RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIA TION, The, was organized in February 1903 at a convention called to consider °the improve ment of moral and religious education?) The movement began under the inspiration of Wil liam Rainey Harper, then president of the Uni versity of Chicago, who organized a °Council of Seventy) first to promote modern, scientific biblical study and, later, to develop the neces sary organization for promoting religious edu cation. Other well-known educators associated with the beginnings of the organikation were Dr. Charles Cuthbert Hall, Dr.' Frank Knight Sanders, Dean Shailer Mathews, Pres. William Douglas Mackenzie, Pres. James B.
Prof. John Dewey, Dr. • William Hervey Henry Churchill King. The organization states its purpose as: °To inspire the edu cational forces of our country . with the re ligious ideal; to inspire the religious forces of our country with the educational ideal; and to keep before the patine mind the ideal of Re ligious Education and the sense of its need and It brings together in one comprehensive organization the leaders and workers of all ecclesiastical,• evangelical, educational, cultural and social organisations who wish for fellow ship, for mutual interchange of thought, infor mation and experience, and for co-operation in achieving the highest ideal of personality and citizenship. By means of this organiza tion of leaders, it promotes the interrelation of all existing agencies of religious and moral education, for mutual service, understanding and sympathy, for economy of effort, for friendly co-operation and for united strength. It also surveys the whole field of religious and moral education, promoting a study of condi tions, reporting the organized and individual forces at work within it, fostering thought, discussion and experiment, determining the principles and the methods of progress.
It enlists in a united membership and fellow ship of service all persons, in all walks of life, who desire to secure the improvement of homes, churches, schools and other agencies in the work of moral and religious instruction and training.
The Religious Education Association has a membership of 3,000 persons paying the annual fee of $3; the money necessary for its extension work and its free services to persons seeking counsel is contributed by other members who elect to pay $5, $10 and upward, and by persons who make generous gifts to this work.
The Association conducts a birresti of in formation to meet the need for a common source of reliable' information on modern work in religious education. Through its officers it
gathers up the facts on modern methods from karts of the world. This information is classified in the office and constitutes, with the extensive library, the working basis with which to answer thousand of inquiries annually.
The central office acts as a clearingi-house on methods, material, literature and informa tion. All inquiries receive careful attention and are answered by the aid of department officers and specialists and the exhibit library. When ever literature on the subject of inquiry is available it is sent to inquirers. Numerous pamphlets, bibliographies, reprints, etc.; are on hand for free distribution. The services of the bureau of information are free to all.
The bureau also aids many inquirers person ally. The offices are open to the public, and at the headquarters of the Association, at 1440 East Fifty-seventh street, Chicago, a permanent exhibit of materials has been installed. This exhibit now consist of : (1) A library of over 6,000 books, consisting of works on methods, principles and materials of religious and moral education. The textbook selection shows the material now available for use in Sunday schools, college; etc. (2) Lesson helps, text books, outline material and printed matter used in Sunday schools and similar institutions, in tended to reflect the best material and methods. (3) Pamphlets and illustrative material on moral education.
The Association holds annually an interna tional convention. These conventions, to which the public is invited, but at which members have special privileges, already have an international fame for their splendid array of noted speakers, the importance of the topics discussed and the character of the attendance. Each convention program includes over 100 speakers and 30 different meetings.
The membership of the Association is di vided into departments which are organized about institutional interests for co-operative study of their problems and the improvement of their methods of religious education, by cor respondence and conference, especially at the conventions, enlisting the services of many leaders and specialists. The Association has published five large volumes, containing author itative, modern scientific treatment of the most important problems of the home, Sunday school, public school, college, university, church, library and other educational agencies, and it also issues the bi-monthly magazine, Religious Edu cation.