Church rate

“ No; not after there is added to this income the portion of the burial-fees received by the churchwardens; but this source of income, which has averaged for many years more than £350 per annum, must soon cease. So that dissenters and others, who reside even on a bishop’s estate, have a fair prospect of being called on to pay a church-rate, after all the churches which the rate-payers have built, shall have been paid for. ”

“ A Church Rate is proposed by the Churchwardens of St. Thomas’s Church, of Sixpence in the Pound, to be granted, in the Vestry, on Thursday, the 8th instant, at Ten o’clock. Will the People of Dudley submit to this? Ratepayers, attend the meeting, and show your opposition to the obnoxious Tax, by voting for a Penny Rate.
A preliminary meeting will be held at the “Swan Inn,” on Wednesday Evening at Eight o’clock. All Persons in favour of Religious Liberty are requested to attend. ”

“ Churches and chapels are built, and endowed. The old Ecclesiastical edifices of this country are maintained and repaired with little or no help from this miserable Church-rate fund. If more money was wanted to-morrow, more would be forthcoming. What, then, is the object amongst such a people of endeavouring to maintain the connection between Church and State in a forcible way, when they are ready enough to admit, and do practically carry out, the principle that every man should devote a portion of his earnings, and of his wealth, to the service of God? ”

“ If the result of the whole transaction would be to lay the whole Church-rate question at rest with a tacit exemption of those who would not pay, there would be little cause for regret except on one ground, that some legislation is needed for district churches, and that if any legislation at all takes place it might as well be final. ”

“ Ward made it clear to the House of Commons that the revenues of the State Church in Ireland were not distributed with anything like a view to the fair and equal remuneration of its clergy. In numbers of cases the clergy of the higher ranks had enormous incomes, quite out of all proportion to any duties they were even supposed to perform, while the clergymen who actually did the work were, as a general rule, screwed down to a pitiful rate of payment which hardly kept soul and body together. ”

“ In these matters a stitch in time often saves nine, and though we have now no compulsory Church-rate to fall back upon for Church expenses, yet in an harmoniously worked parish there really ought to be no insurmountable difficulty in raising p. ”

“ On the other hand, if the paltry revenue be not worth a struggle for its own sake, neither is the principle at issue of much value. The supporters of the Church Rates maintain that this is a question of whether or no we choose to make abnegation of our character as a God-fearing nation—of whether by a solemn act of the Legislature we will cut off the connection between Church and State. ”

“ I propose that, in all parishes with a population of less than 500 inhabitants, the civil duties of the churchwardens shall be transferred to the overseers, unless in any such parishes there happen to be any public charities of which the churchwardens are trustees by virtue of their office. In all parishes where any such charities exist, or where the population exceeds 500 inhabitants, I propose that a new officer be elected by the rate-payers, to be called the Parishwarden. Where the charities in question are essentially Church charities, they must continue in the hands of the Churchwardens ”

“ If the Dissenters can, in addition to paying Church Rates, maintain upwards of 21,812 Chapels and preaching rooms, surely the Church of England, which most certainly comprises the chief wealth of the land, need not fear to confront the voluntary principle for the maintenance of her 14,000 fabrics. ”

“ To preserve a more intimate bond of union in an age when nearly half the population of the country repudiate her claims, is, in theory, an injustice to the people; and, in practice, a hardship to the Church herself.
The abolition of Church Courts would involve the abolition of Church Rates, unless the country were prepared to continue them in a new form, and render them recoverable in the temporal Courts. Church Rates are so essentially of an ecclesiastical nature that they must go with the corruptions of those tribunals which it is proposed to sweep away. ”

“ J. Lawn seconded, “That at a time when it is expected that the Government will pass a bill for the abolition of Church rates, it appears to this vestry that it is inexpedient to increase the rates by including St. Peter’s Church, as it may ultimately add to increased taxation.” Mr. Fisher also moved, and Mr. Joseph Neave seconded, “That time be given for the ratepayers to examine the estimates, and that the meeting do therefore adjourn for three weeks for that purpose.”—The Chairman refused to put either of the above amendments—the first because Mr. ”

“ Of its population, which by the last census was 4,337,000, not less than 4,327,000 were Roman Catholics, and only 7,368 Protestants. The total expense of the dominant Church to the state, which pays all the clergy, is 4,366,000 francs, or about a franc a-head for each member of the Church. It has besides private revenues of various kinds for repairing churches, for charitable foundations, &c., amounting to 800,000 francs, making the total revenue about 5,000,000 of francs. This, divided among five thousand clergy of all ranks, gives less than one thousand francs as the average stipend. ”

“ The clergy depend for their salaries upon the congregations for whom they officiate, and upon private endowments. The total value of church property in the United States is estimated at 86,416,639 dollars, of which one-half is owned in the States of Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. The number of churches, exclusive of those in the newly-organised territories, is about 38,000. There is one church for every 646 of the population. The voluntary system is acted upon by each denomination, though it is slightly modified in the Episcopalian church. ”

“ The ecclesiastical hierarchy of England costs as much as all the states of continental Europe put together, and contributes least to the promotion of vital religion among either people or clergy. About forty millions of dollars are paid annually to the church establishment, of which enormous sum not half a million is received by the four thousand two hundred and fifty-four poor curates, who do nearly all the professional work as deputies, dependent upon the absent state bishop, or neighboring aristocrat. ”

“ THE INFLUENCE OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH ON SLAVERY. There is no country in the world where the religious influence has a greater ascendency than in America. There is no country where the clergy are more powerful. This is the more remarkable, because in America religion is entirely divorced from the state, and the clergy have none of those artificial means for supporting their influence which result from rank and wealth. Taken as a body of men, the American clergy are generally poor. The salaries given to them afford only a bare support, and yield them no means of acquiring property. ”

“ Yet the difference between the Pope’s valuation and the reforming King’s, is far less than the actual value of church property in Queen Victoria’s reign and that which is entered on “the King’s books.” It is true that the clergy are now taxed differently from what they were before the Reformation ”

“ Since we wish all other prelates and clergy to have a share in this meritorious work and its reward, we, with the approval of the council, decree that all the clergy of whatever rank shall, for three years, give the twentieth of the income of their churches to the aid of the holy land, and for the collection of it we shall appoint certain persons. We except from this tax certain monks and also those who shall take the cross and go in person on the crusade. Moreover, we and our brethren, the cardinals of the holy Roman church, will pay a tenth of our incomes ”

“ No appropriations were asked of the Board, except for the theological class, the female boarding-school, and one out-station; for all the rest the church provided. For these objects, for their own poor, and for their taxes to government, the sum total raised by the Protestants, in the then closing year, had been two thousand five hundred and fifty-six dollars, averaging one dollar and a quarter for every man, woman, and child in the community. The congregation being too large for one pastor, arrangements had been made to form a second church, and thus to have two churches instead of one. ”

“ This very moderate revenue affords a decent subsistence to nine hundred and forty-four ministers. The whole expense of the church, including what is occasionally laid out for the building and reparation of churches, and of the manses of ministers, cannot well be supposed to exceed eighty or eighty-five thousand pounds a-year. The most opulent church in Christendom does not maintain better the uniformity of faith, the fervour of devotion, the spirit of order, regularity, and austere morals, in the great body of the people, than this very poorly endowed church of Scotland. ”

“ Considering that nearly half the churches raise their money haphazardly, the average contribution per church and per member, in these four counties on the Range, is most encouraging. Of course, it must be borne in mind that 1919-1920 came at the end of the fat years, and hard upon this prosperous period followed the lean one of high freight rates and low prices for farm products. Church finances depend in part upon the practical presentation of the financial needs of the Church, and upon education in Christian stewardship—i.e., in learning the value of church work at home and abroad. ”

“ The amount of the indirect subsidy annually paid to the churches by our government which pretends to separation of church and state cannot be exactly determined. Statistics of the value of church property are inaccurately gathered, with a tendency to underestimate ”

“ But in Protestant countries we understand very little of the system of fees and unseen payments in the Catholic Church, and we form probably a very erroneous idea of the real income and means of living of a Roman Catholic clergy when we conclude that, as a general rule, their main dependence is upon the known and avowed salaries they derive from the State or from other public sources. ”

“ We have already stated our belief that the fact of a clergyman holding High or Low Church views is not in any manner whatever necessarily connected with the increase of Catholicism among his congregation, but that such increase is owing either to the lack of a sufficient staff of the Protestant clergy to {704} repel its advances, or to the apathy or inefficiency of the incumbent, or, as may be especially shown in some wealthy districts, to that mysterious want of power in the clergy of the Church of England over the minds of the rich and influential of their parishioners. ”

“ The bishop requires a great deal of money, especially since the State, become ill-disposed, cuts off clerical resources as much as possible, no longer maintains scholarships in the seminaries, deprives suspicious desservans of their small stipends, eats into the salaries of the prelates, throws obstacles in the way of communal liberalities, taxes and over taxes the congregations, so that, not merely through the diminution of its allowances it relieves itself at the expense of the Church, but again, through the increase of its imposts, it burdens the Church for its own advantage. ”

“ The ecclesiastical revenues and the income of the cloisters are subjected to a progressive taxation on behalf of a religious fund, mainly for improving the condition of the lower clergy, for which the episcopate hitherto, in spite of all entreaties, had done practically nothing. Newly formed religious societies received state recognition if their denomination and principles contain nothing contrary to law and morality or offensive to those of another faith. ”

“ Why, it is no longer necessary for churches to{514} be built solely by those who are members of the congregation which is endeavoring to erect the edifice. A subscription for the building fund of a church of any denomination is passed around among people of all faiths and no faith, and money is subscribed as freely and as unreservedly as if the effort was being made simply for the relief of some individual in embarrassment. ”

“ There appears to be no difficulty in raising funds by these means, particularly if the clergyman is popular. If he is unpopular, or his doctrines unacceptable or extreme, he suffers by the falling off of his income. This system, moreover, has the advantage of giving every man an interest in his church. ”

“ The clergy possess immense property, in land, houses, and specie: when it was proposed to lay an impost of ten per cent upon the income of the church, the Benedictine monks offered to commute their part of the tax, by paying 40,000 crowns annually. ”

“ Four thousand livings, and upwards, of less than one hundred [294] and fifty pounds a year each, many very far less, with no parsonage houses whatever, or with such as the most Sabine economist would pronounce unfit for a clergyman to occupy;—this is the forlorn condition, as to temporals, in which the church has stood for a long season; a condition to which it could not have been reduced, had even a portion of the vast revenues dispersed at the Reformation been husbanded, and applied to the legitimate purpose of bettering the situation of the inferior clergy. ”

“ If, though so few in numbers and at a great disadvantage, the church was able to raise herself to her present position; if, when the exemptions were all in favor of other denominations, Catholics were able to make so great a progress, is it to be supposed that by these changes, and by placing other denominations on an equality with Catholics, the advancement of [711] the Catholic Church is to be retarded?
We have been trained in the stern school of poverty. We are accustomed to sacrifice. Our clergy do not receive high salaries. ”