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This article presents an overview on the fourth consultation of the European Colloquium on the Sociology of Religion at William Temple College, Rugby, England from April 17-21, 1963. Twenty six people from a dozen countries, including the U.S. and Finland, met for the conference. Canon R. S. O. Stevens of Birmingham, who acted as secretary to the Colloquium, opened the conference, welcoming the visitors and introducing Miss M. Batten, Principal of the College, whose paper Religious Life in Britain in the Post-War Period, proved a fitting beginning, discussing as it did the basis for sociological investigation in the sphere of religion. The following morning, with the Reverend Michael Jackson in the chair, Doctor John Kent, a church historian from Manchester, gave a paper, Sociological Factors in Disunity. His analysis of the history of divisions within the Protestant churches in England was of considerable interest, and his suggestions as to the causes of the present movement towards Anglicanism on the part of Methodists in Britain, were illuminating. Plans for the future were discussed at length, Professor Goldschmidt giving the report for the steering committee. Brief reports on work in progress then followed.

This paper explores the role problems of the Anglican clergyman in various levels such as the level of the total society, the organisational level and the local community level. There have been a number of changes going on in England in the twentieth century that have affected the authority of the clergyman in contemporary society. Clergy are no longer the major group exercising an influence over the normative orientations of the general public. The major dilemma for the churches is how far if at all, to change the basic theological beliefs and the expression of these in order to make the claims of Christianity comprehensible to modern people. Clergy do apply moral concepts to human actions, something which the professional counsellors are supposed to avoid at all costs. There are two major points about the nature of the Church of England which affects all Anglican clergymen in England in their roles as parish priests. One of these is cultural, that is, theological and the other is structural, about the organisational structure of the Church of England. The parish system suffers under conditions of more rapid social change, social and geographical mobility, in the same way as other locally based organisational structures do such as local government. Anglicanism is characterised by a lack of consensus among its members, both clerical and lay, about the nature of the church, the role of sacraments and the type of worship a clergyman should perform.

The article presents information about the papers that appeared in the January 2, 1962 issue of the journal "Social Compass." In every national and cultural situation, the relationship between sociology and religion is, in one way or another, of primary importance, the interaction between religion and society assumes, in social living its peculiar and specific forms of expression. The authors from the U.S., England, West Germany and Holland who have collaborated in the present issue of the journal "Social Compass," consider principally the way in which religious and philosophical values take shape in society. Considering the countries that they come from, it is not surprising that these sociologists lay particular stress on the influence that Catholic and Protestant confessions and denominations have on social life. It is in Dutch studies in the sociology of religion especially that the vertical pluralism that conforms to religious and ecclesiastical lines of demarcation, has been subjected to closest analysis.