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Only four denominations offer any advice or help in financing the expansion of established churches although practically all of them sponsor mission projects. Three of the denominations reported that. they exercise sonic sort of control over the amount of debt which individual churches may incur for expansion purposes. Churches of the other denominations may follow individual policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the relationship between organization size and the proportion of administrators in churches. Churches are used as an example of voluntary organization. The article hypothesizes that there is a positive relationship between the size of the organization and the size of the administrative ratio and there will be a negative relationship between the extent of spatial dispersion and the size of the administrative ratio. The hypotheses suggested that there are other factors, which may mediate the effects of size either by reinforcing it, or by acting against it. In voluntary organizations in general, and for churches in particular, the mainspring of growth in employed organizational personnel is the number of people registered or regarded as members. On reaching certain size, support personnel are introduced to cope with special problems, to coordinate the work of others, to plan the future and provide information. Unlike other large organizations, Churches seem to have a larger proportion of personnel in staff position. In churches this represents a growth in personnel to deal with specific problems or specific sectors rather than with general pastoral duties.

In this article the author makes an attempt to build an internal structural model of the system of a church parish and examines one of the significant components of the model, the religious group of parishioners. The author remarks that in characterizing a church parish as a particular form of system, one must remember that a church parish is an integral system with a specific structure, that a church parish contains an integral complex of interconnected elements, that the elements of a church parish in turn constitute systems of a lower order, or subsystems of the system of the church parish and that a church parish is the lowest unit of church administration, uniting the parishioners of a single church and constituting part of a system of a higher order, the eparchy, relative to which a parish is a subsystem. Formalization and building of an internal systemic-structural model of a church parish on the basis of the principle of hierarchical structure require the identification of the component elements of the church parish, which may be conceived of as systems or subsystems with their elements, in which a given type of interconnection is actualized.

A representative sample of American population was asked during May 1966 by the Gallup Organization to evaluate six occupations. Blacks were more likely to have a high regard for church authorities than Whites. Southerners verbalized higher respect for church officials than did nonsoutherners, women showed more respect than men, and those between 35 and 44 years of age showed more respect than those who were either younger or older. Respondents with at least some high-school education but with no college education were more likely to respect church authorities than were those who had gone to college or those with less than a high-school education. Blue-collar workers showed higher respect than white-collar workers. Among income groups, respondents making less than $5,000 a year were the most likely to have a high regard for church officials. Jews were far and away the least likely of the three major religious groups to indicate a high degree of respect to church officials. On the other hand, no marked or consistent Protestant-Catholic differences appear in the data.

Research on ministerial effectiveness has not produced results of maximum value to the churches. The major problems which have hampered this research are delineated in this paper. They include the use of secondary rather than primary criteria, the selection of general ministerial functions, the lack of collaboration with church leaders, laity, clergy and theologians in assessing effectiveness; use of the rating mode of measurement, and the changing nature of functions in the parish ministry. Suggestions are provided to help resolve the problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals affected by a rapidly changing or disorganized society are constrained to adapt in some manner. Two modes of adaptation are indicated by tendencies toward joining authoritarian organizations and sectarian churches. The first is an attempt to regain and preserve an interaction pattern perceived as threatened; the second represents retreat from a society which is perceived to be disorderly and threatening. If alienation is on the rise, the importance of such groups in complex societies may increase. Data presented in this paper indicate that powerlessness and authoritarianism are related to tendencies toward joining both authoritarian organizations and sectarian churches. Anomia is positively related with attitude toward sectarian churches, but negatively related with attitude toward authoritarian organizations. The findings contribute to knowledge of the motivation toward joining these kinds of organizations and also support the notion that alienation is a multidimensional phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the process of keeping official registers of marriages, births and deaths, with the parish church official that has produced the records which form the basis of Norwegian vital statistics. Marriages, births and deaths among members of organized dissenting congregations are in the first place registered by the priest or the head of the congregation. Births, deaths and marriages among persons not belonging to organized congregations or of no confession are notified to the magistrates and again to the vicar for registration in the parish book. During the last 30-40 years the question of transferring the registration of marriages, births and deaths to civil registrars has repeatedly been discussed in Norway-particularly in connexion with the establishment of compulsory civil registration in all the communities of the country. In principle the registration of marriages, births and deaths by local civil registrars is undoubtedly the most rational system. In the course of the first part of the nineteenth century the annual returns sent in by the clergy concerning marriages, births and deaths gradually became more comprehensive, and attempts were made from time to time, by means of new instructions to the clergy, to improve the returns and make them more reliable.

The social structure of an urban Catholic parish is highly complex. At first glance this would not seem to be true because the casual observer probably sees nothing but a large number of people who satisfy their religious needs at a particular parish Church. At closer analysis, however, it will be noted that any social unit of a few thousand persons logically structures its social relations according to multiple patterns. It seems true also that the researcher not only can but must conceptualize the parish in multiple ways in order to achieve meaningful analysis. The normal large urban Catholic parish may be studied under the aspects discussed in the article even though each varies in importance as a conceptual frame of reference for research. The parish may be called a legal corporation, a super-imposed association, an institutionalized association, a communal group, a cluster of sub-groupings. It is also helpful for some purposes to conceive the parish as a series of statistical categories and a system of kinship groupings.

This article seeks to point out some of the sources of social conflict which seem inherent in the organization of society and some of the sources peculiar to religious conflict which seem inherent in the nature of religion. It is the major argument that the potential for social conflict exists by the very way in which people identify themselves with groups, forming lines of consensus and cleavage in society; but beyond this, the potential for religious conflict exists by virtue of the very functions which religion performs for people. For both there reasons, insofar as religion fulfills the same functions for people as it has in the past, it will be attended by intergroup diversity, conflict, and cleavage.

The article presents abstracts of Church planning studies and research reports. The paper "Reform is a Verb: Notes on Reform and Reforming Jews," Leonard J. Fein, Robert Chin, Jack Dauber, Bernard Reisman, and Herzl Spire, was prepared for the Long Range Planning Committee of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the national organization of the American Reform Movement in Judaism. It presents the results of two projects: a survey of the members of twelve Reform Synagogues, and an experiment with weekend workshops in six congregations. "A Survey of Congregational Involvement in Low/Moderate Housing, 1971-1972," by Everett L. Perry and Roy Martin. This volume reflects substantial congregational interest and involvement, with inevitably high potential financial risk and management problems, despite the fact that much of the funding comes from church sources. The paper "Client-Researcher Relationships," by Robert L. Wilson, forms part of the Research In formation Bulletin series of the Program Council.

The article presents information about the paper entitled "The Parish as an Institutional Type," which was published in the "Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science." A first step in the analysis of parish structure and functioning is to establish the institutional definition of the parish, since sound methodology requires that the parish be understood as part of the organization of the Catholic Church. The author concurs in a view, which is widely accepted, that ideally the parish is a miniature replica of the Church, though it is perhaps worth noting that some critics have found this concept lacking in precision and in analytical significance. There would be general agreement, of course, that an understanding of Catholic ecclesiology--especially the doctrine of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ--is a prerequisite for an understanding of the parish institution. The institutional structure of the parish is described with attention to its territorial base, its relation to diocese and community, the powers and duties of pastors, the distinction between regular and secular clergy, the maintenance of the church fabric, and the role of lay wardens.

The article presents an overview of the report "Special Education and the American Catholic School System," by M. Paschalita published in the May 1953 issue of the periodical "New Outlook for the Blind."