THE LONDON DIOCESAN FUND.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] shall be grateful if you will kindly allow me a space in your columns for this letter, which is addressed to the Church men and women of London. I hope to enlist their support- for the London Diocesan Fund—the organization which is now charged with the due maintenance of the Church's work in the Diocese.
There have been so many events and incidents to dist met attention during the past months that this new venture of the Church in London has had so far but little opportunity of becoming known. The Diocesan Fund is a new body, incor- porated in 1918, in which the older Diocesan organizations are united. The Council of Management is fully representative, and acts as the agent of the Church in the Diocese in business matters. To carry out the common work of the Diocese at all adequately an income of not less than 050,000 is required. An income of this amount will ensure Church efficiency as far as money can. It will enable the Diocese to provide for the staffing of its parishes with workers and ensuring them a living wage; to provide help in erecting necessary church buildings; for the religious education of the young; for clergy widows and orphans; and the many other departments of Church work on which the Church's efficiency depends.
It should not be a matter of difficulty to raise an income of £150,000 for this vital work in the greatest Diocese in the world. There are many thousands of well-to-do Churchpeople to whom the welfare of their Church is not a matter of indifference, but who, perhaps for want of imagination, have not as yet become contributors on a scale worthy either of themselves or the importance of the work. What we need at the moment is a large number of subscriptions and donations of generous amount to our office list, to supplement the income from parochial quotas. Cheques should be macre payable to the London Diocesan Fund, crossed " Coutts and Co," and for- warded to the Secretary, 33 Bedford Square, W.C. 1.
I cannot trespass on spur space to detail all the work we have in view. Some aspects of it are probably familiar to your readers, especially the provision of adequate stipends for our clergy, which is a cause of great concern to me personally. But I do wish to emphasize the vital importance of the common efforts of Churchpeople in their work for God during the coming months. It is not only a question of Church efficiency that is at stake, but the greater question of national efficiency which depends so much on a healthy spiritual outlook. Never was there a time when faithful work for God could do more than it can to-day in the resettlement of England, in the establishment of real brotherhood between man and man and class and class, and in providing a Christian foundation on which our new life can safely be built. As their Bishop I call on London Churchpeople to take their rightful place in the forefront of the Church's new effort, and by their substantial support to strengthen the hands of those whom they have appointed to act for them in this Diocese.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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