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does not is a fact so well known as to make a re-statement of the case something of a bore. Many of us, no doubt, do not so regard it, however, no matter how uninterestingly recurrent this matter of leaks "may appear to be. Rather do we regard it either as a matter for prayer, or for new legislation in General Convention.

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It is the opinion of the writer, however, that "leaks" are unnecessary and in most cases rather easily preventable, and that what is required for their elimination and ultimate disappearance is nothing more than careful and intelligent work on the part of every parish priest, comparable in difficulty to the work of a "follow-up " man in any good-sized store which sells goods by mail or to out of town customers.

Of course the fact must be faced that lapses from good and regular standing as communicants which occur because of indifference or because of honest change in religious conviction complicate the situation with which we have to deal. In every parish, probably, there are a few persons in every decade who cease coming to Church and receiving the Holy Communion because they have gone over to the Church of Rome or "joined" some Protestant denomination, or have simply quit. It may be well to consider these classes of leaks first before taking up the consideration of the greatest single cause for such leaks — the removal of persons from a parish without letters of transfer and the consequent absolute neglect of such persons for the rest of their lives a deplorable condition of things which is reasonably certain to insure such persons either being drawn into various religious bodies other than the Church, or their drifting entirely away from any kind of organized Christianity.

First, let us speak of the comparatively small loss to Rome. There would seem to be one best way of preventing this, namely: for the parson to convince his people that in this Church of ours we have everything that is essential in the Catholic religion, and especially that we do not labor under the many difficulties which the Roman Church has to contend with and which are peculiar to her genius. It should be clearly explained to all who lean towards Rome - it is not difficult to pick them out in a

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congregation that perspective lends a peculiar glamour to the papal Church. Unity and certainty " sound well, when heard at a certain distance from the great Church which presses these claims upon the attention of dissatisfied Anglicans. The "Roman disease" is probably as common among our divinity students as the adolescent Period of Doubt, and there is little reason to deny that the germ infects lay people of a certain temperament. My point is that the skillful pastor will be watching for the outbreak of this disease and will be equipped with the remedies. Reasonable care, added to the presentation of a normal catholicity will do much to minimize this leak, which to-day is almost negligible. There is practically no such thing nowadays as "the drift to Rome". That was the "itching of a healing wound," and is not likely to recur again in the Church. Then there is the loss which ensues upon communicants leaving the Church" and affiliating themselves with some protestant body. The most fertile source, of course, is the mixed marriage. When a communicant of the Church is unaware that he is a catholic, has rarely exercised his churchly privileges, fails to realize his churchly responsibilities, is generally lax, and has little or no conception of the Body of Christ, comes to Church" to hear Mr. So-and-So- in other words when his pastor has not instructed him - then the parson can begin to anticipate this kind of leak in his parish when he observes that the communicant in question is beginning to pay marked attention to the alto singer in the First Congregational Church. In the case of properly taught Church people, marriage with those who have grown up outside the Church is a source of gain to the Church. Other things equal, it is almost an impossibility for a thorough Churchman to leave the Church. He will not want to do so, he will hardly dare contemplate such a thing, because no reasonable man or woman with a fair understanding of what membership in the Church means will care, for light reasons, to attempt to rend himself away from Christ's

1E. g., On What Are Modern Papal Claims Founded? The Rt. Rev. G. F. Browne, D.D., in Church Historical Society Lectures, Series I.

Body and the fellowship of the Saints. Happy indeed is the pastor who, when forced to contemplate such a loss, can honestly say that it did not grow out of any slackness on his part in presenting the cause of Christ and His Church to the young woman who has just married an usher in the Methodist Church, and feels that she should "go with her husband ". The way to stop this kind of leak in the communicant list is to teach the Church' and live up to all that the Church requires of its priests. Then leaks of this kind when they do occur will probably be due to causes beyond the control of the pastor, but at any rate their number will be reduced to a minimum, for such leaks are due chiefly to inexperience and ignorance on the part of communicants. In a pastorate of any reasonable length these should be no excuse for the existence of these twin parochial vices among the laity.

There is probably not one rector of a parish in the whole Anglican communion who can say that when he took charge of his present cure he did not find that there were several lapsed communicants who had simply quit. That is, they had not married outside the Church and gone over to the religious denomination of their consorts, nor had they moved away and been allowed to drift loose. They merely lost interest and left. It is obvious that at one time, namely, just at the time they were confirmed, these persons did take an interest. Otherwise they would not have taken the trouble to be in Church for the layingon-of-hands. It is possible that in some cases such persons had been confirmed without knowing what they were doing. This is not unknown even recently in the Church in some places. Perhaps they had grown up with the idea that confirmation was one of the inevitable concomitants of being fourteen years of age. Perhaps a zealous but unwise relative brought pressure to bear at the wrong time and prevailed. Perhaps the desire for confirmation had been genuine enough but the preparation was inadequate. I know a woman who was confirmed a number of years ago whose preparation, she says, consisted of the follow

2 Little's Reasons for Being a Churchman.

ing conversation between herself and her pastor three or four days before the visitation of the Bishop:

Rector: (opening the door) "Well, Susan, come in; I'm glad to see you. I asked your mother to send you around ".

(Susan enters the rectory, and, being asked, sits. The rector also takes a chair, crosses his legs, clasps his hands back of his head, takes thought, and resumes:)

Rector: "Now you know, Susan, that confirmation is a serious thing." (Pause, presumably spent by the Rector in marshalling his resources. Then he seems to make up his mind, and he brings his hands down from aloft, places them on his knees, which he unwinds, and looks benevolently at Susan, who continues to sit. He proceeds :)

Rector: "I want you to be a good girl when you are confirmed, Susan, and keep away from the boys!

Susan: "All right." (Exit Susan.)

The next Sunday she was confirmed in a new white dress and silk gloves, of which she was very proud. And eventually she became a good churchwoman, and a parish leader of a branch of the Junior Auxiliary.

Whatever the manner in which confirmation has been approached and apprehended there was always enough interest and understanding on the part of the recipient to be present, at least, and to go through with the service, answering "I do," to the Bishop's question. This interest, however slight, has been, apparently, completely lost. It is the parson's task to restore it. He will hardly care to report the lapsed to his Bishop for the annual diocesan statistics as communicants in good standing. This is a leak which can only be stopped by wise methods, centred on the idea of restoring interest or supplying a new interest for the lapsed. He must, of course, become as well acquainted with such persons as he can. Sometimes he can appeal to them as a "new broom." Sometimes they are persons of sufficient standing in the community to justify the appeal to their sense of duty based on setting an example for others. Sometimes they will undertake to do some parish work to assist a well-liked pastor, and then the task of their restora

tion is greatly lightened. But the means used must, in the nature of things, be regulated in accordance with the disposition of the individual and the circumstances of the case. Almost always such persons are ashamed to admit openly that they have lost faith and interest, and they proffer excuses. Sometimes the kind of excuse offered is a good clue to the method to be adopted in treating the case. It is likely to relate to some difficulty in the past, and in this case, the parson can take the safe ground that former conditions no longer exist, and follow this up with some account of his plans for the parish and his need of help in realizing them. But throughout the pastor must be thinking of the immortal soul of this sheep outside the fold and be longing and praying and working to get it safely in again.

All these classes of leaks, however, are relatively small ones. The great leak is due to people moving into another community and lapsing because of the change of residence.

For the proper pastoral care of persons moving from one place to another the Church has provided a simple system of transfer which need not be discussed here. I think the chief trouble with this system is only that it is not used to its full capacity. Perhaps the Canon might be improved but that is not our present concern. What we are after is to get into use a method which will effectually stop this greatest of communicant leaks. I have heard it estimated by the statistically minded that this leak amounts to about twenty-five thousand persons annually. It is worth stopping.

I think that the method which I wish to commend may best be presented by recording the history of two years' work by a clergyman who is interested in this matter. We will call him Mr. Ellis.

The Rev. John Ellis was called to be rector of St. Michael's parish, Wilkinstown. He took charge in the spring of the year 19. After getting acquainted he set himself the task of bringing his parish books up to date. He found that three registers had been used in the parish, which had been in existence about fifty years. Registers 1 and 2 were completed and his prede

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