26
THE BRITISH EMPIRE : — UNITED KINGDOM
having been cut up in many cases into districcs, each of which is virtually an independent parish ecclesiastically. Of such parishes there were (1911) 14,387, inchisive of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Each parish has its church, presided over by an incumbent or minister, who must be in priest's orders, and who is known as rector, vicar, or perpetual curate, according to his relation to the temporalities of his parish. Private persons possess the right of presentation to about 8,500 benefices ; the patronage of the others belongs mainly to the King, the bishops and cathedrals, the Lord Chancellor, and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, In 1912 there were about 13,900 incumbents. The vohmtary contributions of the Church in ] 911-12 were 7,764,777Z.
Of 31,598 churches and chapels registered for the solemnisation of marriage in 1910, 15,811 belonged to the Established Church and 15,787 to other religious denominations. Of the marriages celebrated in 1910, 61*6 per cent, were in the Established Church, 4 '2 percent, in the Roman Catholic Church, 13*0 ])er cent, w^ere Nonconformist marriages, 0*04 per cent, were Quaker marriages, 0"68 per cent. Jewish, and 20 "5 per cent, civil marriages in Registrar's Office.
The following summary of statistics of Noncomformist churches (England and Wales) in 1911 is taken from the 'Free Church Year-Book' for 1912. It only claims to present an approximation to the actual condition. Figures relating to the Anglican Church are appended : —
Sitting accommoda- tion.
Commu- nicants
Surul ay- School Teachers.
Sunday School Scholars
Mini- sters
Local Prea- chers
Baptists
Coiigregationalists Presbyterians Wesleyan Methodists . Primitive Methodists . United Methodist Ch. . Oalvanistic Methodists . Society of Friends Wesleyan Reform Union Independent Methodists Churches of Christ Moravians
Countess of Hunting- don's Connexion Disciples of Christ Reformed Episcopal Ch. Free Church of England
Total F.C. Total Anglican
1,. 394, 285
l,716,6f.9
179,523
2,323,498
1,051,259
750,075
559,977
47,468 46,310 25,000 10,000
15,300 6,000 6,000 8,140
8,139,494 7,275,497
394,6471
454,429
86,828
602,432
2'02,479
159,255
183,862
18,513
8,317
8,770
14,703
3,297
2,200 1,629 1,278 1,352
2,143,991 2,342,153
57,552 68,058 8,259 130,678 59,224 41,825 28,366
2,770
3,082
1,859
607
500 239 256 361
403,636 217,000
553,329
1,981
655,548
2,152
95,277
355
976,752
1,848
466,848
1,134
305,335
639
215,390
979
27,929
—
22,883
22
27,204
—
18,313
25
5,107
46
4,300
29
2,065
13
2,600
28
4,196
24
3,.S83,076
9,275
2,500,667
13,964
5,260 5,500
19,715
16,139
5,461
331
431 409
580
12
26
53,864
1 Incomplete.
The Unitarians had (1911) 374 places of worship, the Catholic Apostolic Cliurch about 80, the New Jerusalem Church about 75. The Salvation Army, a religious body with a semi-military organisation, carries on both spiritual and social work at home and abroad, and has (1912) about 20,840 officers and employe.'^, 9,130 corps and outposts, and 54,000 local officers ; their places of worship in the United Kingdom have about 550,000 sittings. There are about 245,000 Jews in the United Kingdom with nearly 200 synagogues.
In AVales alone, in 1912, there were about 127,000 members of the Baptist churches; 184,000 of the Calvinistic Methodist; 170,000 of the Congregational ; and 40,000 of the Wesleyan Methodist Churches.
