have spoken thus far of the training which the clergy 
 should receive before their ordination. We are convinced, 
 however, that the pre-ordination period should be only the 
 beginning of their training. It is outside our reference to 
 consider the general question of care and training of Deacons 
 preparatory to their ordination to the priesthood. We reahse, 
 however, that Deacons are, during their diaconate, in a special 
 sense, the responsibility of the Bishop of their Diocese, and that 
 he owes them a supervision of an even more intimate kind than 
 that which is due to his priests. Indeed, we should like to see 
 Deacons more specifically recognised as the Bishop's Curates, 
 rather than as the Curates of particular Vicars or Rectors, and 
 as lent for a time to incumbents who have been carefully 
 chosen by the Bishop, on the ground that they would take 
 the greatest pains with their training. 
 
 We wish to press for a recognition of this special responsibility 
 in the particular department of the Deacon's equipment for his 
 social work. 
 
 42. For this purpose we recommend that a Director of Social 
 Studies should be appointed in each Diocese, whose duty it 
 would be to find out what training, or knowledge, each Deacon 
 
THE CLERGY AND SOCIAL SERVICE 21 
 
 had already acquired, and to shew him the lines on which he 
 might increase that knowledge. He would also both assist him 
 in the practical application of the knowledge which he thus 
 gains, and tell him how to gain practical knowledge himself in 
 the fulfilment of his ordinary work. Deacons should be expected 
 to make themselves acquainted with the actual conditions of 
 the parish in which they are working so far as they can. It has 
 been said that there is no better or more instructive way of 
 learning about social conditions than the resolute and patient 
 endeavour to understand the needs of particular families, and 
 to try and assist them. Deacons should be expected to attend, 
 and work at. Charity Organisation Society and Guild of Help 
 Committees for the purpose of hearing discussions on case work. 
 They should similarly go to Care Committees, Pensions Com- 
 mittees, Juvenile Organisation Committees, and other offices 
 of social work, in order that they may see the various methods 
 and hear, at the Committees themselves, the experience of 
 men and women who have for many years specialised upon 
 various problems. They should also be encouraged to study 
 the possibilities of club work, and social centres, the opportuni- 
 ties for recreation, the development of adult education, and the 
 various openings of an artistic or literary or dramatic kind 
 which present themselves in connection with such clubs or 
 social centres, or, indeed, outside them. 
 
 43. We are aware that we are likely to defeat our object if 
 we attempt to overload the period of the diaconate with 
 special studies of an unfamiliar kind. We would, therefore, 
 pass on from a consideration of Deacons to the consideration 
 of junior clergy in the first three years of their ministerial life. 
 We hold that all clergy should normally be regarded as " under 
 training " for the three years following their ordination as 
 Deacons. We believe that it would be of inestimable value 
 if such junior clergy, having had some practical experience of 
 parish work, could undertake definite social study in connection 
 with a University course. We do not think it would be too 
 much to ask that during the first three years of his ministry, 
 every clergyman, working in a town, who has not already 
 obtained a diploma, should be required to attend an approved 
 course in social science of at least six months, and, if practicable, 
 in a University town, or under University direction. In some 
 Dioceses, by a rearrangement of the clergyman's own work, 
 and without any change of residence, it would be possible at 
 once to secure attendance at such a course in a University. 
 For other Dioceses it would be highly desirable that Hostels 
 should be estabUshed in modem Universities, to which men 
 could go for limited periods. Or again, it might be possible to 
 secure help from the Social Science Department of a neigh- 
 bouring University with a view to providing in some central 
 
22 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 town of the Diocese an approved course, which, though not 
 ideal, might be made very useful. Where no arrangements of 
 this kind can be made, we think that, in any case, short summer 
 courses, of a month each, could be initiated, without great 
 difficulty, in theological colleges, or other educational institu- 
 tions, when the ordinary students are away on their vacations, 
 or in Settlements. This should, however, be without prejudice 
 to the ultimate and, as we hope, rapid realisation of our main 
 recommendation. 
 
 44. With regard to the clergy working in rural parishes, we 
 realise that the requirement of anything like a six months' 
 course, in a University town or under University direction, 
 may be neither practicable, nor even perhaps desirable. We 
 think, however, that here too a good deal might be done by a 
 wise and careful continuation of the state of " pupilage," to 
 which we have already referred. There is a very real danger, 
 which has not been sufficiently guarded against in the past, of 
 young clergy serving their first curacy in country parishes being 
 left entirely to themselves, and so ceasing to learn, and becoming 
 greatly discouraged. It is, therefore, highly important, not 
 only for the sake of the clergy, but for the sake of the country 
 as well, to think out a system of effective continued education 
 for rural clergy. The Director of Social Studies in a rural 
 diocese would be responsible for this continued education, and 
 he would naturally be chosen because of his experience of, and 
 interest in, rural life. The methods which he would adopt 
 would, of course, vary considerably. In some Dioceses it 
 might be possible to have a headquarters house where groups 
 of junior clergy might be assembled for a month at a time, 
 for short courses, both of instruction and refreshment. This 
 House of Study might also be used as a Retreat House for 
 the Diocese. Or again, three or four Dioceses, mainly rural 
 in character, might combine to provide such a central house. 
 In any case, we feel that the greatest care ought to be taken in 
 choosing the Vicars or Rectors to whom the younger clergy are 
 sent for their first country curacies, so that they may get the 
 right start. 
 
 In the case of young clergy appointed direct to country 
 parishes, we do not think that the present system of excessively 
 small units tends to give efficient training. We think that 
 under the new Union of Benefices Act, 1919,* schemes should 
 be devised for grouping several parishes, serving them from 
 one centre under a specially selected priest, who would train 
 the younger men. We do not necessarily mean that such 
 service should be from a single Clergy House, from which the 
 clergy should travel by bicycle or motor-cycle in different 
 
 * This important Act, which received the Royal Assent on December 23rd, 1919, 
 enables neighbouring benefices to be united, with no limit as to the population of 
 the united benefice, after an inquiry by a commission on the spot. 
 
THE CLERGY AND SOCIAL SERVICE 23 
 
 directions, but rather that there should be a central 
 Vicar, or Rector, who might have one or two curates living 
 in the same village with him, and other curates in nominal 
 charge of the surrounding parishes, but working definitely 
 under his control, and looking to him for guidance and inspira- 
 tion. We would encourage the formation of societies of 
 junior clergy, who should hold regular meetings, say once a 
 month, in some central market town, to compare their experi- 
 ences. There is much to be said for clergy taking up some 
 agricultural occupation of their own, in however small a way, 
 when possible. The question of farming the glebe raises 
 problems of its own. It may be well as a general rule to sell 
 the glebe altogether, especially when the Rector is otherwise 
 in the difficult position of being landlord to his own parishioners. 
 But there are certainly cases in which the Rector himself may' 
 profitably farm his own glebe, if the glebe is of a manageable 
 size, and if he himself can bring scientific methods to bear 
 upon its management. 
 
 {d) Further Suggestions. 
 
 45. There are one or two further points on which we should 
 like to make suggestions. First of all, we suggest that in view 
 of the rapid changes brought about by legislation in the whole 
 condition of the social problem, lectures should be provided 
 from time to time giving a survey of recent legislation and 
 Governmental action in such matters as education, housing, 
 land settlement, pensions, etc. If such lectures were provided 
 we believe that many clergy would welcome the opportunity 
 of hearing good speeches upon the latest social developments. 
 Next, we beheve that far more use could be made, than has 
 been made hitherto, of the Diocesan Gazette or Chronicle. The 
 possibilities of this monthly periodical, which is the Bishop's 
 channel for official communications to his clergy and to the 
 Diocese generally, have not been sufficiently realised in the 
 past. Nor, as a rule, has enough care been taken to make 
 it interesting, or to use it as the literary instrument of the 
 corporate life of the Diocese. We propose that the Diocesan 
 Gazette, amongst other new features, might well contain articles 
 both informing and suggestive on social subjects of different 
 kinds, and a brief, but careful, descriptive bibliography printed 
 month by month (or every quarter if preferred) of important 
 books, or Government pubh cations, on such subjects. 
 
 Again, we beheve that a great deal could be done by the 
 estabhshment of " Social Days," something after the pattern 
 of Quiet Days, though their object would be different. Social 
 Days would be days in which clergy could meet together for 
 conference on social subjects, and compare notes with one 
 another on different aspects of modern problems. They might 
 
24 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 be started with a paper for discussion, or a lecture, from 
 somebody outside, but their main purpose would be genuine 
 conference and counsel between clergy faced with every 
 variety of social problem. Once more, in view of the admirable 
 and growing custom of Summer Schools for Clergy, we think 
 that one course of lectures, at least, in these Schools should 
 deal definitely with a social subject. We would also urge 
 that Bishops should call the attention of their clergy in the 
 Diocesan Gazette, or otherwise, to the ordinary Summer Schools 
 in Social Science provided in different centres in connection 
 with a University, or by such bodies as the Interdenominational 
 Conference of Christian Social Service Unions, and encourage 
 them to attend. 
 
 46. With regard to the individual clergyman himself, there 
 are two things which we would specifically recommend. First 
 of all, having made himself familiar with the general outline of 
 Social Science or the Social Problem as a whole, let him choose 
 some particular social question which he may study thoroughly 
 and make his own, such a question, for example, as housing, or 
 temperance, or education, or unemployment. And let the 
 subject be studied in connection with his own neighbourhood. 
 Secondly, let him both gain and share his knowledge with 
 others by means of a study circle. We believe that there are 
 few more useful things to be done in this field than the gathering 
 of a group of men and women for the common study of the 
 social problem, or of a particular social question. The clergy- 
 man will learn much in the process ; and there are plenty of 
 textbooks ready to his hand specially prepared for such study 
 circles by the Student Christian Movement, for example, and 
 by other societies. In both these matters the Diocesan Director 
 of Social Studies should once again prove an invaluable guide. 
 
 (e) The Clergyman and the Community. 
 
 47. We have so far spoken of the training in social subjects 
 of the clergy before and after Ordination. But the question 
 may reasonably be asked, what ought to be the action or 
 attitude of the clergy when they are thus trained ? How far 
 ought they to be expected to undertake definite social activity ? 
 
 48. In answer to this we would say that the object of the 
 training which we recommend is not so much to fit the clergy 
 for new activities, as to open their eyes to what is implicit in 
 their old activities, and to enable them to do their ordinary 
 duties as citizens and pastors with more knowledge and imagina- 
 tion, and, therefore, with better success. We do not wish to 
 separate the secular from the religious, and we shall endeavour 
 to re-emphasise this point in a later section when we speak of 
 the Parish and its relation to Councils of Social Service. As 
 clerks in Holy Orders, both Deacon and Priest are precluded 
 
THE CLERGY AND SOCIAL SERVICE 25 
 
 from following an ordinary secular calling ; they may not sit in 
 Parliament,* and they are disqualified for membership of the 
 council of a city and of some boroughs, f But a man of social 
 knowledge and interest has countless ways of making that 
 knowledge and interest known. He will be a good citizen, dis- 
 charging his civic duties with a ready will. He will be known 
 as definitely regarding the physical, mental and spiritual welfare 
 of his parishioners as a matter of the gravest concern. He will 
 support all that makes for wholesome recreation, intellectual 
 development, or the general ennoblement of life, whether by 
 good music, good pictures, or any other means, and he will not 
 do this with any ulterior or proselytising motives |p view. 
 The vicarage itself might well offer hospitality to various 
 sorts of recreative or educational activities — for example, to 
 meetings of the local Friendly Society, or Trade Union Branch, 
 or the Football Club Committee. The clergyman owes a 
 special duty to the children, and he will interest himself in the 
 school clinic, in the school itself, in the physical and mental 
 health of the children in the parish. He will find out the rate 
 of infant mortahty in the district, and try to discover what it is 
 that makes it high or low. It is possible that he might take 
 his place as a member of a Care Committee, an Education 
 Committee, Board of Guardians, or (possibly) the County 
 Council. He will try to establish friendly relations with the 
 Medical Officer of Health, as with a partner in the promotion of 
 the welfare of the parish. He will make a special study of the 
 housing conditions of the parish ; and he will try to see whether 
 the compulsory legislation is being carried out, or whether the 
 permissive legislation has been adequately adopted. And he 
 will use his influence actively till the proper steps are taken. 
 He will be known as a man with the community spirit, with a 
 real care for the welfare of all, and a real passion to see how he 
 may best meet the physical, moral and spiritual needs of 
 the parishioners without distinction. 
 
 49. In brief, whatever he does, the physical, moral and 
 spiritual welfare, of his people will be his primary concern. 
 And the methods which we have suggested, and other methods 
 which may suggest themselves, are only useful as they minister 
 to that primary concern. He will not, for example, attend 
 committees for their own sake, but only if, and as, they enable 
 him, or others, to know and help his people better ; and he 
 will never forget that it is this personal knowledge, and the 
 sympathy which such knowledge brings, that in the long run 
 are able to do most good. It is, indeed, the fact that personal 
 knowledge is the sure fruit of faithful and regular visiting which 
 makes such visiting so important a part of the parish clergy- 
 
 ♦ House of Commons (Clergy Disqualification) Act, 1801. 
 t Municipal Corporations Act, 1882. 
 
26 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 man's work; so important, indeed, that it should not be 
 neglected. But this personal knowledge will have a deeper 
 value, and be more fully personal, if it includes a knowledge of 
 the conditions in which his people live, and of the conditions 
 in which they ought to live. 
 
 IV. 
 THE LAITY AND SOCIAL SERVICE, 
 
 (a) Introductory, 
 
 (b) The Church and Industrial Life, 
 
 (c) T^ Church and Women in Industry, 
 
 (d) Church Work, 
 {e) Lay Readers. 
 
 (J) Church Workers (Women). 
 
 (g) A Suggested Course of Training. 
 
 (a) Introductory. 
 
 50. We have spoken in the preceding chapter of the special 
 duty pressing upon the clergy " to take the lead in the apphca- 
 tion of the Christian Faith to social and industrial practice." 
 We have endeavoured to suggest various methods by which, 
 both before and after Ordination, they may be the better 
 equipped for their great task. A similar duty rests upon the 
 laity of the Christian Church with regard to the understanding 
 of social and industrial conditions, and the active application 
 of Christian principles to those conditions. Upon such under- 
 standing, and especially upon the understanding of the human 
 considerations which are involved, all true social service must 
 depend. 
 
 51. We should like, therefore, at this stage to say something, 
 however brief, about the Church's task, and especially the 
 laity's task, in view of the industrial position as a whole, and 
 also of the rather special question of the position of women in 
 industry. We shall then try to point out, in view of all these 
 facts, the need for the widest possible interpretation of Church 
 Work. Finally, keeping these general considerations firmly 
 before us, we shall say something of the professional Church- 
 workers and of the necessities and conditions of their work. 
 
 {b) The Church and Industrial Life. 
 
 52. It cannot be denied that the Church suffers at present from 
 the fact that many of its officers and workers are believed to 
 be ignorant of, and in some cases hostile to, the various efforts 
 which are being made by the organised workers to raise the 
 general level of social and industrial life. Whether the charge 
 of hostihty is justified or not, that of ignorance and indifference, 
 it must be reluctantly confessed, is often not without foundation. 
 
THE LAITY AND SOCIAL SERVICE 2T 
 
 It is true, of course, that much " Social Work " is done under 
 the auspices of the Church, both by the clergy and by its lay 
 members. But too much of their activity consists in mitigating 
 effects without removing causes, in assisting individuals who 
 ought never to have been forced into the need of assistance, 
 and in softening the incidents of evil which a Christian com- 
 munity should not have allowed to come into existence. Such 
 ambulance work is, no doubt, indispensable, but it is not by 
 itself sufficient. The necessity for most kinds of charitable 
 work is a proof that men have sinned against justice. The 
 Church must not by its silence, or by the exaggeration of certain 
 social functions and the neglect of others, be an accomplice in 
 their sin. It ought not to be the stretcher-bearer of the present 
 industrial system, but the leader in a crusade for social 
 righteousness. 
 
 53. What this means is that in the future the activities of 
 Churchmen must be concentrated to a much larger extent upon 
 the positive and constructive work of raising the standard 
 of social and economic morality. The social problem of our 
 generation does not consist in the fact that individuals fall 
 into distress. It is that, whether they fall into distress or not, 
 large numbers of persons derive a meagre and precarious 
 livelihood from — ^and, more important, surrender their personal 
 Uberty and initiative to — ^an organisation of industry, which 
 appears to offer others considerable affluence and freedom to 
 to the point of irresponsibility. It is to that problem and its 
 symptoms, excessive riches and excessive poverty, degrading 
 conditions of work, bad housing, infantile mortality and child 
 labour, unemployment, that in the future the officers and 
 members of the Church must increasingly address themselves.* 
 
 54. They can do so in three ways : by acquiring and spreading 
 knowledge, by grasping more fully the social implications of 
 Christian ethics, and stating more clearly and more regularly 
 their appHcation to all aspects of hfe, including industry and 
 social organisation, and by taking part in activities and move- 
 ments having as their object to raise the general level of social 
 life. On the first point, something has already been said. If 
 the Church is to lead and not merely to follow, its officers must 
 know what is being thought and done by those engaged in 
 social movements of different kinds at the present day. The 
 second point is of supreme importance, and has been admirably 
 treated in the chapter on " Christian Principles and their Social 
 Application," in Christianity and Industrial Problems.^ The 
 third point depends for its realisation upon the two first. It in- 
 volves a clear appreciation of the character of the social issues 
 with which the world is now confronted, a conviction that 
 
 * Cp, Christianity and Indtistrial Problems. Pp. 63 f . 
 t I*P. 3-26. 
 
 C2 
 
28 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Christian morality is a social thing, demanding a corporate as 
 well as an individual effort, for its fulfilment, and a determin- 
 ation to bring the Christian conscience to bear upon the 
 practical problems of social and industrial life. 
 
 55. It is with the last of these three points that we are now 
 concerned. Several methods might well be followed. 
 
 56. (a) The condition of any practical action is that Church- 
 men should unite for the purpose of forming opinions and pro- 
 moting practical work in their own district. They should, there- 
 fore, take the initiative in promoting the formation of Interde- 
 nominational Social Councils in each locahty. Such Councils, to 
 be effective, must be attended by representative laymen, as well 
 as clergymen.* They ought to include, for example, in addition 
 to employers and professional men and women, leading trade 
 unionists in the locality, leading co-operators, representatives 
 of the Trades Council, of Friendly Societies, of the Workers' 
 Educational Association, and of other working-class organisa- 
 tions. The functions of such Councils would be to secure, 
 as far as possible, that the best thoughts of Christian men 
 and women were applied to all social and industrial questions. 
 They might begin by making a survey of the main practical 
 needs of thier own district. Then they ought to ascertain 
 what are the principal features in the industrial life of the 
 district which make for demoralisation, and which ought 
 to be removed. In some places, it will be found that par- 
 ticular industries tolerate inhuman conditions of employ- 
 ment — for example, casual employment, the exploitation of 
 juvenile labour, inadequate provision for the health and 
 comfort of the workers, excessive overtime, mainly because 
 public opinion has never been directed to the removal of these 
 evils. Again, there are questions of local government, such as 
 education, public health and housing. The standard of public 
 spirit with regard to these matters is often desperately low, 
 or it would not have been the case that half-time was legal 
 till 1918, that in a few districts more than 200 per 1,000 of the 
 children born die in the first year of life, or that more than a tenth 
 of the population live, more than two to a room. Such matters 
 are, from one point of view, economic : but from another they 
 are moral or spiritual, since they react directly upon character. 
 It is important, therefore, that Churchmen should take the lead 
 in creating and focussing the moral energy needed to deal with 
 them. This they can help to do by bringing representative 
 Christian men and women of different kinds of experience 
 together in a single body which can discuss the problems and 
 agree as to what the attitude of Christians towards them 
 should be. 
 
 ♦ See below, p. 44. 
 
THE LAITY AND SOCIAL SERVICE 29 
 
 57. (b) It is importaat that Church workers should serve on 
 public bodies and stand for a Christian treatment of social 
 questions. Local authorities have immense responsibility. In 
 spite of the excellent work which many of these have done, it 
 cannot be said that they have always risen to their opportunity. 
 They are too often dominated by a point of view which is narrow, 
 short-sighted, and unduly commercial, as well as by " interests '* 
 of a frankly selfish character. Education authorities some- 
 times fail to resist the demands of the employers, and indeed 
 of the operatives themselves, especially in textile districts, 
 for children's exemption from school for premature labour. 
 Many Town Councils have done little or nothing to deal with 
 housing questions in their areas. It is here, rather than in 
 the sphere of relief, that the energy of Churchmen should show 
 itself. They ought to throw themselves into municipal work. 
 If the Church will make it evident that it appeals for volunteers 
 in a crusade of this kind, the volunteers will be forthcoming. 
 They are not at the service of the Church now because the 
 work which it offers them seems, too often, not to be of a 
 constructive kind. 
 
 58. (c) The Church should make it evident to its working-class 
 members that the work which they do in their organisations, 
 trade unions, co-operative societies and local Labour Parties, is 
 work which it regards as not necessarily out of harmony with its 
 own ideals. The workman must be made to feel that work for the 
 Church and work in the Labour movement are not incompatible ; 
 indeed, that no political work, for whatever party, need in itself 
 be inconsistent with work for the Church. It should be the object 
 of the Church to claim all forms of social service as part of its 
 domain. And it is the duty of Churchmen to bring Christian 
 unselfishness into all social relations. It should encourage its 
 members, in every way it can, to throw themselves into all 
 movements which have as their object to enable men to help 
 each other by corporate action. It should urge the trade 
 unionist to be zealous in the service of his trade union, and the 
 co-operator to be an apostle of the co-operative spirit. Its 
 aim should be to break down the barrier which at present 
 divides industrial and spiritual life, to emphasise that religion 
 claims all aspects of society as its sphere, and to show by its 
 practical action that it regards all movements as religious which 
 are carried on in a spirit of brotherhood and mutual service. 
 
 59. (d) The Church should take a continuous and active part 
 in forming opinions upon social and industrial questions. The 
 Councils which have already been suggested would be one step 
 in that direction. In addition to these. Churchmen ought to 
 organise public conferences with labour organisations, em- 
 ployers' associations and representatives of municipal life, upon 
 the principal social issues affecting each locality. For example, 
 
30 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 the Church ought to assist directly in the consideration of the 
 problem of casual labour which has so long been the despair of 
 social reformers. It must consider the conditions of the 
 operatives in factories and workshops and press for improve- 
 ments. There are many other social questions on which the 
 Church should endeavour to direct public opinion ; for 
 example, all that is implied under child welfare, or the question 
 of widows, as well as the pressing need of better housing 
 accommodation for the working classes. Overcrowding has 
 long been known to be a fruitful source of immorality. Both 
 in town and country families have grown up in houses with 
 totally insufficient bedroom accommodation. Few people are 
 better able to know the facts than the clergy and their fellow- 
 workers. Too often they have acquiesced uncritically in these 
 conditions. It is clearly the Church's duty to press for drastic 
 reform, and in order to do this Churchmen must make them- 
 selves thoroughly acquainted with the proposals of the Govern- 
 ment and the provisions of the Housing Act, and the other Acts 
 on the Statute Book. Further, the Church must at once think 
 of the opportunities to be given for the use of leisure, now that a 
 universal eight hours' day of work seems to be in sight. Leisure 
 must be well used, and in connection with this difficult matter, 
 which presses for immediate solution, there are not only ques- 
 tions with regard to education and the development of the con- 
 tinuation schools for juveniles which are laid down in the 
 recent Act, but all such measures as may secure more amuse- 
 ments, better games, improved theatres and picture palaces, 
 and reformed public houses, and the provision of reasonable 
 facilities for clubs and social meetings. All these matters 
 vitally concern the moral and spiritual welfare of the people. 
 The Church should insist that they are spiritual, and not merely 
 economic questions. It should regard the formation of social 
 character and the cultivation of social righteousness as an 
 essential part of its mission. 
 
 60. (e) The Church should aim at training a new type of social 
 worker. During the last ten years the standard of knowledge 
 required of those who are to engage in social work has risen 
 very greatly. There is less room for the amateur of good will, 
 unless he or she is prepared not only to give time to actual work, 
 but to learn what is being thought about industrial and social 
 questions, and to go through some kind of training or appren- 
 ticeship. At the same time, the centre of interest has shifted. 
 As already pointed out, the problem is no longer principally one 
 of relief, but of prevention and cure ; hence some knowledge 
 of causes and principles is indispensable to social work. It is 
 necessary to know the conditions of any district as a whole, 
 not to concentrate attention merely upon the problem of 
 charitable assistance. 
 
THE LAITY AND SOCIAL SERVICE 31 
 
 61. If Church workers are to hold their own, they must be 
 prepared to train themselves for their work as carefully as social 
 workers of other kinds. Facilities for such training are now 
 being multiplied in the Schools of Social Science conducted in 
 connection with the Universities.* In London, for example, 
 there is the Social Science Department of the London School 
 of Economics, the similar Department in Bedford College, and 
 there are similar facilities in Birmingham, Bristol, and elsewhere. 
 It is very rarely, however, that Church workers are among the 
 women students in the Social Science Department at the London 
 School of Economics. This isolation should come to an end. 
 If the Church is to continue to do social work, it should be the 
 rule, not the exception, for it to demand from its workers some 
 previous training and a reasonably high standard of knowledge, 
 
 (c) The Church and Women in Industry. 
 
 62. It must not be thought, when we talk of trade unions and 
 Labour questions, that men only are involved. Women have 
 special difficulties, due to the conflicting claims of family life and 
 of wage earning. 
 
 63. Before the war, the industrial life of women was, in its 
 details, very little known to the nation at large. There had 
 spread abroad a vague belief that women and girls employed in 
 factories and workshops were generally ill-paid, and sometimes 
 overworked ; but of the real facts of the situation, of the wide- 
 spread evils and wrongs crying for redress, there was httle 
 Imowledge. Church workers were quite as ill-informed on these 
 matters as ordinary people — ^largely, it must mournfully be 
 acknowledged, through their own fault. Many of them came 
 so frequently into close and friendly contact with factory clubs 
 and classes, with working women at creches and meetings, and 
 in their own homes, that if they had not deliberately neglected 
 the sources of information which lay ready to their hand, they 
 could not have retained their often astonishing ignorance of 
 their industrial friends' working Hves. 
 
 64. In some cases, from an idea of promoting loyalty to em- 
 ployers, in others from fear of lessening support of clubs and 
 institutions the welfare of which they have at heart, or from a 
 dread of causing unemployment or other trouble should they 
 listen to or follow up complaints, the majority of club leaders not 
 only invited no confidences which had reference to conditions of 
 work, but sometimes positively checked them. Moreover, 
 scarcely one, here or there, took the trouble to instruct herself 
 in the laws governing these conditions, with the result that 
 when appealed to by their girls on some question of illegal 
 employment or unhealthy surroimdings, wages below the 
 minimum rate in a Trade Board industry, or compensation for 
 
 *kSee Appendix II. 
 
32 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 accident, they were helpless to instruct or advise. Yet her 
 club leader was often the only educated woman interested in 
 her welfare to whom the working girl could go for counsel in 
 doubtful matters. 
 
 65. Thus was a great opportunity lost, because Church 
 workers intent on providing for the women and girls in whom 
 they were deeply interested, rest and refreshment, amusement 
 or instruction, outside their working hours, did not realise how 
 overwhelmingly large a part of the life of working people is 
 spent in their occupation, and how inevitably, the conditions 
 of that occupation colour and influence the mental and spiritual 
 outlook of the worker, while they determine whether her 
 physical hfe shall be long or short, healthy or suffering, pleasant 
 or miserable. It does not seem to have struck them how 
 important and deep-rooted were the moral questions involved. 
 The National Organisation of Girls' Clubs has been recently 
 endeavouring to retrieve this lost opportunity. 
 
 66. Towards another question of profound concern to working 
 women, their organisation as workers, the average Church 
 worker's attitude was often not merely indifferent, but un- 
 friendly. Trade unionism for women was a subject which 
 she not only failed to discuss, but swept aside disapprovingly. 
 Of the history of trade unionism, its place in the industrial 
 life of the nation, present and future, its importance in deter- 
 mining the relations between men and women as workers, she 
 generally knew nothing. This attitude is now changing. The 
 war has instructed the public on matters industrial up to a 
 certain point. But the instruction has been partial and one- 
 sided, often laying undue stress on problems which are only of 
 the hour, and ignoring those which are fundamental. The 
 Church worker of the future, if she is content to get her in- 
 dustrial training from the newspaper and the magazine, will be 
 little better qualified than in the past to act as the Church's 
 representative in counselling, guiding and leading the working 
 girl whose welfare and happiness she longs to promote, whose 
 interests she tries to serve. She must herself learn first what 
 industry is, what industry needs. 
 
 67. Means are no longer lacking to her. The Universities, up 
 and down the country, are offering courses of instruction, long 
 and short, varying from six months to two years, to women 
 who desire to qualify for Social Service. In these courses 
 the knowledge that may be gained from libraries, lectures and 
 classes is vivified and strengthened by practical work, bringing 
 the student into contact with the problems she is investigating 
 in their concrete and individual form. She passes from a 
 discussion of the question of the employment of married 
 women in factories to attendance at the Welfare Centre or 
 ordche ; from a lecture on juvenile employment to visits to 
 
THE LAITY AND SOCIAL SERVICE S3 
 
 the Juvenile Advisory or Choice of Employment Committee ; 
 from the study of a work on dangerous trades to visits on behalf 
 of the hospital almoner to a victim of lead poisoning or mutila- 
 tion by a dangerous machine. She can discover the powers and 
 the limitation of the Factory Acts by working herself for a cer- 
 tain period in a factory. Only by using these means will the 
 Church worker who desires to help in the solution of industrial 
 difficulties fit herself for her task. And not thus only. She 
 must know her workers from the industrial side. If in the past 
 she had done these two things, it would not so often have been 
 left to " unhallowed hands " to effect remedy of abuses in our 
 industrial system, nor to the experiments of a great war to 
 discover that a 12-hour factory day was too great a strain on 
 the powers of mothers of famihes, young girls, and thirteen- 
 year-old children who had obtained a Labour certificate. 
 
 68. Further, there must be willingness in the Church worker 
 to recognise that the day of patronage and class ascendancy is 
 over. Any leadership she may gain among industrial women 
 will be hers only because she has earned it by her wider know- 
 ledge, her sounder judgment, her patient sympathy, her 
 readiness to look facts in the face and abandon conventional 
 views. While she rightly holds that it is in the highest degree 
 desirable that married women with young families should not 
 be wage-earners, she must recognise that if their earnings put 
 them in a position to pay for competent care of their children 
 they are just as much justified in providing that care and 
 choosing outside work for themselves as the professional woman 
 or the woman of means who, although a mother, spends a large 
 part of her time on committees or in philanthropic work. Even 
 in advocating extended prohibition of wage-earning employ- 
 ment for mothers of infants, justice to the mother must not be 
 forgotten in care for the child. 
 
 69. The Church worker whose work lies among industrial 
 women and girls should, then, specialise in self-education. She 
 will be well advised to make her own training as long and com- 
 plete as she can — ^the provision of scholarships and maintenance 
 grants in connection with many of the University Training 
 Schemes will facilitate this — and while neglecting no opportunity 
 of increasing her knowledge and widening her outlook, she may 
 be counselled to devote particular attention to three subjects : — 
 
 (1) The conditions of factory and workshop life, and 
 their regulation by means of the Factory Acts, Truck Acts, 
 and Trade Board Acts. 
 
 (2) Trade Unionism— especially as it affects women, 
 the relation of organised women to organised men, and 
 the question how far the present unsatisfactory economic 
 position of women is due to their failure to organise. 
 
34 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 (3) Training in industry for women, technical education 
 and trade classes. An immediate opportunity for service 
 in this direction will occur in connection with the training 
 schemes for unemployed girls. 
 
 70. As regards all these questions, knowledge is power, and 
 ignorance is something more than weakness. We stand at 
 the parting of the ways where our national industry, with 
 the millions of men and women engaged in it, is concerned. 
 Bad counsel, indifference, prejudice, may be as fatal as ill-will 
 itself. Church workers cannot stand aside from judgment, 
 because the Church cannot stand aside. Industry and economics 
 cannot be treated as things apart from life, they are of the 
 stuff of life itself. The old way was easier, but it was the 
 wrong way, and has done incalculable harm to the Church 
 and the workers ahke. The new way is difficult and, maybe, 
 dangerous ; but we have learned of late that to live dangerously 
 is often the only way to live at all. 
 
 {d) Church Work, 
 
 71. We have said enough in the foregoing sections, to shew 
 the immense variety of the opportunities open to all who wish 
 to take some part in the service of the community. We should 
 like to emphasise this variety, and to urge that " Church work " 
 need not necessarily be confined to Sunday School teaching, or 
 work with Boy Scouts, valuable as both these are. We need a 
 little more imagination in enlisting the sympathies of laymen 
 and laywomen, who might be workers, and a little more dis- 
 crimination in alloting their work. In other words, we want 
 to take a new view of Church work if we are to induce able and 
 intelligent men and women of to-day to play their part. Many 
 who are not suitable for work among the young, or for work as 
 district visitors, would do admirable work on a Guild of Help 
 or a Citizens' Committee. Now, as never before, will men and 
 women alike be ready to engage in service for the Church, either 
 direct or indirect. But they must be given responsibility, and 
 scope for the exercise of their special gifts, gifts which, in many 
 cases, may require a course of training if they are to be fully 
 used. 
 
 72. There is, then, no " great gulf fixed " between Church 
 work and secular work, or between social work and Church 
 work. A Churchman or Churchwoman who is serving his 
 fellows is doing Church work, whether the actual machinery 
 through which he serves them is ecclesiastical or not. If this 
 is admitted a further vitally important consequence follows. 
 
 73. Most Churchmen will agree that the Church has inherited 
 a big responsibility towards all social effort. But a considerable 
 divergence of view is to be found when we begin to consider how 
 
THE LAITY AND SOCIAL SERVICE 35 
 
 that responsibility should be discharged. Ought the Church 
 to undertake social effort itself, adopting the methods of the 
 State to help its own members and them only, or should it 
 refrain from creating new organisations, and throw the whole 
 weight of its support behind the efforts of the State ? This is 
 a very pressing and practical question that must be carefully 
 considered. 
 
 74. It is true that the Church as an organised society ought 
 to feel a special responsibility towards its own members, and 
 use all modern methods available to the best of its ability. 
 But we are of opinion that the Church cannot be an 
 eclectic body, ignoring the needs of those outside its inner 
 circle. To organise social effort for a limited circle of those 
 attached to the Church, is not co-operation with the State ; 
 it is competition. Thrift, for instance, has been taken up by 
 certain parishes, but it has too often been the case that the 
 Church has started inefficient Slate Clubs of its own, instead of 
 supporting the well-organised Friendly Societies. The same 
 divergence is to be found in work among boys. We h^ve those 
 who consider that it is the Church's duty to have Cadet Corps 
 and Clubs limited to its own members ; while others, taking a 
 broader view, believe that the Church will more effectively influ- 
 ence the boy life of the district by supporting those organisations 
 which open their doors to all, whoever they may be. The former 
 claim that they secure a higher standard of devotion among the 
 few. That may be so. But it is equally true that, because of 
 this exclusiveness, the Church has failed to have any influence 
 whatever upon those outside the select circle. It is too often 
 true that in such work the Church is regarded as a self-centred 
 competitor, rather than as a body which is ready to co-operate 
 in work that reaches a wider circle. We believe that the Church 
 must co-operate, not compete, with the State, and that it must 
 accept the responsibility for the fullest social welfare, not 
 merely of a select few, but of the whole community. 
 
 75. There must, of course, be no sense of patronage. Church- 
 men of leisure are advised to take part in clubs, etc., remem- 
 bering that the Church embraces all classes. The true Christian 
 spirit is sympathy, and that implies the finest tact. How often 
 do the kindest people offend by the mere fact that their tone 
 assumes superiority ! The spirit of the Church is Brotherhood 
 and Equality. Some of the best-intentioned people — most 
 anxious to help their less fortunate fellows — ^just miss that 
 spirit. They want to give of their best, but they just fail to 
 hit the mark, because they cannot forget themselves and their 
 own more fortunate position. They feel for, but not with, 
 their poorer brethren. 
 
 76. If men of leisure are willing to join working-men's clubs, 
 they must, therefore, absolutely forget themselves if they are 
 
36 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 really to enter into them. They must just be their natural 
 selves without any feeling of difference, and only so can they, as 
 Churchmen, show the true spirit of the Apostles. 
 
 77. We have spoken of Church work in the widest sense, and 
 of the variety of the opportunities open to laymen and lay- 
 women desiring to undertake social service. We must now 
 say something in conclusion with regard to the professional 
 Church worker. 
 
 {e) Lay Readers. 
 
 78. One such class is that of Lay Readers. The organisation 
 of these is only gradually taking shape. The full-time stipendiary 
 Reader has not always been a very popular or successful worker. 
 He has been very badly paid, and it has been difficult to give 
 him sufficient status and sufficiently interesting and definite 
 work to attract or hold the class of man who should be aimed at. 
 It is possible that the term " lay reader " has mihtated against 
 his success, as suggesting that the professional lay worker's 
 chief task is the preaching of sermons, or the reading of lessons, 
 or prayers. We certainly hold that it would be most unfortu- 
 nate to confine the work of such professional lay workers to 
 tasks of this kind, a Hmitation which in itself suggests that lay 
 workers act as a sort of clerical understudy. We believe that 
 a well-trained lay worker might be of untold usefulness in 
 certain large parishes as secretary to the parish, receiving a 
 really adequate salary and being entrusted with the general 
 business organisation of the parish, managing the accounts, 
 co-ordinating the various parish organisations from the business 
 point of view, acting as secretary to the Parochial Church 
 Council, or Director of Social Service in the ParisTi, and in a 
 score of ways relieving the clergy on the administrative side of 
 their work. Indeed, such a trained lay secretary, with a definite 
 place in the parochial organisation, would, for the purposes 
 described, suit many a parish better than an additional assis- 
 tant curate. 
 
 79. At present provision is made for training lay readers in 
 the Church Training College for Lay Workers, Stepney. We 
 understand, however, that no systematic training in social 
 work has hitherto been given, owing to the shortness of the 
 period of training, which is limited to one year. We 
 strongly urge that this period should be lengthened. A 
 scheme of training should be thought out which would 
 enable lay readers to become real experts in certain matters 
 of social knowledge. They might be specially trained for 
 definite pieces of work with clubs, or with schools, or other 
 activities not too narrowly confined to the Church. We sug- 
 gest that it is at least as important that full-time lay 
 workers, or lay readers, should have some training in social 
 
THE LAITY AND SOCIAL SERVICE 37 
 
 science, as that the clergy should have it. We recommend, 
 therefore, that every full-time lay reader, or lay worker, before 
 being licensed by the Bishop of any Diocese, should produce 
 satisfactory evidence of having gone through a course of social 
 study. 
 
 (/) Church Workers (Women). 
 
 80. If women's work for the Church is to take a larger and 
 more responsible place in the future, certain drastic reforms are 
 necessary. It is clear that women are more suitable than men 
 in many branches of parochial work, and that a parish might 
 be better served with fewer clergy and more whole-time salaried 
 women workers. We have had some information as to new 
 developments in various parishes, ^vith a view to giving trained 
 women Church workers greater responsibility. In Appendix III. 
 will be found an account of a parish, in which women of educa- 
 tion, who have received training, are largely used at suitable 
 salaries. But such work, and such a position, require a very 
 thorough preparation, and this has been much neglected in the 
 past. 
 
 81. No one has hitherto been really responsible for the over- 
 sight of women's work. It is, therefore, advisable to have a 
 Diocesan Board for this purpose, such as exists in London and 
 Southwark. Such a Board would approach the Diocesan 
 Board of Finance, in order that grants may be available for 
 bursaries for training. Further, all women who are taking up 
 whole-time salaried work in the Diocese, and who are maintained 
 by grants from Diocesan funds, should be interviewed by the 
 Board. A period should be set, after which no fresh worker 
 should be eligible for diocesan grants, who has not been trained 
 for her work. A Board of Women's Work should not only set 
 a standard of efficiency, but should also concern itself with the 
 standard of salaries and the conditions of work. Both are in 
 need of reform. 
 
 82. We feel that it is essential that the salaries of Church 
 workers should be largely increased if any improvement in the 
 type of women who will give their lives to it is to be expected. 
 Only if a wage which can be called sufficient is paid, can we 
 press workers to be trained. We feel, further, that it is essential 
 that there should be some security of tenure ; that is to say, 
 that there should be greater certainty, if trained Church workers 
 go to a parish, that they will be able to continue the work that 
 they have begun. 
 
 83. It is hardly too much to say that at present there seems 
 to be no ideal of training, though much good work has been 
 done in various directions. For women of secondary education, 
 a two-year residential course is provided in certain training 
 centres, notably at St. Andrew's Home, Portsmouth, and the 
 
38 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Rochester and Southwark Deaconesses' Institution, Clapham 
 Common, London, S.W. Both are under deaconesses. But it 
 is felt that a two-year» course might not cover the whole need, 
 and the metropolitan dioceses are therefore working out a 
 scheme, under which students may bring certificates, or 
 diplomas, for special work (e.g.^ kindergarten diplomas. Charity 
 Organisation Society Certificates, theological certificates and 
 degrees), and become authorised workers without residential 
 training. A day students' course is also being arranged. It is 
 probable that a small central examining Board will soon be 
 established for the three metropolitan dioceses. 
 
 Women who have been trained should be recommended to 
 the Bishop of the Diocese for recognition, and on taking up 
 work in the Diocese they should be duly licensed, as in the case 
 of the assistant clergy or deaconesses. 
 
 Training would naturally vary according to the nature of the 
 work to Jbe undertaken, but a sound grounding in theology 
 and modem social work is indispensable in practically all 
 branches of Church work. 
 
 An effort is being made to start a Central Church Training 
 College 16 train women for the service of the Church and public 
 service, but progress is slow at present owing to lack of funds. 
 It would supply a great need, and it would be grievous if the 
 present opportunity were lost. 
 
 " Mission women " and " mission sisters " almost invariably 
 receive a free training under the Church Army, Bryanston 
 Street, London, W., or under the Ranyard Mission, Russell 
 Square, London, W.C. These and similar societies do not, 
 however, seem to meet the whole need, and money would be 
 well spent in developing a training centre for women of elemen- 
 tary education who wish to offer their services for direct Church 
 work. 
 
 {g) A Suggested Course of Training, 
 
 84. We have already said that training would naturally vary 
 according to the nature of the work to be undertaken. But it 
 may be of use, in concluding this section, to give some account 
 of a particular course of training which has already proved 
 valuable. 
 
 85. Ideally, the training of any Church worker should be of 
 two years' duration. In all probability, this is impossible to 
 carry out at present, though it should be the aim of the Church 
 to render it possible. Consequently, we will only consider here 
 a one-year course of training. This should include two parts : 
 (a) the Theoretical Course ; and (b) the Practical Course. 
 
 86. The Theoretical Course would include attendance at 
 lectures, and reading. There is a difference of opinion as to 
 whether the Theoretical or the Practical should come first. 
 
THE PARISH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 39 
 
 Lectures, for the most part, commence in October, and if it is 
 desirable that students should have some practical experience 
 before they start the year's course, they might begin their work 
 in the month of September, and devote the whole of September 
 to practical social work of a general character. In those towns, 
 or cities, where there is a good Charity Organisation Society, 
 or Guild of Help, Committee the preliminary month's training 
 might be carried out at the Committee's office. The October 
 term would be devoted to lectures and reading, together with a 
 certain amount of practical work. The Lent term would include 
 some practical work and fewer lectures. The Summer term 
 would embrace still more practical work and fewer lectures, and 
 in this term the practical work should be of a definitely 
 specialised character — such as Infant Welfare, Boys' and Girls' 
 Clubs, Tuberculosis work. Children's Care and After-Care. 
 
 87. These arrangements will, of course, have to be made in 
 accordance with the courses which are in existence in the 
 various towns where training schemes are in force. 
 
 V. 
 
 THE PARISH AND SOCIAL SERVICE, 
 
 (a) The Christian Community. 
 
 (b) Parochial Church Councils, 
 
 (c) Co-operation, t, 
 
 (d) Civic Councils of Social Service. 
 
 (e) Interdenominational Councils of Social Service. 
 
 (f) The Parochial Area. 
 
 (a) The Christian Community. 
 
 SS. We have, up to the present, considered the attitude which 
 the clergy. Church workers and Churchmen generally should 
 adopt towards social enterprises. A further question arises ; 
 Is it right for a parish in its corporate capacity to co-operate 
 with the State in its work of Social amelioration ? If so, can it 
 do it effectively ? 
 
 We do not think that there will be much doubt about the 
 answer to the first question. We have already pointed out 
 that Churchmen must reahse their responsibility towards 
 all social effort. If this is true of all individual members 
 of the Church, then it is clear that they must feel the same 
 responsibility in their corporate capacity as a Christian com- 
 munity. The Church must be the source of inspiration for 
 all generous and honourable effort in every parish. It should 
 be the interpreter and pattern of the best — that is, the most 
 abimdant — hfe. It should be the leader in aU true social progress; 
 It should realise that, inasmuch as it is the Temple of the Holy 
 
40 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Spirit of wisdom and fellowship, it is its duty and privilege to 
 co-operate in solving the social problems, and in creating in the 
 district such a sense of fellowship as will make progress possible. 
 
 89. But it may well be asked : Can a parish do this ? We 
 believe that it can, but only if it approaches the task as a parish 
 — i.e.y in a definitely organised character. It has been the too 
 frequent lack of even elementary organisation, or co-ordination, 
 among the individual officers of the Church in a given area, that 
 has, unhappily, often given a bad name to the Church's attempts 
 at " social work," and especially to the work of relief. But we 
 believe that something more is required than the co-ordination 
 of clergyand workers, as individuals, however expert the auspices 
 under which they work. We believe that the help of the 
 ordinar}^ lay Church members must be enlisted, and that 
 minister and people together, as a single community, must 
 recognise their common responsibility for the needs, physical, 
 moral, spiritual of their fellow-parishioners — that is, of all the 
 men, women, and children living in their parish. This, indeed, 
 is implicit, as has already been indicated, in the whole parochial 
 system of the Church of England. Thus it has been aptly said 
 by one who has had much to do both with ordinary Poor Law 
 administration and with general Church Social Work : — 
 
 ' ' Every resident in the parochial area, regardless of denom- 
 inational preference, has claims on the Church, because the 
 Catholic Church is responsible for the well-being of all those 
 entrusted to its care. . . . The Christian Faith teaches that 
 the care of souls carries with it the ' care of bodies,' because 
 they are temples of the Holy Spirit ; if a child with phthisical 
 tendencies suffers through overcrowding or lack of appropriate 
 treatment, the Church has failed in its duty ; if through lack 
 of proper nourishment a nursing mother develops alcoholism, 
 the Church stands condemned ; if a child's career is jeopardised 
 or marred by reason of irregular attendance at school, the 
 Church has failed in its care of one of the Lord's brethren ; if a 
 baby's life is sacrificed because the mother is left destitute of 
 ante-natal treatment, the Church is to blame ; if a boy going to 
 work succumbs to evil influences in factory or worlcshop, the 
 Church is responsible ; it may be that to its permanent discredit 
 a soldier and servant of Christ has proved faithless and craven." 
 (Report of St. Mary, Lambeth, Parochial Relief Committee for 
 1916, p. 20). 
 
 {b) Parochial Church Councils. 
 
 90. How then, we may ask, can the members of the particular 
 Parish Church be so organised, as to give practical effect to their 
 responsibihty for the welfare of their fellow-parishioners ? 
 How, in other words, can they see that every agency, which can 
 help forward those committed to their care, is used to the 
 
 i 
 
THE PARISH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 41 
 
 fullest possible extent, and that the Christian spirit, inherent 
 in all forms of social organisation, is strengthened and developed? 
 
 91. We frankly admit that we see no way in which this can be 
 done, unless the Parish possesses a Parochial Church Council 
 which can express the opinion of the Church, and which can 
 organise and direct its activities. This is, we believe, the 
 foundation of the whole plan ; and fortunately the means for 
 setting it on foot lie ready to our hand. 
 
 92. Under the new Constitution * of the " National Assembly 
 of the Church of England," adopted by the Representative 
 Church Council in February, 1919, it is provided that every 
 parish shall have a Parochial Church Council, elected annually 
 by the Parochial Church Meeting — i.e., by all baptised Church- 
 men and Churchwomen over 18 years of age, who signify their 
 wish to have their names entered on the electoral roll. This 
 means that before long every Parish in England will have a 
 Church Council, which will be able to express the opinion of the 
 Church in the parish, and will be charged with important 
 responsibilities for the parish as a whole. Further, the 
 " Enabling Bill " t has now passed through both Houses of 
 Parliament, and one of the first tasks to be performed by the 
 National Assembly is the conferring upon the Parochial Church 
 Councils of statutory powers, to be determined by the Assembly. 
 
 93. At the present moment a large number of town parishes 
 (and certain rural parishes) already possess some kind of Church 
 Council. But, as things are, we find that, except in a very few 
 cases, they confine their attention to matters relating to finance, 
 ecclesiastical organisation, and, sometimes, to details of worship. 
 We do not criticise their value. Far from it. But we believe 
 that much more could be done : and indeed, that the larger 
 franchise, under which the new Church Councils will be elected, 
 is itself a sign of, and a call for, a larger interpretation of the 
 Councils' duties. 
 
 94. The organisation of the Church's life, for example, need 
 not be limited to purely ecclesiastical matters, but might include 
 the work of co-operating with existing social agencies, and of 
 initiating fresh effort to meet neglected needs. It is quite true 
 that many clergy are trying Xo discharge this responsibility 
 themselves. We think that they would be wise if they put the 
 responsibility on to the Church Councils. A Priest who has been 
 most energetic in social work in a parish, in one of our big 
 provincial towns, writes as follows : " It never entered my head 
 to refer all outside matters to the Church Council — i.e., all those 
 things that come clamouring for a vicar's support. It would 
 
 * National Assembly of the Church of England, Constitution and Bules for the 
 Representation of the Laity (1919). S.P.C.K. 6d. 
 
 t Received the Royal Assent on December 23rd, 1919, as Chuicb of England 
 Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 6. ch. 76). 
 
42 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 have been much more sensible if I had done so." We agree 
 with his view. For we believe not only that the importance of 
 the Parochial Church Council would be enhanced in the eyes of 
 the laymen by undertaking such effort, but that the Church as a 
 whole would gain a wider influence in the general life of the town 
 or village, and be more fully recognised as a force making for the 
 wise and sympathetic handling of the local problems. Further, 
 the Church Council, like all representative bodies, must have 
 an experimental stage, and it is clear that its educational value 
 alone, as well as its attractiveness, must be considerably im- 
 proved, if it is understood to include within its operations not 
 merely matters of ecclesiastical routine, but the whole social 
 welfare of the community. 
 
 95. We have said that there are exceptions to the general 
 custom by which Parochial Church Councils deal only or chiefly 
 with ecclesiastical matters. We are glad to notice that the 
 Diocesan Regulations of the Diocese of London (1919) contain 
 the following important directions : — 
 
 " The Parochial Church Council constituted under the ' Con- 
 stitutions and Rules ' should include in its functions and 
 operations : I. Evangelisation : (a) at home, (b) abroad ; 
 II. Social Service : (a) Temperance, (b) Purity, (c) Health, 
 (d) Housing ; III. Hospitahty and Fellowship ; IV. Assistance ; 
 V. Work among children and young people." 
 
 These directions might well be followed outride the particular 
 diocese to which they specially apply. In large urban parishes 
 it may be desirable to form special committees of the Council 
 for these purposes, with power to co-opt ; but in any case it 
 would be well for the Council to consider such purposes as 
 included in its normal functions. 
 
 96. We . recommend, therefore, that the Parochial Church 
 Councils, now to be formed in accordance with the Constitu- 
 tion of the National Assembly of the Church of England in 
 every parish, should include, as one of their main duties, an 
 active responsibihty for the health, the education, the recreation 
 and the general hfe of the whole community. 
 
 97. As to the actual methods to be followed by the Parochial 
 Church Council in discharging this general responsibility, we do 
 not feel that we can lay down any rigid scheme or plan. Local 
 circumstances must vary a good deal. Some parishes may find 
 it possible and desirable to undertake systematic relief work on a 
 large scale, and a Report of valuable work done on these lines in 
 a South London Parish will be found in Appendix IV. jB., a 
 Report to which we invite the most careful attention. Other 
 parishes may employ a single trained social worker as secretary 
 of the Church Council (or its special Social Service Committee) ; 
 and a trained lay secretary, in many instances, may prove of 
 inestimable value as the Director of social service and study in 
 
THE PARISH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 43 
 
 the parish, corresponding to the Director of Social Studies in 
 the Diocese.* Others, again, may use the special Social Service 
 Committee of the Church Council as a kind of Committee of 
 Public Welfare, working on an entirely voluntary basis, which 
 would undertake inquiries into specific social questions, organise 
 the education and policy of the parish, work up study circles, 
 arrange for friendly visiting where necessary, and generally 
 stimulate personal service and promote such new effort to meet 
 local needs as may seem advisable. 
 
 98. In brief, what we are urging is the active recognition of 
 the general responsibilities of the Church, through its Church 
 Council, for the welfare of the people of the whole parish ; and 
 the principle which we would enforce is this, that whether the 
 larger part of the actual administrative work is done by a 
 special staff of workers or not, or under the direction of th^ 
 Church Council, or a special committee of the Church Council, 
 it should all be looked upon as the work and responsibility of 
 the Church members as a body. 
 
 (c) Co-operation. 
 
 99. Thus the Parochial Church Council is the representative 
 assembly of the co-operative commonwealth of Churchpeople 
 in each parish. And it will endeavour to co-operate with all 
 agencies. State or voluntary, existing. in its neighbourhood for 
 the development of human life and character. 
 
 100. The Parochial Church Council, therefore, represents 
 the Church in its own particular area, and we trust that it 
 will endeavour to give all the assistance it can to other organisa- 
 tions definitely working for the social welfare of the community 
 in that area. As the Church is a co-operative society viewed 
 from the point of view of internal relationships between its 
 own members, so it must also be a co-operative society viewed 
 from the point of view of other societies touching it at different 
 points. We may surely look to the Parochial Church Council 
 to put 'the Church workers of the parish -.t tlie disposal of the 
 community to give effect to recent social legislation as well as 
 to the charitable efforts of private societies and agencies existing 
 in the parish. 
 
 101. For example, we should like to see the parish nurse 
 recognised as the official health visitor for that particular area, 
 and the Church worker recognising his, or her, responsibility 
 for the children of the parish, by serving on the local Care Com- 
 mittee. Here too, it seems to us, our help would be both 
 useful and welcome. As is stated in the Annual Report of the 
 Medical Officer of the Local Government Board for 1917-1918 : 
 " The saving of life and the improvement of health of the com- 
 munity — so far as these are controllable by communal action — 
 
 * See p. 20. 
 
 D 2 
 
44 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 must depend in the main on the efficiency of the work of the 
 various local authorities of the country. These local authorities, 
 if their full possibilities of success are to be realised, must secure 
 the assistance of the many voluntary agencies and workers in 
 their area who are concerned in attending to the sick, in reliev- 
 ing poverty and distress, and in influencing pubHc opinion in 
 favour of strenuous work for the health of the community."* 
 
 (d) Civic Councils of Social Service. 
 
 102. Again, the Parochial Church Council should, we think, 
 give all possible assistance to the new councils of Social Service 
 which are now gradually being set up in different localities, 
 both urban and rural, in connection with the National Council of 
 Social Service. These local Councils consist of representatives 
 of the public bodies and voluntary agencies engaged in social 
 work in the district, and a certain number of co-opted members, 
 with the Mayor for the time being as President. We trust that 
 among these voluntary agencies Church organisations, if not 
 the Churches themselves, will find formal representation. The 
 general object of these Councils is to secure for those living in 
 the particular town or village " the full benefit of social legis- 
 lation and other administrative measures (public and voluntary) 
 for their welfare." According to the official literature, amongst 
 its other functions, the Council for a large town will seek — 
 
 " (a) To promote the systematic organisation of voluntary 
 social work in the town with a view to securing both the co- 
 ordination of the voluntary agencies and also their co-operation 
 with the official bodies engaged in the same sphere of work. . . . 
 
 " (fe) To secure the provision of an organised body of visitors 
 able to undertake on behalf of the town friendly visiting and 
 other forms of personal service in social work, where such do not 
 exist. — (Note. — This provision will probably involve the setting 
 up of District Committees)." 
 
 103. We believe that the Parochial Church Council could 
 within its own area render invaluable service in the directions 
 thus indicated and similar directions, and that it might provide 
 the nucleus, at any rate, of a band of workers undertaking duties 
 which bring them into the homes of the people, embodying 
 experience, knowledge of conditions of life, of character, of 
 resources, and of difficulties. We have thus, as it seems to us, 
 a great opportunity of putting our Church system into direct 
 and immediate use in the social movement of our generation. t 
 
 (e) Interdenominational Councils of Social Service. 
 
 104. In the foregoing section we have spoken of the relation- 
 ship between the Parochial Church Council and the civic 
 
 ♦ Annual Report of the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board for 
 1917-18. Cmd. 9168. Page xiv. 
 t See Appendix IV., C, for the constitution of a Civic Council of Social Service. 
 
THE PARISH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 45 
 
 Councils of Social Service. There is, however, another kind of 
 Social Council which has an importance of its own. We 
 refer to the Interdenominational Social Councils of which we 
 have already spoken in an earlier chapter.* These ^Councils 
 contain representatives of the different Christian denominations, 
 and include Anglicans, Roman Catholics and Free Churchmen. 
 Their objects may be defined as : — 
 
 (i.) To promote the Kingdom of God : 
 
 (a) By informing and rousing the conscience of 
 Christian people in regard to social questions ; and 
 
 (b) By upholding the Christian ideals of personal life 
 and of human relationship. 
 
 (ii.) To give open and united expression to the convictions of 
 the whole Christian community on social and moral questions. 
 
 (iii.) To give support to any movement which, in the judgment 
 of the Council, are calculated to promote the physical, moral, 
 and social welfare of the citizens. 
 
 105. They are, therefore, on a definitely Christian basis ; 
 and they should include, in addition to clergy, representative 
 employers, trade unionists, co-operators, professional men and 
 women, educationists, etc., who wish to approach the whole 
 question of the common good from a Christian point of view. 
 A good many of these Councils are already in existence. 
 Naturally their exact methods differ according to local circum- 
 stances. In some cases they are already doing the work which 
 the civic Councils of Social Service are doing elsewhere. In 
 other cases they form a Council of Christian Witness whose 
 business it is to bring the influence of all the Christian Churches 
 to bear on civic life generally, and from time to time on some 
 particular problem or crisis of the day. We earnestly hope that 
 where such Councils are not already in existence they may be 
 speedily formed, and that members of the Church of England 
 should take the fullest possible part in them and do all they can, 
 together with the Roman Catholics and Free Churchmen, to 
 secure that the efforts of all who call themselves Christians may 
 be directed to a single end.f 
 
 (/) The Parochial Area. 
 
 106. There is one further point on which we wish to say 
 something in connection with the Parochial Church Council, and 
 that is the size of the parochial area. There is little doubt that, 
 where the parochial area is of substantial size, the opportunity 
 open to the Church is greatly increased. We believe that the 
 present tendency to subdivide parishes into smaller parishes is, 
 in the long run, not beneficial to the Church's influence, or rather 
 the Church's power of service ; and that while Churchpeople in 
 
 * See p. 28. 
 
 t For particulars of an Interdenominational Social Council see Appendix IV., D, 
 
46 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 a particular locality may perhaps receive a certain stimulus, not 
 necessarily permanent, through the formation of a new parish, 
 the Church's power of service in the community as a whole is 
 seriously weakened. To take an example. A hundred years 
 ago the ecclesiastical parish of Lambeth stretched from Lambeth 
 Bridge to the Crystal Palace, and the Church in Lambeth, in 
 the person of its Rector and Churchwardens, counted for a great 
 deal in all civic matters. To-day the old parish of Lambeth is 
 divided into twenty-nine ecclesiastical parishes, and the influ- 
 ence of the Church as a social force in Lambeth as a whole is con- 
 siderably diminished. The area of the old parish is still the area 
 of the present Borough of Lambeth, and the area also of the pre- 
 sent Board of Guardians. We suggest that the Church's oppor- 
 tunities for doing effective social work would be very greatly 
 increased if the parochial area were large rather than small ; 
 and if the boundaries of the ecclesiastical parish were as a 
 general rule identical with the boundaries of the area of local 
 government, so that the Church's administration could be on 
 the same large scale as the civil administration. We say 
 nothing of the many advantages which might accrue from the 
 point of view of provision for public worship — ^for this lies 
 outside our terms of reference — ^but it is obvious that the 
 Church could do far more for the education, recreation, health 
 and general welfare of those entrusted to it as its parishioners 
 if its authority and organisation were concentrated in a single 
 representative — e.g., a single Rector with his Church Council 
 behind him — ^than where the authority and organisation are 
 dissipated over a dozen or score of independent incumbents 
 (or even more) and their separate congregations. We suggest, 
 therefore, that the future policy of the Church should be not 
 the subdivision of existing parishes, but the reunion of parishes 
 already divided, and the union of benefices, particularly in 
 country districts, on a large scale : the object to be aimed at 
 in such reunion or union being the vesting of the real re- 
 sponsibility for all the churches in the given area in a single 
 person who would have a genuine and decisive, but con- 
 stitutional, control in each Church included in the area. This 
 area, in order, as a general rule, to be the same as the area of 
 local government, might be the Borough or the County Borough 
 or the area of the Rural District Council. 
 
 107. We have given the Rector as an example of the single 
 representative or authority because we think that the system 
 of the single parish with a single Rector the most effective 
 system. We appreciate the difficulty, of securing union of 
 benefices on a large scale, and we realise that actual union might 
 take some time.* We are of opinion, therefore, that our object 
 
 ♦ Large use might, however, be made at once of the Union of Benefices Act, 1919. 
 See antea, p. 22. , 
 
RURAL PROBLEMS— A NOTE 47 
 
 might be partly met (1) if the rural deanery were to be taken as 
 the unit, both in town and country, (2) if the boundaries of the 
 rural deaneries were adjusted so as to coincide with definite areas 
 of local government (or the Borough, County Borough or Rural 
 District), and (3) if the Rural Dean were to be given exactly the 
 same decisive control in each Church in that area as we have 
 predicated above for the Rector of the single united parish. 
 We feel bound to add that in this case it is desirable that the 
 office of Rural Dean should be assigned, as a matter of course, 
 to the Vicar or Rector of the most important parish in the area, 
 and that in appointing the Vicar or Rector of that parish the 
 qualifications necessary for the office of Rural Dean should be 
 kept in view. 
 
 ' ^ 108. Finally, we say all this fully realising that such a policy 
 would not and should not be carried out without making 
 adequate provision (a) for a system of " sub-rectors " or " vice- 
 rectors " or " curates-in-charge," with certain definite con- 
 ditions as to tenure of office ; (b) for a general improvement in 
 the status of assistant curates ; and (c) for the removal or 
 retirement of Rectors who are ineffective or past their work, 
 together with (d) an adequate system of pensions. 
 
 VL 
 RURAL PROBLEMS— A NOTE* 
 
 (a) The Needs of Country Life. 
 
 (b) The Opportunities of Rural Clergy and Laity. 
 
 (c) The Village a Community. 
 
 (a) The Needs of Country Life. 
 109. We have from time to time referred to the rural con- 
 ditions in the section dealing with the training of the clergy. 
 We have endeavoured to indicate the necessity of special 
 training for those of them whose work will lie in country dis- 
 tricts. We feel that at the present moment it is very important 
 that all classes of Churchpeople should carefully consider the 
 needs of country hfe, and endeavour to fit themselves to co- 
 operate efficiently with the increasing efforts of the less fortunate 
 for social improvement. It has become a commonplace that 
 the exodus from country to town must be arrested, and that 
 every endeavour must be made to secure that fife in the 
 village should become as attractive, on healthier lines, as it is 
 in the town. In the past, the low rate of wages, the deficiency of 
 
 * A fuller treatment of this subject, with particular reference to the training 
 of the clergy and others in co-operation in social matters, will be found in the 
 forthcoming Report of the Archbishops' Committee on Christianity and Rural 
 Problems (S.P.C.K., 1920). 
 
48 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 houses, the bad accommodation in the houses that did exist, and 
 the want of any corporate recreation in the villages have 
 combined to make it not only usual, but almost inevitable, for 
 young men and young women as they grow up to leave the villages 
 in which they were born. Various efforts are now being 
 made to revive country life. For the first time the wages of 
 agricultural labourers have been raised so considerably that 
 they offer an opportunity of reasonable living. Agricultural 
 Wages Boards, with their County Committees, now fix a minimum 
 wage for every man, woman and child employed in agriculture 
 throughout the country. Agricultural labourers are being 
 organised by trade unions, and it is important that while 
 organisation should be encouraged, a right spirit in the move- 
 ment should be developed. It should also be recognised by 
 Churchpeople that it is their duty amidst all these material 
 changes to press for opportunity for mental and spiritual 
 development. 
 
 110. In the past, Rural Benefit Societies have done very much 
 to help the labourers, and here the official representatives of 
 the Church seem almost wilfully to have dissociated themselves 
 from a movement which had for its object increased inde- 
 pendence, self-reliance, and mutual help. Much could have 
 been done by the clergy to encourage the friendly societies which 
 have now been established in the villages for nearly a century. 
 Schoolrooms, parish-rooms, or rooms in the vicarages could have 
 been lent, in which meetings might have been held instead of 
 in the public-houses. The latter have generally become the 
 home of the village friendly society because they alone were 
 prepared to place large rooms at the disposal of the men free of 
 charge. The ritual of the old Orders of the Foresters, Odd- 
 fellows, etc., was religious in character ; yet, though most of 
 the members were Churchmen, and the avowed objects seem 
 the natural outcome of thought based on Christian teaching, 
 the only link between the friendly societies and the Church as 
 such would appear to have been a service in church, held for 
 them, possibly, on the occasion of an annual function. But 
 times have now changed. The Old Age Pensions Act, the 
 National Insurance Act, with its sickness, maternity and sana- 
 torium benefits, have placed upon a State footing what was 
 originally the work of the men themselves. 
 
 111. A question has been asked *. " What is likely to be the 
 result of all this provision by the State and the comparatively 
 high wages ? Are these men likely to be more thrifty, better 
 disposed towards each other, and, in effect, better citizens ? " 
 It is not too much to say that everything depends on the 
 moral outlook of those who become their intellectual leaders. 
 
 112. In many of the old friendly societies the original spirit 
 is not yet dead. In the villages there is more hope of their 
 
RURAL PROBLEMS— A NOTE 49 
 
 survival than in the towns. In the smaller area the moral 
 control of the small community, the greater knowledge and sym- 
 pathy between the neighbours, together with expert guidance, 
 enabled the village society to remain a great power for good. 
 Guidance, however, must be entirely divorced from patronage. 
 The time has passed when the villagers are prepared to accept 
 the domination of either the squire or the parson. The young 
 men who have been taken off the land to fight their country's 
 battles and are now returning to their villages have a wider 
 outlook, a larger knowledge of Ufe, than would have otherwise 
 fallen to their lot. Most of them probably, are anxious for an 
 open-air Hfe. They have heard much from the men with whom 
 they have mixed from Canada, AustraUa, New Zealand, and 
 South Africa, of the greater freedom of life in the Colonies. If 
 they are to remain in the villages they will want to have a say 
 in the management of the village. They will want themselves 
 to take part in the arrangements not only of the unions, the 
 benefit society and the co-operative society, but in the estab- 
 lishment of village clubs, where a reasonable recreation can be 
 obtained. 
 
 (b) The Opportunities of Rural Clergy and Laity. 
 
 113. The clergy can do much to help in all the new departures 
 which better wages and better conditions and shorter hours 
 will make possible in the village. Village housing is deplorable ; 
 the clergy have acquiesced in it too long. They must press 
 on the new housing schemes required under the recent legisla- 
 tion. They can also do much to encourage the men and the 
 women to consider political and industrial questions, and to 
 learn to think solidly and reasonably about them. One of 
 the most urgent needs for the labourer, it has been stated, 
 is to learn self-government, to run a candidate for every local 
 body, the parish council, school management, the urban 
 district council, even the county council. The labourers in 
 the past have had no means of making their opinions felt or of 
 getting proper representation. The clergy can guide them 
 by training speakers, by arranging for a Study Band or Class, 
 by seeing that they get a knowledge of facts — and the sort of 
 facts which tell — and that as far as possible there is a village 
 library containing books of all sorts, to which they have every 
 access. In the Parish Magazines the clergy could do much to 
 encourage discussion ; to point out books on subjects of the 
 day, and to make themselves really intellectual leaders in their 
 villages. 
 
 114. They can do much to stimulate the appetite for educa- 
 tion in its widest sense ; to help groups of villagers to study 
 problems of various kinds, of national and international recon- 
 struction, of agriculture and rural life, to teach them something 
 
50 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 of the glory of literature, or the beauty of music, or to encourage 
 the study and practice of the drama as a way of popular 
 recreation and self-expression. But, of course, all this means 
 that the clergy must be living men themselveSj and ready to 
 take infinite trouble to be, all the time, listeners and 
 learners. 
 
 115. It is not, however, only the men who have to be con- 
 sidered. The dullness of village life has weighed heavily upon 
 the women of the community. During the war the urgent need 
 for household economy and increased agricultural production 
 made the way ready for the introduction of Women's Institutes, 
 the permanent objects of which are summarised as " providing 
 a centre for educational and social intercourse and for all 
 local activities." The movement originated in Canada twenty- 
 five years ago, and there seems every prospect of some such 
 organisation becoming a permanent feature of English village 
 life. Their scope includes not only simple instruction in 
 domestic economy and hygiene, — ^the welfare of children and 
 social entertainments, but political and industrial questions 
 are discussed, new laws and statutory obligations and powers 
 are explained by trained lecturers and other competent persons. 
 A constant effort is made to lessen the drudgery of household 
 cares by the discussion of better methods of housewifery and 
 to give the newly enfranchised voters opportunities of learning 
 how to exercise their new powers. Experience shows that 
 they are very eager to obtain this practical knowledge. 
 
 116. For the purposes of this Report, it is well to notice that 
 the clergy were not officially called upon to co-operate in the 
 initiation of the Institutes in England, which are democratic in 
 constitution and undenominational in character. The call at 
 the outset was to persons of goodwill — patriots first and fore- 
 most, Christians, as it were, by accident. It is significant that 
 a great movement for the benefit of women and the betterment 
 of country life of set purpose, should be promoted, as it were, 
 in complete independence of the Church. 
 
 117. But it is not only the clergy who must take their part in 
 this. Churchpeople generally can co-operate by making them- 
 selves acquainted with State action first, and showing a width 
 of knowledge which will lead the people to come for advice and 
 for help, whether the question is compensation, increase of 
 wages, illegal hours of employment, unhealthy surroundings, 
 trade union organisation, or the establishment of co-operation 
 in agriculture ; and they must co-operate because Christianity 
 requires ^that they should be ready to give their best to their 
 neighbours. 
 
 "^llS.^In agricultural matters the Church can co-operate~with 
 the State after learning what the State is doing, by thinking 
 lyhat it can do further, and by planning how it should do what- 
 
RURAL PROBLEMS— A NOTE 51 
 
 ever is necessary : and the Church can look at any progress from 
 the standpoint of the ideal rather than the material. It must 
 never be Apposed that the country people do not think — 
 that they are wanting in spiritual and intellectual capacity. 
 They may be less articulate than the townsmen : they are 
 under less intellectual stimulus ; but they have, in fact, a 
 shrewd and true critical power. They think, possibly, more 
 slowly, but perhaps also more solidly, and, with the greater 
 leisure which they will now have, there is every chance of their 
 getting greater opportunities of self-development. Under the 
 new Education Act, continuation schools will be required in 
 the country as in the towns. There will be enormous oppor- 
 tunities for the development of education arising from that one 
 fact alone ; for the continuation schools need not be limited to 
 the boys and girls, who will be by law compelled to attend. 
 There are many problems of rural education to be solved. 
 Not the least difficult is the question, as to how far it is possible 
 to give in rural schools a really sound education which shall 
 include a knowledge of rural pursuits and inculcate a love of 
 the country, without sacrificing general efficiency and adapta- 
 bility to the life of the town. It is clear that rural clergy and 
 Churchpeople resident in the country should be ready to devote 
 themselves to the consideration of these very special 
 questions. 
 
 (c) The Village a Community. 
 
 119. It is essential that the gentry, the farmers, and the 
 labourers should all take a share in the revival of country life. 
 The Church must endeavour to bridge the gulf between the 
 farmers and the labourers, which seems unfortunately not to be 
 diminishing. This is all the more important as great landed 
 estates are now being broken up and the traditional ideas 
 which have bound the labourers to the landowners for genera- 
 tions are being severed. 
 
 120. There is no greater need in country life than the 
 awakening of the community spirit. The village is a com- 
 munity like the family, but its common life demands some sort 
 of organ through which it can find expression. We believe that 
 the new Parochial Church Councils, which will be set up in 
 villages as well as towns, will be real aids to this end. But we 
 also want something wider in which Church and Chapel, land- 
 lord, farmer and labourer, Tory and Radical, can all meet with 
 complete freedom. That is to say we want a village Social 
 Council corresponding, with the necessary difference, to the 
 urban Social Councils of which we have already spoken. We 
 beheve that by helping to secure the formation of these Coun- 
 cils, and so promoting self-expression and mutual understanding 
 and service among all classes in the village, Churchmen and 
 
52 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Churchwomen would do much to raise the whole standard of 
 rural hfe.* 
 
 VII. 
 
 CONCLUSION, 
 
 121. If we may summarise briefly what we have said above, 
 we feel that it is essential that the clergy, Church workers and 
 laity should widen and extend their conception of Church work, 
 so that it embraces all work which tends to the upKfting of 
 society. In order that the Church may influence the progress 
 of social reform and spiritualise the efforts of those engaged 
 in it, it is essential that the clergy, and all the full-time Church 
 workers, should undergo some term of training to enable them 
 to carry on their work with understanding, as well as with good 
 will. For the clergy as leaders, training is especially necessary, 
 and we have urged that the Theological Colleges should include 
 courses of social study in their curriculum ; and further, that 
 deacons and junior clergy should have such training extended 
 and made deeper in the early years of their ministry. We 
 believe that Churchpeople generally should have a much fuUer 
 understanding of the industrial and social conditions of those 
 among whom they live. We suggest that in each diocese 
 arrangements should be made for the direction of Social Service, 
 and that lectures, articles in Diocesan Gazettes, summer schools 
 and Social Days might all be useful in securing a new conception 
 of the Church's task. We suggest also that Parochial Church 
 Councils should be set up and maintained, with a special 
 responsibility for social service, and that the continuity of the 
 action of the Church in the parish ought to be secured. We 
 desire to urge that Churchmen and Churchwomen should throw 
 themselves into all the different branches of social service which 
 are being started by the Government or by local authorities. 
 We wish it to be specially borne in mind that the work of the 
 Church is not only among the poor and needy, that it is not the 
 Church's business merely to deal with questions of material 
 relief, but that the whole body of the nation and the life of the 
 nation on all its sides, spiritual, moral, physical, must be con- 
 sidered. We urge that it is the Church's business to inculcate 
 in her members, of all classes alike, the spirit of unselfish co- 
 operation, and to bring into the conduct of the affairs of the 
 nation that true spirit of complete sympathy which is summed 
 up in the phrase : " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
 thyself." 
 
 * We would call attention to a suggestive paper, " The Village Social Council," 
 by S. Bostook, 1919, published by the National Council of Social Service, 8a, New 
 Cavendish Street, W., price 2d. 
 
CONCLUSION 58 
 
 SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 I. General. 
 We recommend : 
 
 122. That the physical, as well as the moral and spiritual, wel- 
 fare of all classes in the community should be recognised as a 
 primary concern of the Christian Church in its corporate 
 capacity. 
 
 II. The Training of Candidates for Holy Orders. 
 
 We recommend : 
 
 123. That immediate provision should be made in or by 
 every Theological College for suitable instruction during a period 
 of at least two terms or six months in the history and outlines of 
 economic and industrial conditions, with special reference to the 
 present day. 
 
 124. That closer relations should be established between 
 Theological Colleges and the Universities in connection with 
 social studies. 
 
 125. That the Church of England should establish Hostels 
 in University towns. 
 
 126. That where it is not possible to arrange for Theological 
 students to take a course of social study at a University, 
 
 (a) courses of lectures on social subjects should be given in 
 Theological Colleges by University lecturers on " tutorial class " 
 lines, in order to make the students familiar with the method, 
 and to encourage the practice of free discussion ; 
 
 (b) theological students should visit urban industrial and, if 
 possible, rural centres under proper guidance. 
 
 III. The Training of the Clergy after Ordination. 
 
 We recommend : 
 
 127. That a Director of Social Studies be appointed in each 
 Diocese. 
 
 128. That during the first three years of his ministry, ev^ery 
 clergyman working in a town should attend an approved course 
 in social science lasting six months ; and if possible under 
 University direction. 
 
 129. That during the first three years of his ministry, every 
 clergyman working in a country parish should similarly receive 
 continued training specially adapted to work in rural districts. 
 
 130. That fuller use should be made of the Diocesan Gazette 
 for purposes of information, and suggestion and advice on 
 social subjects, so as to keep the clergy (and laity) in touch with 
 experiments and .developments, wnich may be adapted to 
 particular needs. 
 
 131. That '" Social Days " should be held at regular intervals 
 
54 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 for the purpose of conference among the clergy on social 
 subjects under expert guidance. 
 
 IV. The Laity and Social Service. 
 We recommend : 
 
 132. That the Church should not be content with merely- 
 mitigating social distress, but should recognise its responsi- 
 biUty for cultivating public opinion with a view to removing the 
 causes of this distress. 
 
 133. That the laity of the Church, both men and women, 
 should take an active part in the work of Reconstruction and 
 Social Service. 
 
 134. That a greater diversity of forms of service should be 
 recognised as Church Work ; and that the term " Church 
 Work " should be definitely regarded as including work upon 
 public bodies. 
 
 135. That Churchpeople should, as part of their ministry, take 
 a full share in movements and activities, both educational and 
 industrial, which aim at raising the general level of social hfe. 
 
 136. That Church workers should receive adequate training 
 for the particular form of Social Service upon which they wish 
 to engage. 
 
 137. That in the case of whole time Church workers, pro- 
 vision should be made for the payment of an adequate salary, 
 and for the institution of a pension scheme. 
 
 V. The Parish and Social Service. 
 We recommend : 
 
 138. That the duties of the Parochial Church Councils, which 
 are about to be formed in every parish (in accordance with the 
 Constitution of the National Assembly of the Church of 
 England), should include an active responsibihty for the health, 
 education, recreation and general well-being of the whole 
 community. 
 
 139. That Parochial Church Councils should be ready to 
 co-operate with civic Councils of Social Service established in 
 the locahty. 
 
 140. That Churchpeople should encourage the formation of 
 Interdenominational Councils of Social Service, for the purpose 
 of securing the co-operation of all Christians in the locality, 
 for the promotion of the common good. ' 
 
 141. That Church buildings should wherever practicable be 
 utilised for social purposes, e.g.y meetings of Friendly Societies, 
 Trade Unions, etc. ^- I * 
 
 142. That the Church should seriously consider the results 
 which have ensued through the subdivision ctf ancient parishes ; 
 and that, in view of the fact that in modern times ecclesiastical 
 areas necessarily depend for purposes of organisation on the 
 
CONCLUSION 55 
 
 several units of civic administration, parishes should be reunited 
 or united where they do not coincide with Local Government 
 Areas. 
 
 VI. Rural Problems. 
 We recommend : 
 
 143. That the clergy should be led to reahse their responsi- 
 bility for the quickening of social life in the rural districts, in the 
 development of an educational system with a rural, and not an 
 urban, bias. 
 
 144. That the clergy should do all in their power to under- 
 stand and encourage the work of the Rural Benefit Societies and 
 Trade Unions. 
 
 145. That the clergy and laity should promote the formation 
 of Village Social Councils. 
 
 (Signed) Cyril Jackson (Chairman) 
 H. L. Chester. 
 G. K. A. Bell. 
 Jane Ferrers. 
 Thory Gage Gardiner. 
 T. M. Morton. 
 , H. S. Pelham. 
 
 Constance Smith. 
 Denton Woodhead. 
 h. l. woollcombe. 
 Leonard F. Browne (Hon. 
 Secretary). 
 January 1st, 1920. 
 
56 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 Outline of a Six Months' Course of Social Study for 
 Candidates for Holy Orders. 
 
 The object of a course of social study for men taking Orders 
 should not be to make economic specialists, but to give students 
 the training needed for an understanding of the conditions, 
 movements, and problems with which they will be confronted 
 in the course of their work as clergymen. At present many of 
 them are without any independent point of view with regard 
 to social issues, because they have not been equipped to con- 
 sider them in a detached and critical spirit ; are ignorant of 
 facts of industry and social organisation, a knowledge of which 
 is a condition of good citizenship ; and find it difficult to 
 establish sympathetic relations with active minded working 
 people, because they do not understand the movements in 
 which the latter are interested. The object of a course of 
 social study should be to overcome these deficiencies. Thus : 
 
 (i.) It should give the historical background without which* 
 the main problems of urban life and industry are unintelligible. 
 
 (ii.) It should give an introduction to the main industrial and 
 social questions of to-day, including modern social movements. 
 
 (iii.) It should acquaint students with the work of the main 
 agencies of social improvement. 
 
 (iv.) It should give enough familiarity with economic argu- 
 ment to enable students to avoid obvious fallacies and to save 
 them from repeating as the last word on the subject theories 
 which have been discredited for fifty years. A six months' 
 course might include the following subjects, though, of course, 
 many variations are possible. 
 
 I. — Social and Economic History. 
 
 (i.) Social History since 1750. 
 
 E,g., the condition of England in 1750 : population, industry 
 and agriculture. The agrarian changes and the enclosing 
 movement. The industrial revolution and the rise of modern 
 industry. The social effects of the industrial revolution. The 
 policy of the Government. Adam Smith. The rise of trade 
 unions. Chartism. Co-operation. Factory legislation. Com- 
 mercial policy. The development of Public Health and 
 
 i 
 
APPENDIX I. 57 
 
 Education. The growth of combines and monopohes. Changes 
 in industrial relations since 1880, etc. 
 
 (ii.) The development of Christian Thought on questions of 
 social morality. 
 
 H. — Industrial and Social Problems. 
 
 E.g., the characteristics of modern industrial organisation. 
 Trade Unions, their objects and methods. Co-operation. The 
 relations between employer and employed. Various proposals 
 for giving the workers " control of industry." Unemployment, 
 its causes and types. Proposals for preventing and alleviating 
 it. Remedies for low wages and long hours ; the Trade Boards 
 Act and Factory Legislation. The housing problem, the pre- 
 sent position and proposals for dealing with it. Education : 
 the recent developments and the defects and possibilities of 
 the educational system. Problems of rural hfe and agriculture, 
 etc. 
 
 III. — Local Government as Bearing on Social 
 
 Conditions. 
 
 E.g.f the organs of Local Government. Their development 
 
 in the nineteenth century. Their main duties and powers. 
 
 Public Health, Education, the Poor Law. The relation of 
 
 Local Government to voluntary agencies. 
 
 IV. — Economic Analysis With Special Reference to Social 
 Conditions and Policy. 
 
58 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 Training Centres for Social Service. 
 
 (a) University Courses. 
 
 1. The most thorough form of training for any branch of 
 professional or voluntary social work is in most cases a course 
 of study, extending from one to two years, undertaken in con- 
 nection with the social study department of a University. The 
 length of time required depends on the previous training and 
 experience of the individual student. The course usually 
 includes such subjects as social economics, industrial history, 
 social philosophy, and the study of modern institutions, and is 
 accompanied by practical work under the direction of experi- 
 enced administrators and social workers. For this purpose 
 University Departments are closely associated with University 
 Settlements and other bodies engaged in different forms of 
 practical administration, both under public and voluntary 
 control. Provision is usually made for those who wish to pre- 
 pare for some form of social effort demanding technical or 
 speciaUsed instruction, either by permitting specialisation 
 during their second year of training, or by the arrangement of 
 supplementary courses. 
 
 2. The following is a list of the Universitj^ Departments at 
 which such training for social service may be had : — ' 
 
 The University of Belfast, — Apply The Director of Social 
 Service, Queen's University, Belfast. 
 
 The University of Birmingham. — Apply The Chairman, 
 Social Study Committee, The University, Edmund Street, 
 Birmingham. 
 
 The University of Bristol, — Apply -The Registrar, the Univer- 
 sity, Bristol ; or The Warden, University Settlement, Barton 
 Hill, Bristol. 
 
 The University of Edinburgh, — Apply The Director, School 
 of Social Study and Training, The University, Edinburgh. 
 
 The University of Glasgow. — Apply The Hon. Secretary, 
 Glasgow School of Social Study and Training, 30, Lilybank 
 Gardens, Glasgow, W. 
 
 The University of Leeds. — Apply The Secretary, The Univer- 
 sity, Leeds. 
 
 The University of London, — Bedford College : Apply The 
 Director of Social Studies, Bedford College, Regent's Park, 
 N.W.I, King^s College for Women: Apply The Dean, House- 
 hold and Social Science Department, King's College for Women, 
 Campden Hill Road, W.8. Ratan Tata Department : Apply The 
 Director, Ratan Tata Department of Social Science and 
 Administration, Clare Market, London, S.E. 
 
APPENDIX II. 59 
 
 The University of Mmichester. — Apply The Secretary, Social 
 Study Committee, The University, Manchester. 
 
 The University of Oxford. — ^Apply L. L. Price, Esq., Oriel 
 College, Oxford ; or The Secretary, Barnett House, Oxford. 
 
 The University of Wales. — University College, Cardiff : 
 Apply The Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University College, 
 Cardiff. 
 
 Further information in regard to University Courses may be 
 obtained from : — 
 
 The Joint University Council for Social Studies, 
 Hon. Secretary, Miss Macadam, 
 
 50, Romney Street, 
 
 Westminster, S.W.I. 
 
 (h) Other Training Centres. 
 
 3. Other schemes for training for social service are too 
 numerous to specify in detail. Thej^ vary according to basis 
 (i.e.y whether definitely religious or otherwise), aims {i.e., 
 whether with a general or specialised purpose), and organisa- 
 tion (i.e., whether residential or non-residential). 
 
 Further information'may be obtained from : — 
 
 The National Council of Social Service, 
 
 Secretary : L. F. Ellis, D.S.O., M.C., 
 Sa, New Cavendish Street, 
 ^ London, W.l. 
 
60 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 Women's Work in the Parish ; An Experiment. 
 
 The Rev. T. Guy Rogers, B.D., M.C. (Vicar of West Ham), 
 gave the Committee pai ticulars of the experiment with regard 
 to women's work which was being made in his parish. The 
 population is 27,000, containing clerks, artisans, and working 
 people of all kinds. He has four women now at work, who have 
 had special training and experience in their professions outside 
 recognised Church work. They receive salaries of £160-£120 
 with residence provided free in the Women's Hostel. Further 
 particulars are as follows : — 
 
 1. Miss A, — ^Trained at th Froebel Institute, London. 
 Student of London University. Two years' Settlement work 
 and seven years' experience of educational work. Experience 
 in Student Christian Movement work. 
 
 She is head of the Hostel in which the women worjvcrs reside, 
 and head of the women's side of the work of the parish. She 
 advises on questions dealing with women's, girls', or children's 
 work. The particular sections of parochial work under her 
 immediate care are ; — 
 
 (a) Assisting in the preparation of girl candidates for con- 
 firmation ; 
 
 (b) Superintendence of Sunday School work. Reforming 
 methods and training of Sunday School teachers. 
 
 (c) Women's work. Mothers' Union and ClubTfor working 
 women. 
 
 {d) Club for elder working girls. 
 
 (e) Serving on various outside committees for social and 
 religious work. (Christian Social service. Day Nursery and 
 Maternity Centre, Sunday School Associations for the Deanery.) 
 
 2. Miss B. — Newnham College, Cambridge, Classical I'ripos. 
 Two years' experience in teaching and in social work among 
 girls. Experience in Student Christian Movement work. 
 
 (a) Superintends girls' Bible classes, reorganising on study 
 circle lines. 
 
 (b) Responsible for Girl Guide work in the parish. 
 
 (c) Club for younger working girls. 
 
 (d) Serves on various outside committees, Girl Guides, 
 After-Care, Juvenile Organisations Committee. 
 
 3. Miss C. — ^Trained at Froebel Institute, London. Two 
 years' experience in teaching and as Scoutmaster. 
 
 (a) Has special charge of work among school children. 
 
APPENDIX IV. 61 
 
 (b) Junior Guides, Brownies, Plaj^ Centres, Sunda}^ School. 
 
 (c) Secretary of Children's Country Hohday Fund for the 
 District. 
 
 (d) Serves on various Committees concerning Children, 
 Invalid Children's Aid Association, etc. 
 
 4. Miss D, — Trained in Social Work (Charity Organisation 
 Society, Hospital work, etc.). Two years' experience at a 
 Settlement. 
 
 (a) Acts as almoner to the parish. 
 
 (b) Reorganises relief work in the parish. 
 
 (c) Serves on various local relief committees. 
 Some results of the experiment : — 
 
 1. Greater thoroughness in dealing with social and educa- 
 tional problems — e.g., the rougher type of girl has been more 
 carefully studied and more efficiently reached ; the children's 
 work is in process of co-ordination througli a Children's Welfare 
 Committee ; a higher standard of " aim " amongst voluntary 
 workers is being gradually introduced. 
 
 2. The spirit of enterprise and experiment has been largely 
 fostered and new and modern methods commended. 
 
 i^. A proof has been given that it is possible, within the 
 parochial machinery of the Church of England, for men and 
 women to enjoy an equal status, and to work together in close 
 co-operation, poohng experiences, and making a common end. 
 
 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 Parochial Church Councils^and Councils of 
 Social Service. 
 
 A. 
 
 The Parochial Church Council. 
 
 The Constitution of the Parochial Church Council according to 
 
 the Rules for the Representation of the Laity in the National 
 
 Assembly of the Church of England, 
 
 (1) The parochial Church Council shall consist of^: — 
 
 (i.) the incumbent or licensed curate in charge of the 
 parish^; 
 
 (ii.) the licensed assistant curate or the senior licensed 
 assistant curate, where there are more than one, and the 
 churchwardens being communicant members of the Church 
 of England, and any lay representatives for the parish on 
 the Ruridecanal Conference and on the Diocesan Con- 
 ference ; 
 
62 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 (iii.) such number of lay representatives (who may be of 
 either sex) as the Annual Parochial Church Meeting in the 
 first instance decides. The number may be altered from 
 time to time by a resolution passed at such meeting, but 
 so that the alteration shall not take effect until the year 
 following the date at which it is made ; 
 
 (iv.) co-opted members, if the Council so decides, not 
 exceeding in number one-fifth of the elected laj^ repre- 
 sentatives, and being either in Holy Orders or lay com- 
 municant members of the Church of England, of either 
 sex, of twenty-one years of age or upwards. 
 
 2. The incumbent or licensed curate in charge of the parish 
 shall be chairman. 
 
 3. A lay representative of either sex shall be elected as 
 vice-chairman. 
 
 4. On representation made to the Archdeacon by a majority 
 of the lay members of the Council, or by one-tenth of the 
 electors on the parochial roll, and deemed by the Archdeacon 
 to show sufficient cause for the same, the Archdeacon shall 
 convene a special meeting of the Council or the Parochial 
 Church Meeting, and shall either take the chair himself or shall 
 appoint a chairman to preside at such meeting. 
 
 5. At any such special meeting when notice has been given 
 of a motion for any representation to the Bishop relating to the 
 conduct of the incumbent, the Archdeacon may, in his dis- 
 cretion, request the incumbent not to be present, but to make 
 a communication in writing to the chairman. If such com- 
 munication be made it shall be read to the meeting. 
 
 (See National Assembly of the Church of England Constitution, 
 Rules for the Representation of the Laity, etc. (1919) 
 S.P.C.K., 6d.) 
 
 B. 
 
 St. Mary Lambeth Parochial Relief Committee. 
 
 1. The theory on which rests the St. Mary Lambeth Parq^ial 
 Relief Committee is that the Church exists to serve the needs, 
 physical, moral, spiritual, of the parishioners, without regard to 
 denominational preference. In as much as the Church is 
 responsible in the sight of God and men for the well-being of all, 
 it is in duty bound to provide that every agency of every kind 
 which can help forward those committed to the Church's care 
 should be used to the fullest extent : that the Christian spirit 
 inherent in all forms of social organisation should be strength- 
 ened and developed ; and the various forms and methods of 
 social and religious service made available for the benefit of all 
 who need. 
 
APPENDIX IV. 63 
 
 2. The duty of the Council is to bring (through six whole- 
 time visitors) individuals into touch with organisations suited 
 to particular needs. (The population of the district is about 
 9,600 : over 50,000 visits are paid in the year in about 1,000 
 homes.) 
 
 3. The Council discharges the functions of the Charity 
 Organisation Society in the district, and is officially recognised 
 as its representative. 
 
 4. In effect, the Council is allowed to be the servants of the 
 following organisations : — 
 
 (a) Infant {pre- and post-natal) and Child Welfare up to — 
 years: Two trained and qualified visitors (recognised by the 
 Health Authoritv of the Borough) report direct to the Medical 
 Officer of Health. 
 
 The Council is responsible for securing the provision of 
 " treatment " ; nourishment and convalescence being regarded 
 as part of " treatment." In this, as in all cases of sickness, 
 the greatest help was pro\'ided by the resident medical staff 
 of the Poor Law Lambeth Infirmary. 
 
 (b) School Care Committees : 
 (i.) Medical (and Surgical) ; 
 
 (ii.) After-Care ; 
 (iii.) Feeding. 
 By the special permission of the London County Council, the 
 Council is responsible both for visiting and treatment of all 
 children resident in the district regardless of the school attended. 
 The Council was officially represented on the Care and After- 
 Care Committees of the Provided and Non-Provided Schools 
 attended by the bulk of the children resident in the area. The 
 Children's Country HoHday Fund work was similarly handled. 
 
 (c) General Hospitals: The Council works in the closest 
 co-operation with both the In- and the Out-Patients' Depart- 
 ments. They carry out the doctors' instructions as to 
 nourishments, convalescence, etc., and report on " home 
 conditions " ; they are responsible for all " tuberculosis 
 visiting." 
 
 (d) The Council is permitted to discharge the functions of 
 the Soldiers' and Sailors' FamiUes' Association, the Soldiers' 
 and Sailors' Help Society, and the Prince of Wales' Fund, 
 subject to report in each case and the visiting of the homes 
 for the War Pensions Committee. 
 
 {e) The Council is responsible for the visiting of absentee 
 (Day and Sunday) school children, in one group of day schools, 
 reporting the cause of absence to the teacher before the 
 opening of the next session. They were thus enabled to 
 " pick up " informal notifications of illness, especially in times 
 of epidemic sickness (e.g.., measles, whooping cough, etc.). 
 
 (/) The Council is responsible for thrift (including War 
 
64 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 Savings), clubs, boot and clothing clubs, etc., all accounts 
 being supervised weekly by a trained and competent accountant. 
 
 5. The Council consists of the clergy (who act as visitors in 
 particular cases), the visitors, and other parochial workers 
 (heads of clubs, etc.), and, so far as possible, of representatives 
 of the several organisations working in the district or neigh- 
 bourhood (e.g.j Charity Organisation Society, the Society for 
 Relief of Distress, etc.). 
 
 6. The advantages of this method of parochial organisation 
 may be roughly summarised : — 
 
 (a)|The Church stands for the betterment of human life 
 through the " service " of individuals : parishioners realise 
 that whatever is right, is right : whatever wrong the Church 
 must try to mend it. The spirit of cheeriness, friendhness, 
 fellowship, helpfulness, was obvious, and obviously recipro- 
 cated. 
 
 (b) The people learned to play straight : soon came to 
 resemble Dr. Arnold's Rugby boys : some knew they would 
 get found out : most liked and trusted the visitors, and the 
 visitors liked and trusted them : the little office was one of 
 the cheeriest places in Lambeth. 
 
 (c) Ten per cent, of the money needed for relief was provided 
 by the recipients themselves. There were no " bad " debts. 
 AppHcants' contributions towards the cost of assistance were 
 very generous, but they were never allowed to make impossible 
 promises. 
 
 (d) The people were most friendly to the Church — a feeling 
 expressed sometimes by criticisms of extraneous philan- 
 thropists of the patronising or pauperising type. 
 
 (e) Over 12 per cent, of the total population enlisted before 
 conscription was generally anticipated : this high figure was 
 due, in part, to the fact that all separation allowance (like 
 insurance society) difficulties were handled by the Council : 
 in part to the fact that the Council was responsible for the 
 Registration of 1915. 
 
 (f) The duplication and re-duplication of identical enquiries 
 by independent organisations were avoided. 
 
 ig) The people regarded the Council as the Church, because 
 they went about trying to do good, and to lessen human 
 suffering and anguish. 
 
 Note. — The above statement gives some import ant particu- 
 lars as to the work done by a particular Parochial Relief Com- 
 mittee. It does not, however, go into the principles which under- 
 lie the actual administration of the necessary funds. It is stated 
 above that ten per cent, of the money needed for relief is pro- 
 vided by the recipients themselves : and this leaves ninety per 
 cent, of the money to be provided from other sources. It is, 
 
APPENDIX IV, 65 
 
 of course, very important that all this money, whether the sums 
 handled be large or small, should be administered in the best 
 way. It is equally important that the whole of the work done 
 by Parochial Relief Committees or Parochial Assistance Com- 
 mittees, should be constructive. Valuable information and 
 recommendations with regard to the question of Relief may be 
 found in the " Report ol a Committee on the Method of Dis- 
 tribution of Alms in the Rural Deanery of Stepney (1917)," 
 to be obtained from the Secretary, Charity Organisation 
 Society, Denison House, Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, S.W.I. 
 The Report contains a Foreword written by the Bishop of 
 Oxford (Dr. Burge) from which the following extract is taken : — 
 " The one sohd objection raised is the objection that it takes 
 relief out of the sole hands of the Vicar, and that is exactly 
 the one thing that ought to be done. " Silver and Gold 
 have I none, but such as I have I give thee " ought to be the 
 first principle of a Vicar's ministry. I am truly thankful to 
 see so much of what I have constantly urged in days gone by 
 being here shaped into practice." 
 
 Let people read Canon LXXIV.,|especially the last clause 
 
 " The which alms and devotions of the people the keepers 
 of the keys (i.e., of the Alms Chest) shall yearly, quarterly, 
 or oftener (as need requireth) take out of the chest and 
 distribute the same in the presence of most of the parish or 
 six of the chief of them.'' (There's your Parochial Committee) 
 " to be truly and faithfully delivered to their most poor and 
 needy neighbours." 
 
 There's nothing whatever here to suggest the parson's sole 
 discretion in the matter, that is quite a modern and perverted 
 notion. 
 
 C. 
 
 Wi^PI?]>G'ICN AM) ElSTEICT COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE. 
 
 Consiiivtion and Schedule, as adopted 22nd September, 1919. 
 
 1. The nair e of the Council shall be The Warrington and 
 District Council of Social Service. 
 
 The area shall comprise the following Districts : — The County 
 Borough of Warrington, the Townships of Thelwall,Grappenhall, 
 Latchford Without, Stockton Heath, Lower Walton, Higher 
 Walton, Moore and Daresbury, and the Townships of Burton- 
 wood, Cuerdley, Great Sankey, Penketh, Poulton with Fearn- 
 head, Rixton with Glazebrook, Southworth with Croft, Winwick 
 •with Hulme, Woolston with Martinscroft, and Houghton, 
 Middleton and Arbury. 
 
66 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 2. The general object of the Council shall be to secure for the 
 citizens of Warrington and District the full benefits of social 
 legislation and other administrative measures (public and 
 voluntary) for their welfare ; and for this purpose : — 
 
 {a) To promote the systematic organisation of voluntary 
 social work in the Town and District with a view to securing 
 both the co-ordination of the voluntary agencies, and also their 
 co-operation with the official bodies engaged in the same sphere 
 of work. 
 
 (b) To compile a list of voluntary agencies engaged in social 
 work, and of voluntary visitors, and to bring all Social Workers 
 into personal touch with one another. 
 
 (c) To co-operate in promoting or developing a mutual 
 register of assistance and care. 
 
 (d) To secure the provision of an organised body of visitors 
 able to undertake friendly visiting and other forms of personal 
 service in social work, where such do not exist, (Note. — This 
 provision may involve the setting up of District Committees.) 
 
 (e) To promote the training of social workers. 
 
 (/) To undertake enquiries in specific social questions, and to 
 convene conferences thereon. 
 
 (g) To spread information by means of a local handbook, 
 journal, leaflets, etc., and to exchange information with similar 
 councils elsewhere. 
 
 (h) To be a body capable, if requested, of administering 
 funds for the general well-being of the Town and District. 
 
 {i) To take such other action as may be decided upon by the 
 Council. 
 
 3. It is not intended that the Council shall in any way inter- 
 fere with the funds or internal management of any affiliated 
 body or agency. 
 
 4. The Council shall consist of : — 
 
 (a) Representatives of the public bodies and voluntary 
 agencies engaged in social work set forth in the Schedule, which 
 may be amended from time to time. 
 
 {b} Co-opted members not exceeding one-third of the total 
 number of Representative Members. 
 
 5. Each agency on the Schedule shall appoint its own repre- 
 sentative or representatives. 
 
 6. The Mayor of Warrington for the time being shall be 
 President of the Council. The Council shall appoint from its 
 own number a Chairman, Hon. Secretary, and Hon. Treasurer 
 
 7. The Council shall appoint an Executive Committee and 
 define its duties. 
 
APPENDIX IV. 6T 
 
 8. The Council shall meet at least twice a year. 
 
 9. The Council shall have power to charge to organisations 
 an annual affiliation fee of 2s. 6d., and to receive and deal with 
 monies. 
 
 10. An Annual Meeting of the Council shall be held in the 
 month of February, at which a Report and Financial Statement 
 for the year ending 31st December shall be submitted by the 
 Executive Committee ; 14 days* notice of such meeting shall 
 be given. 
 
 11. Alterations of the Constitution may only be made at the 
 annual meeting. Notice of any proposed alteration must be 
 received by the Hon. Secretary, in writing, not less than 28 
 days before such meeting, and must be incorporated in the 
 notice calling the meeting. 
 
 SCHEDULE OF REPRESENTATIVE MEMBERS. 
 
 Public Bodies. 
 
 1. Town Council ... ... ... ... ... ... 4 
 
 *2. Board of Guardians ... ... ... ... . 3 
 
 3. Insurance Committee ... ... ... ... .. 2 
 
 4. War Pensions Committee ... ... ... ... 2 
 
 5. Warrington Rural District Council ... ... ... 1 
 
 0. Warrington Rural District W^ar Pensions Committee 1 
 
 7. Runcorn Rural District Council ... ... ... 1 
 
 8. Runcorn Rural District War Pensions Committee . . 1 
 
 9. Runcorn Board of Guardians ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 10. Employment Exchange (Local Employment Com- 
 
 mittee) ... ... ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 Local Voluntary Agencies. 
 
 11. Adult School 1 
 
 12. Beamont Pension Fund ... ... ... ... I 
 
 13. British Red Cross Society (Daresbury and Warrington 
 
 Division) ... ... ... ... ... ... ] 
 
 14. Caledonian Association .. . ... ... ... 1 
 
 15. Catholic Union 8 
 
 16. Central Organisations Committee ... ... . . 1 
 
 17. Chamber of Commerce ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 18. Charity Investigation Society ... ... ... 1 
 
 19. Children's Summer Camp ... ... 1 
 
 20. Citizens' Temperance League ... ... ... ... .1 
 
 21. Cripples' Guild 1 
 
 22. Deaf and Dumb Society ... ... .. ... 1 
 
 23. District Nursing Association ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 24. Free Church Council ... ... 8- 
 
68 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 25. Friendly Societies' Council 
 
 26. Greenhall, Whitlev Fund 
 
 27. Guild of Help ' .". 
 
 28. Licensed Victuallers' Association 
 
 29. Mid wives' Association 
 
 30. Mothers' and Babies' Welcome 
 
 31. National League of the Blind (Warrington Branch) 
 
 32. National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
 
 Children (Warrington Branch) 
 
 33. Needlework Guild 
 
 34. Old People's Treat 
 
 35. Order of St. John (Warrington Branch) 
 
 36. Police Court Mission 
 
 37. Salvation Army ... ... ... ... ... 
 
 38. Society of Friends 
 
 39. Stockton Heath Nursing Association ... 
 
 40. Sunday School Union (Warrington and District) 
 
 41. Thewhs Charity 
 
 42. Thomas Morris Charity 
 
 43. Trades and Labour Council 
 
 44. Tuberculosis Care Committee ... 
 
 45. United Kingdom Commercial Travellers' Association 
 
 46. War Savings Committee 
 
 47. Warrington Church Society ... ... ... ... 10 
 
 48. Warrington Creche Committee 
 
 49. Warrington and District Unitarians ... 
 
 50. Warrington Infirmary 
 
 51. Women's Citizen Association 
 
 52. Women's Co-operative Guild ... 
 
 53. Workers' Educational Association 
 
 54. Young Men's Christian Association! ... 
 
 85 
 
 Note. — The Constitution and Schedule given above are 
 a good example of a civic Council of Social Service. 
 Further information with regard to this and other civic 
 Councils may be had from — 
 
 The National Council of Social Service, 
 Secretary— L. F. EUis, D.S.O., M.C., 
 8a, New Cavendish Street, 
 
 London, W.l. 
 
APPENDIX IV. 69 
 
 D, 
 
 The Wakefield United Christian Social];Council.| 
 
 Name. — The I^Council shall be known fas The Wakefield 
 United Christian Social Council. 
 
 Objects. — The objects of the Council shall be : — 
 
 (1) To promote the Kingdom of God^': 
 
 (a) By informing and rousing the conscience of Christian 
 people in regard to social and moral questions. 
 
 {h) By upholding the Christian ideals of personal life and of 
 human relationship. 
 
 (2) To give open and united expression to the convictions 
 of the whole Christian community of Wakefield and District on 
 social and moral questions. 
 
 (3) To promote or support any movements which in the 
 judgment of the Council are calculated to improve the physical, 
 moral and social welfare of the citizens. 
 
 Constitution, — (1) The Council shall consist of three repre- 
 sentatives (clerical or lay) of each Christian congregation that 
 desires to be represented, and shall have power to co-opt 
 additional members not exceeding ten. 
 
 (Note. — If any doubt shall arise as to the qualification 
 of a congregation for representation, the matter shall be 
 referred to the Executive Committee.) 
 
 (2) The Officers of the Council shall be : | A President, two 
 Vice-Presidents, an Honorary Treasurer, and two Honorary 
 Secretaries, all of whom shall be elected at the Annual Meeting, 
 which shall be held in May. 
 
 (3) There shall be an Executive Committee, which shall 
 consist of the officers and ten other members, to be elected 
 by the Council at the Annual Meeting from its own members. 
 The Executive Committee shall appoint its own Chairman and 
 Vice-Chairman. Six shall form a quorum. 
 
 (4) The Council shall meet at least twice a year to receive 
 reports from its Executive Committee, and for other business. 
 
 (5) The Executive Committee shall have power : — 
 (a) To appoint District Committees. 
 
 (h) To appoint temporary or Standing Sub-Committees for 
 specific purposes. 
 
 (c) In deahng with any particular subject to co-opt temporary 
 members. 
 
 (6) It shall be the duty of the Executive Committee to inform 
 the representatives of the congregations of movements for 
 religious, moral and social reform, as well as of dangers which 
 
70 THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL SERVICE 
 
 may seem to threaten the higher welfare of the community, 
 and to take such steps as may seem to them desirable in con- 
 nection therewith. 
 
 (7) Each congregation represented on the Council shall be 
 asked to pay a minimum subscription of 2s. 6d. annually per 
 representative appointed, towards the working expenses of the 
 Council. 
 
 (8) No alteration of this constitution shall be made except 
 by a resolution passed at an Annual Meeting of the Council, or 
 at a Special Meeting convened for the purpose upon a requisition 
 signed by at least ten members of the Council. The terms of 
 any proposed alteration shall be sent to each member of the 
 Council not less than fourteen days before the meeting at which 
 such alteration is to be discussed. 
 
 Note.— The above is a good example of an Inter- 
 denominational Council of Social Service. Information 
 with regard to the work of this and other Interdenomi- 
 national Councils, together with advice as to the starting 
 of such|Councils, may be obtained from — 
 
 The Christian Social Crusade, 
 
 Secretary — R. St. John Reade, 
 
 92, St. George's Square, 
 
 London, S.W.I.