December 12, 1936
THE STATE
Page Five
Charlotte Leads the World
FOR years it has been satisfied to holil sec¬
ond place in ehureh attendance, but investi¬
gation proves that it is really entitled to
first honors.
HARLOTTE is not the second
greatest church-going city in
the world. Tt docs not rank
second only t<> Edinburgh, Scotland,
in the percentage of its people who
take their seats in ehureh on Sunday.
It isn’t and it doesn't. Charlotte
is the first city in the world in church
attendance fif Edinburgh ever has
held the post) because it now outranks
the Scotch city.
The superior rank is in church at¬
tendance only. Edinburgh leads Char¬
lotte by a wide margin in the per¬
centage of its population that main¬
tains membership.
A Well Known Statement
You have, perhaps, heard many
times that Charlotte's chief reputation
is for church-going. Nobody ever
seemed to know who first made that
comparison or just how true was the
patent statement — used by some to
ridicule and others to praise the citizen¬
ship make-up of the city.
Recently at a Charlotte service club
meeting, just after the statement had
nguin been made that "Charlotte
ranked second only to Edinburgh. . . .
etc.,” a leading Charlotte minister rose
to question the remark.
"I don’t know who started that and
I doubt its truth.” the minister said. “I
wish that statement could be run to
earth or that someone would find out
where it came from. For myself I
get tired of hearing it, since the truth
of it seems rather remote.”
1 was sitting in on the meeting as
a newspaper reporter.
"Why not?” 1 thought, and I wrote
a letter as follows :
"His Honor the Lord Mayor,
"City of Edinburgh,
"Scotland.
"My Dear Lord Mayor:
"It has frequently been said here
that Charlotte ranks second only to
Edinburgh in the percent of its popula¬
tion attending church. No one seems
to know where the report started or
to what extent it is true.
"I thought it might l>c interesting
to the readers of our paper if we could
present the facts in this respect. With
By JOHN W. HARDEN
that in mind 1 am asking this favor of
you. Will you please give me: the
population of Edinburgh, the total
church membership of all churches,
and the estimated church attendance
at all churches.
"If you do not have exact figures
on this I would appreciate approxima¬
tions, etc. . . ."
A Reply Comes Back
After considerable delay came back
this reply from Rev. J. It. Aitkin, D.D.,
joint clerk of the Presbytery of Edin¬
burg.
"Your letter of the 13th October
last was handed to me by the Lord
Provost of Edinburgh, regarding (1)
*
First Presbyterian Church, Charlotte
the population of Edinburgh, (2) the
total church membership of all the
churches, and (3) the estimated Sun¬
day church attendance at all of the
churches.
"The answer to (1) is: the popula¬
tion of Edinburgh is -138,98# or there¬
abouts. But T am afraid it is impos¬
sible to give you the figures for (2)
and (3) without far more elaborate
inquiry than you or I or any other
busy man can give.
"Somo of the churches (i.e. the
Roman Catholic) do not keep a list
of their membership and it has been
a great many years since any ap¬
proximate estimate or census of church
attendance has lieen attempted, certain¬
ly not for 28 years during my residence
here.
"The only approximately correct
figures I can give you are those for
the Church of Scotland. We have 158
churches within the borders of the
Presbytery of Edinburgh with М2, 833
members (communicants) and an
average attendance for Sunday of
about -10,000. In addition there are
six Unity Free churches, three Free
churches, one Free Presbyterian, one
original Senior (Auld Riehts vite -I. M.
Barrie), one Quaker, 11 Congrega¬
tional*. II Baptists, 4 Methodists, 21
Episcopal, 15 Roman Catholic, 2 Four
Square Gospellers, (an American im¬
portation). 1 Church of Christ, 1
Christian Scientist, and it may be, a
few others altogether unknown to me.
"The total number of churches in
Edinburgh may be reshown ns 246,
with a few other smaller or compara¬
tively unknown churches, or meeting
houses, of which I have littlo or no
knowledge.
"It is almost impossible to nrrrivc
at memlxTship figures for all these.
In a rough guess, I should say some¬
where about 40,0(10, or between 30,000
and 40,000. As to estimated church
attendance for the Church of Scotland
and these others which I have men¬
tioned, it is exceedingly difficult to
give you even an approximate fi-. ire.
but a rough guess would be somewhere
between 40,000 and 45,000."
(The longhand letter from the
(Continued on po if teen)
