In the summer of 1921, The Church Advocate published a statement of comparative statistics of growth in the Provinces. The figures, probably of 1920, from the entire Church, were, Clergy 155, Congregations 283, Communicants 30,113. The congregations now number 289, and probably the increase of clergy and members corresponds. Then follow these paragraphs: “In the year 1907, in the Southern States included in the Province of Sewanee, there were reported 5,719 colored communicants. Fourteen years later, 1921, within the same territory, there are reported 6,393 colored communicants, or a total gain in fourteen years of 674. In 1907, the New England States, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, reported in the aggregate 4,413 colored communicants. In 1921, this same group of States report 11,601 communicants, an increase, in that period, of 7,188.”
These figures are probably very nearly accurate; and they suggest an inquiry to which no simple yet complete answer can be given. Two explanations stand out above others: first, that the reasons which have retarded the growth of the Episcopal Church in the South are the same for White and Black alike, i. e., its ultra-conservative character, involving an unconsciously aristocratic spirit which may often seem cold and forbidding. The second explanation may be found in the economic pull toward the busier North, drawing the most enterprising element of both races. From the ministry, through business circles, to the industrial trades, our northern centres have a large percentage of southern life. This is especially and increasingly true of our negro life during the years since 1900. The Episcopal Church is cultural to a marked degree; her Services not only encourage but impart culture. Her negro members quickly become a desirable class. Thus the experience of Mississippi during the past twelve years may be somewhat exceptional, but it is still typical of the whole South. Had we held our increase through confirmations and through births in the Church, the number today would be more than trebled. In the one war-year of greatest migration, the colored congregations lost quite 50% of their numbers; these migrants are now to be found very generally in the churches all the way from Chicago to Boston.
It is sometimes very discouraging to our colored clergy to see a fine, sturdy nucleus of a strong parish evaporate in a few weeks. The loneliness of it is intense. All honor and profound respect for the men who hold their posts on a progressive picket-line, standing alone, sometimes, until recruits answer the call! They are at the training-stations, sending on the trained to the larger centres, North and South.
In the Government Report on Negro Migration, 1916-1917, Dr. James H. Dillard gives a striking illustration furnished by the reports of the Durham School, Philadelphia. “I thought that the new enrollment would probably afford some information as to new arrivals. The Principal had enrolled the new pupils on sheets containing fifty names, and had been careful to enter opposite each name the place from which the pupil had come. I took six sheets at random and found ... among the new pupils between forty and fifty per cent from the South.”
The Church is one, and the one lesson of practical value from this recital is that the Church be ever watchful and ready in pastoral care of a flock wandering far from accustomed folds, and diligent to conserve the fruit of a common sacred task. With this as the over-mastering motive, the scouts on outpost duty will rejoice equally with the mobilized army in close array, that all stand steadfast to duty.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] For a full discussion of this matter, see the Report of a Committee of the Diocese of South Carolina, 1859.