have Relief Societies. The National Society is deeply grateful for the generous response from such States. This prac tical response and spirit of helpfulness serves to emphasize the unity of our churches, the oneness of their work and that our Christian fellowship and brotherly affection are nation and world wide. It is the united purpose of the National and State Relief Societies to assure all Congregational ministers in any part of our country that neither they nor their families shall be left in sickness, misfortune or old age, without proper and practical recognition of their sacrificial service in the Kingdom of God.

The financial transactions of the Board of Relief for the past biennium will appear in the Treasurer's report to the Council at Grand Rapids in October, 1919.

II. THE ANNUITY FUND FOR CONGREGATIONAL MINISTERS

The annuity plan was approved by the National Council in Kansas City in 1913, on the recommendation of the Board of Ministerial Relief. The previous council had instructed this Board to report and recommend some plan which would provide "a substantial retiring pension, proportioned in amount to the number of years spent in our active ministry,not a grant of charity because of indigence, but a pension of honor because of faithful service." The annuity plan has now been in force about five years and what it has accomplished in membership and finances will appear in the official report to the Council. The most interesting phase of this whole annuity effort appears in the great endeavor of the denomination to secure a worthy endowment for an annuity pension system for our ministers, in celebration of the threehundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims in 1920; and this leads to the third aspect of the present denominational effort to meet its obligation to our aged ministers, namely:

III. THE PILGRIM MEMORIAL FUND

This fund is to be $5,000,000 and is to be secured by December 31, 1920. It is perhaps the greatest undertaking of our Congregational churches. It is meeting with the hearty response and co-operation of the churches and their constitu

ency in all parts of the country. Though the times are marked by great social unrest and financial uncertainty, there is every assurance that this heroic enterprise will succeed. The Executive Committee of the Council's Commission of one hundred is, under its efficient Chairman and Executive Secretary, aided by the splendid force of field men and secretaries, co-operating pastors, laymen and official representatives of some of the National Societies, pushing forward a nationwide campaign with most hopeful results.

When this enterprise shall have been consummated, and the corporation of the National Council, the holding body of the Pilgrim Memorial Fund, shall have begun to pay over the income to the Trustees of the Annuity Fund for Congregational Ministers, to "be used to provide old age annuities, disability and death benefits for Congregational ministers, in connection with contributory payments by the ministers themselves," then it will be time for the whole denomination to stand and sing the doxology.

Right here, however, we must guard against one grave danger, namely, the idea that now the denomination has done its full duty for all time and nothing more need be done.

Already several ministers and laymen have written to the national office in a vein similar to this quotation from a pastor's letter:

"I find it widely advocated that after the Pilgrim Memorial Fund is secured, the people will not need to give to Ministerial Relief, as the ground for help for ministers will then be so fully covered."

A brief consideration of certain facts will show the fallacy of this conclusion.

A large number of ministers and aged members of ministers' families are at the present time in need of the sustaining service of the Boards of Ministerial Relief.

There is no ground upon which we can reasonably assure ourselves that a similar condition will not continuously exist.

The amount that the Boards of Relief are able to pay to the 600 families that are now on their rolls is shockingly inadequate from the standpoint of either their needs, their claims, or the obligation of the churches.

The general maximum payment from the Boards is about $350 a year, while the average is about $225.

The churches can never be satisfied with this payment. Instead, therefore, of decreasing contributions to the direct work of Ministerial Relief, they should be largely increased.

We have been making a careful examination of the statistics given in the last Year-Book (statistics for 1918) relating to ministers. In the alphabetical list of ministers we found that there are 2718 who are not in the active pastorate. After each one of these names is given the date of ordination. In connection with these names the record shows that 929 are engaged in some form of service such as editors, secretaries, educational work, superintendents, missionaries at home and abroad, chaplains, evangelists, Y. M. C. A. and special war work, soldiers in the army, and 112 in business.

After making allowance for those thus employed and others doubtless giving their time to honorable employments not mentioned in the records, there seem to be about 1500 who are without active or continuous employment. It is doubtless true that many of these earn something as pulpit supplies, services rendered in other denominations and in other ways, but probably these do not earn a sufficient sum to meet all their requirements, particularly in these times.

As

Our examination of the list of ministers given in connection with the tabulation of the churches, reveals the fact that several hundreds of them are now at least 65 years old. suming that the average age of ordination of our ministers would be about 27, and after studying the facts in the YearBook, we are convinced that more than a thousand of our six thousand ministers are at the present time 65 years of age or older. The same study indicates that 7 of these ministers are in the 90's, 132 in the 80's, 438 in the 70's and about 300 from 65 to 70.

The experience of the Boards of Relief indicates that the number of women requiring assistance, is about equal to the number of men. There are, therefore, at the present time about 2,000 persons who should participate in the distribution of Ministerial Relief funds. The fact is, however, that at the present time the Boards are assisting only about 600. No doubt many of those who are now retired, or who are

about to retire, will be otherwise provided for. Some of them have funds saved which will be sufficient. Others are provided for by the churches which they have long served, while still others are lovingly and generously cared for by their children. Yet after all these deductions have been made, the number remaining who must have extended to them the loving care of the churches, through the agencies which they have established for their benefit, is very large. One of these provided, is the Annuity Fund.

The Annuity Fund as at present organized and in the modified form which goes into effect January 1, 1921, is a contributory pension system, the rates of which are based upon age, and the amount available in annuities at age 65 or older, or at the period of disability, or for widows and orphans at the time of the death of the husband and father, is governed by the number of years of service.

In order to obtain the fullest benefits it is necessary that the minister should become a member of the Fund at about 30 years of age, and continue his payments up to age 65. Those entering the plan after they are 30, or who fail to continue their payments until they are 65, will, of course, receive proportionately smaller returns. The maintenance of these memberships depends upon the payments made by the members, by their churches, and from the income of the Pilgrim Memorial Fund. In other words the annuity system adopted by the denomination looks to the future and is large with hope and encouragement, but involves conditions which cannot in every case be met. There will always be ministers who, for one reason or another, cannot go through the full period of membership payments. There will always be those who will not become members of the Annuity Plan, therefore the Boards of Relief will ever be necessary to provide,

First for those who are ineligible to membership in the Annuity Plan.

Second-for those who will never become members of the Annuity Plan.

Third-and especially and particularly, for those who have not been able, though members, to carry their memberships through to the period when the benefits will be sufficient to

meet their needs. This deficiency will have to be met in some measure by the grants of the Boards of Relief.

The fact is, the two methods, Annuity and Relief, go hand in hand, work side by side, minister jointly to those who have been faithful in the service of our churches and the building up of the denomination and the Kingdom of God at home and abroad. They must continue to work in perfect harmony. They will together eventually, if both continue to receive the co-operation and increasing support of the churches, provide sufficiently and honorably for the period of old age and inactivity of these servants of God.

REPORT OF THE ANNUITY FUND FOR

CONGREGATIONAL MINISTERS

This statement concerning the Annuity Fund for Congregational Ministers covers the period from the issuance of its first certificate of membership, May 7, 1914, to July 31, 1919, a period of five years and three months.

The total number of certificates issued has been 565, of which 539 are still in force.

There have been 11 deaths.

The number of annuitants at the present time is 16, ten of whom are widows, and six are old age annuitants.

The present value of the old age annuity is $200. The outlook for memberships' reaching their full value within a very few years is most encouraging.

Present annuitants will participate in the increased value of their certificates until they have reached their full value of $500 a year for the ministers who have served thirty years

or more.

The average age at entry of the present members of the fund is 46, the minimum being 24 and the maximum 65. Of the present members 13 have been engaged in war work, 8 of them overseas, while 23 are missionaries of the American Board.

Most of the members are in the 65 year class, only 3 being in the 68 year class and 13 in the 70 year class.