point to any special service rendered by your organisation to the Church?”
“The E.C.U. I look upon as a great educational power in the Church. The increase in numbers has been uniformly gradual, except at some particular crisis, as, for instance, at the time of the trial of the Bishop of Lincoln, when a large number of persons joined, perhaps more out of sympathy with the Bishop than because they were thorough-going advocates of the principles of the E.C.U. Of those who joined about that time a certain proportion afterwards withdrew. Now I will tell you how the E.C.U. is an educational power. Besides the annual and ordinary meetings of the Union, meetings, more or less frequent, are held every year by the District Unions and the local branches. These meetings are usually open to the public; members bring friends, and outsiders sometimes come to hear what is to be said. Many may not be convinced of the righteousness of our cause at once, but they generally come again, and after such a process of education they eventually come forward and join the Union. That is not so in all cases, of course. I might further add that the editors of newspapers are always ready to report our meetings, the result often being a controversy in the local press, attended with an influx of new members. At any rate, public controversy enables us to educate those who have not made up their minds. Then outside the E.C.U. there
