2. Approach in Italian for adult Italian groups. (a) Religious services of worship in Italian. (b) Bilingual staff members, a lawyer, physician, employment agent, and a printer, whose services may be used for help among Italians in the community. (c) Mothers' club in Italian. (d) Men's clubs for learning English and citizenship (civic questions, citizenship papers, etc.). (e) Use of Italian literature. (f) Religious instruction in Italian. (g) Illustrated lectures. (h) Italian patriotism as point of contact (Italian days, the 20th of September, etc.). (i) Make use of musical interest. 3. Approach in English to children and young people. (a) Attendance at English church services. (b) Religious instruction (Sunday school). (c) Related week-day club activities, emphasis on expressional work, such as recreational clubs, gymnasium clubs, choral societies, dramatic clubs, Boy Scouts, Knights of King Arthur, Camp Fire Girls, Girl Scouts, sewing, painting, drawing, and sculpture. (d) Illustrated lectures and moving pictures. (e) Daily vacation Bible school. (f) Flower mission. (g) Fresh air work. (h) Camps. II. Program of Training for non-English-speaking Leadership by the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 1. The Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in co-operation with the Board of Education of the Methodist Episcopal Church is to begin immediately the task of (a) training American ministers for work among Italians in this country, these men to have a college and theological seminary training and, in addition, while studying at the theological seminary, to be in attendance upon a training center in connection with some Italian church where they may receive lectures in Italian and Italian culture, and be guided in clinic work in different Italian parishes; (b) training Italiau ministers for work among Italians in this country, these men to have college and theological training and, in addition, while studying at the theological seminary, to be in attendance upon a training center in connection with some Italian church where they may receive lectures in Italian and Italian culture, and be guided in clinic work in different Italian parishes. 2. Training institutes for Italian ministers in service are to Le held in different parts of the country as the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension may be able to plan. The Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of Methodist Episcopal Church is to be made a clearing-house nformation concerning Italian parishes and Italian workers; iet and city society superintendents and pastors to report to Board concerning their work twice a year. AT WORK WITH THE ITALIANS THE PRESBYTERIAN WILLIAM P. SHRIVER, Director of City and Immigrant n the spring of 1916 the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. 107 churches and missions using the Italian language, with 00 members and more than 8,000 enrolled in the Sunday ools. In the last year over 1,100 were received upon fession of their faith in sixty-one churches and missions ne. Sixty Italian-speaking pastors are employed; twentyree lay workers, thirty-two visitors, and over 350 American lunteers are regularly engaged in the work of sixty-seven urches and missions reporting. Large funds have been invested the permanent equipment of this work ($350,000 in twentyght churches and missions). The progress of these Presbyrian Italian churches and missions in the matter of self-suprt is highly encouraging; forty-seven churches and missions ported over $14,000 contributed for all purposes in the last ar. Over $75,000 annually is being contributed toward this ork by Presbyterian churches and home mission agencies, not eluding funds made available by the Presbyterian Board of Education, funds contributed for colportage and publication, nor unds contributed for the maintenance of the Italian Departnent in the Bloomfield Theological Seminary, New Jersey, and or schools and seminaries in other parts of the country. At least $100,000 annually is being contributed by the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. for this work of evangelization among Italians, over and above the amounts contributed by its Italianspeaking constituency. Auspices and Administration The Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. has at this time no unified approach to this field of evangelization nor central administrative agency. Work among Italians is largely carried out under the auspices of the presbyteries or local churches, and in two cases is directly administered by synods (state-wide organizations). Over twenty Presbyterian Italian churches and missions are directly under the auspices of a local church, and this type of work is increasing in favor. The Board of Home Missions, through its Immigrant Work office, with headquarters in New York, endeavors to survey the whole field and to keep in touch with all Presbyterian work among Italians. It maintains in this office a card catalogue of all such enterprises in which are collated the annual statistics of churches and missions. The Board, however, has no administrative responsibility, excepting as hereafter mentioned under its individual parish plan, and employs no field representative whose time is exclusively devoted to Italian evangelization. In the fiscal year ending March 31, 1916, the Board of Home Missions disbursed approximately $32,000 for Italian evangelization, or 38.5 per cent. of its total appropriation for immigant work. Permanent Conference on Italian Evangelization In the spring of 1916, at a Conference on Italian Evangelization held at Princeton, New Jersey, which included both Italian speaking pastors and workers, and representatives from presbyteries and home mission agencies concerned, steps were taken looking to the setting up of a Permanent Conference on Italian Evangelization. It was proposed that delegates to this conference include all pastors and missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. who are regularly and definitely engaged in work with Italians, together with representatives of presbyteries and synods concerned, the boards of the church, and other agencies. For the present, biennial conferences will be held. Standing committees will be elected as follows: 1. Survey of the field. 2. Literature and publications. 3. Education. 4. Fraternal relations. 5. Community service and evangelism. 6. Program and arrangements. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. has given its approval to this plan, which will bring about a greater unity in Presbyterian work among Italians. The method is original in that it proposes a conference not of Italianspeaking pastors and workers alone, but of all those who are definitely interested in Presbyterian work with Italians. By this method, it is felt, the various points of view will be harmonized and a better understanding brought about. Types and Conduct of Work Among seventy-four churches and missions for which data is available, it is of interest to note that seventeen are conducted as organized churches, thirty-six as missions, and twenty-one as departments of established American churches. This latter, or departmental work, in many cases is most encouraging in its efficiency. Where Italian communities have grown up about wellestablished American churches, an Italian-speaking pastor has been added to the staff and departmental work has been begun. Frequently, as in the case of John Hall Memorial Chapel, the Church of the Sea and Land, and Spring Street Church in New York City, and Olivet Institute in Chicago, the facilities of wellequipped institutional churches have been placed at the service of the Italian community. Presbyterian work among Italians has now happily outgrown the primitive mission stage. Among seventy-six churches and missions, only ten are housed in a hall or store. Thirty-four have separate church buildings or chapels, and thirty-two share the equipment of older American churches. In a number of city and suburban communities, new and beautiful buildings have been erected for Italian communities. The First Italian Church, Philadelphia, the Italian churches in Germantown, the Presbyterian Italian Mission at Bernardsville, several churches in Newark, Holy Trinity Church and the Church of the Ascension in New York, are all illustrative of excellent new buildings erected for Italian evangelization. The Board of Church Erection has shared in the building of a number of churches and chapels employed for Italian evangelization. While new buildings are seeking to provide facilities for educational and social work, full recognition is being made of the Italian's interest in a reverent place for worship. Nearly all Pres byterian Italian churches and missions engage in educational or social work. Forty-two report English classes for men. Twenty have English classes for women. Twenty-two have civic clubs. English in nearly all cases is used in the Sunday school. Parish Methods While Presbyterian work among immigrants recognizes the importance of a sympathetic approach to the various racial groups, and that Presbyterian churches and missions employing a foreign language are indispensable, it also recognizes the increasing implications of community life and interests. Its objective is not only a work of evangelization projected from such churches and missions, and in a foreign language, but the establishing of a Christian community life. This latter aim necessarily calls for the co-ordination of many forces and a larger and more comprehensive undertaking. Under the leadership of the Immigrant Work office of the Board of Home Missions, industrial communities are being ministered to through the so-called parish plan, which federates all Presbyterian churches or agencies in a given community and supplies additional leadership and increased facilities which may be used in common by the churches or missions at work in the field. Thus in the Range Parish, in an iron ore producing region in Minnesota, where there is a population of from 6,000 to 10,000 Italians, a staff of five parish workers is employed in addition to the regular pastors of Presbyterian churches on the Range. This staff includes two Italian speaking pastors whose work is sustained and strengthened in this larger fellowship. The American Parish in New York, under the direction of Rev. Norman M. Thomas, includes two Italian communities with a population exceeding 100,000, with four centers of Presbyterian Italian work, two being fully organized Presbyterian Italian churches, the third an Italian department, and the fourth, a settlement or neighborhood work with an Italian constituency. Training Schools The Bloomfield Theological Seminary at Bloomfield, New Jersey, with an academic and collegiate department, has a department especially for the training of an Italian speaking ministry. Italian speaking students, however, are enrolled in Dubuque. Auburn, Princeton and McCormick theological seminaries and other schools. The Home Missions Committee of the Presbytery of New York has established a graduate training course for lay workers, and is offering to a group of college women courses in "Immigrant Backgrounds," including the Italians, with instruction in the Italian language. In 1917 this training course will be carried on under the auspices of Teachers' College, Columbia University, and will be open to all who fulfill the conditions of matriculation. |