The following table, taken from the A Imanac of the. Evangelical Association for 1869, gives the names of the annual conferences, the j'car of the organization of each, the number of itinerant preachers, local preach- ers, Cliurch members, probationers, Sunday-schools, and Sunday-school scholars :
Conferences.
g.2
II
Ph-2
"§1
o
East Pennsylvania. Cen. Pennsylvania. Ohio
ISS'J 1830 1830 184.-! 1S47 185] 1851
77 52 43 54 27 35 45 41 25 20 23 12 19 IS
80 43 69 511
6 28 20 20 11 11 23
2
6
9,S54 0,918 6,079 0,538 3,041 5,223 4,072 6,372 2.553 2,956 2,144
607 3,701 1,530
150
757 590 148 305
91 183 119
34 134
15
85
3
115
78 83
s:i
45 70 85 107 38 52 27 13 27 32 2
8,077 4,957 4.4'>0 4,757 2.177 4,200 3,971 3,414 1,775 2,269 982 2,145 1,006
120
138
94
104
74
49
79
75
69
19
52
21
4
4
13
3
Pittsburg
Wisconsin
1855 18.5:1 1803 1803 1803 1SG3 1867
Canada
Michigan
Germany
Minnesota
California & Oregon
Total
500
^77
62,844
2470
SG3
45,175
798
Evangelical Church Conference, the name of periodical meetings of delegates of the Protestant state churches of Germany. The object of these meetings is to have a free exchange of opinion on important ques- tions of ecclesiastical life, to furnish a bond of union for the several Protestant state churches of Germany, and to advance their harmonious development. The im- pulse to meetings of this kind proceeded, in 1815, from king Wilhelm ofAViirtemberg. Invitations to a confer- ence were issued conjoin tlyb}' Prussia andAViirtemberg to the governments of South German}', and by Prussia and Hanover to the governments of Northern Ger- many. At the first conference, which met at Berlin in 1846, the Church boards of all the German states except Austria, Bavaria, Oldenburg, and the Free Cities were represented. This meeting was secret, and tlie proceedings have never been officially pub- lished. It is known, however, that they concerned
EVANGELICAL COUNSELS 370
EVANGELIST
the periodical holding of conferences of this kind, con- fessions, liturgy, :ind Churcli constitution. The second meeting was to have been held at Stuttgardt in 1848, but did not take ])lace, in consequence of the disturb- ances caused by the revolution. At the Church diets (q. V.) of Stuttgardt (1850) and Elljerfeld (1851>, eccle- siastical officers of several countries deliberated on the resumption of the official Church conferences, and sug- gested the estalilisiiment of a central organ, which was to contain the decrees of all the supreme Church boards of the German States. Accordingly, the conference met again at Eisenach in June, 1852, and in the same j'ear an official central organ of the German Church govern- ments was established at Stuttgardt (Allr/em. Kirchen- ilattfiir das evcau/d. Deutschland). Since then the con- ference has met always at Eisenach, in 1855, 1857, 1859, 1861, 1863, 18G5, and 1808. One of the first results of the conferences was a compilation of 150 of the best German Protestant hj'^nins (/L>?'«ZiecZer), which was rec- ommended to the several states as a proper basis of, or appendix to, the h3'mn-books of the several churches. In 1855 some resolutions concerning the treatment of sects by the state chui'ches were unanimoush' adopted. These resolutions declared against the principle of full religious liberty, but recommended that tlie members of sects be allowed to contract valid civil marriages. The same conference adopted resolutions in behalf of a better observance of Sunday ; of giving to congre- gations the right of co-operation (votum negativum') in the appointment of ecclesiastical officers, and of intro- ducing special liturgical devotions during the week of Passion. The conference of 1857 lield important dis- cussions on the revival of Church discipline, on re- forms in the legislation concerning divorces, and on Christiui burial. Among the results of the later meet- ings of the conference were the following : The intro- duction of a praj'er for the German fatlierland, to be used every Sunday in every Protestant church ; reso- lutions on Church patronage, on liturgical matters, on the examinations of theological students, on catechiza- tion, on the revision of the Lutheran Bible, on the best way of collecting the statistics of the German Lutheran Church, on the construction of evangelical churches, on the State-Church system, etc. An ac- count of each meeting of the conference since 1855 is given in Matthes, Allgem. Kirchliche Chronik; see also Herzog, Real-EncijM. iv, 273.
Evangelical Counsels. See Consilia Evan-
GELICA.
Evangelical Union, " the name assumed by a religious bod}^ constituted in Scotland in 1843 by the Eev. James Morison, of Kilmarnock, and other minis- ters, whose doctrinal views had been condemned in the United Secession Church, to which thej^ previously be- longed, and the congregations adhering to them. They were soon afterwards joined by a number of ministers and congregations of similar views previously connect- ed with the Congregational Union or Independents of Scotland, aud have since extended themselves consid- erabl}- in Scotland and the north of England. Their doctrinal views are those whicli, from the name of Mr. Morison, have now become known in Scotland as Mor- isonian. See JIoKisoNiAXis^t. Their church govern- ment is Independent, but in some of the congregations originally Presbj'terian the office of the eldership is retained. A notable practice of tliis denomination is the ver^' frequent advertising of sermons and their subjects" (Chambers, Ci/c'op. s. y.). In 1851 the Union had in Scotland 28 places of worship, with 10,319 sit- tings.