The Winchester Profession is commended as containing these principles, but neither this nor any other precise form of words is required as a condition of fellowship, provided always that the principles above stated be professed.
II. The acknowledgment of the authority of the General Convention and assent to its law." This statement gave new freedom and indi vidual congregations made their own state ments of belief. The Church as a whole fol lowed the philosophy of Hosea Ballou rather than that of John Murray, and replaced the trinitarism of Murray with the unitarianism of Ballou. The two denominations, Unitarian and Universalist, were offshoots from the Congre gational Church of New England, the Univer salists emphasizing the final salvation of all, and the Unitarians the humanity of Jesus and the dignity of human nature. Gradually the thinkers of the two denominations have come to essentially the same position on the funda mentals of faith Also the liberal orthodox church has gradually come to the same position, so that at the present time there exist cordial relations between the Universalists, Unitarians and Congregationalists.
The Universalist General Convention is the controlling organization, having jurisdiction over the churches in the United States and Canada. It holds biennial sessions on the Wed nesday preceding the fourth Sunday in October.
The Convention is composed of : first, of its officers; second, of the president, vice-president and secretary of the several State conventions in its fellowship; third, of the general superin tendent and the several State superintendents; fourth, of all ordained clergymen in fellowship either with such a State convention or with the General convention and, unless disabled by years or sickness, actively engaged in the work of the ministry; fifth, delegates from each par ish in fellowship, each such parish being entitled to one lay delegate.
To he entitled to such lay delegates and in order that its minister he eligible to be a dele gate, every parish must maintain its legal ex istence and support public worship regularly and make a contribution on quota to the General Convention during each of the two years prior to the meeting of said convention. All the laws
relating to the fellowship, ordination and dis cipline originate in the General Convention, and it is the final court of appeal in all questions in dispute or in differences between the State conventions. The convention is a body incor porated under the laws of the State of New York to hold real and personal estate. In the interim of its sessions, the of the Church are managed by a board of 11 trustees, who meet three times a year, and at the bi ennial session. The Church has funds aggre gating $600,000. There are now about 45 State conventions also with funds, with about 900 parishes, with a church membership of 53,000; 750 Sunday-schools with a membership of 50,000; 803 edifices, total valuation, $12,000,000, and 602 clergymen in fellowship.
These figures regarding the membership of the Universalist Church are misleading and a truer statement would be that the Universalist Church has 250,000 adherents.
As part of the Church are other organiza tions, more or less independent in their activi ties, ,but at the same time recognizing the gen eral authority of the General Convention. One of these organizations is the Women's National Missionary Association, composed of women working for home and foreign missions. It has several divisions of activity and supports missions in many fields,, particularly in the South and in Japan. It holds large funds of its own, the income going for missionary prop aganda. It has flourishing auxiliary organi zations, for the study of missions and the pro motion of missionary undertakings.
Another important organization is the Young People's Christian Union, a body com posed of the young people., Its special work has been to develop local unions for the pur pose of training young people in religious life. It has directed the starting of new churches and supported missionaries in the South and West. It publishes a weekly paper, known as the Onward. It holds annual sessions and gives much attention to the distribution of denominational literature.