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. elected , the accounts passed , and other business be transacted . FORMS OF NOTICE . We , the undersigned , request you to calla meeting of the members of the fellowship fund to be held the next Lord ' s dav ( the instant ) immediately
after afternoon ' s service , to take into consideration the propriety of voting a sum of money to [ assist our Unitarian brethren at Thome in Building their Chapel ] ( signed ) AB . CD . EF . GH . IJ . dated To Mr . Secretary to the Fellowship Fund .
Notice from ihe secretary , to be read by the minister or clerk . The members of . the Fellowship Fund are requested to meet in the vestry this afternoon immediately after service .
—^—By a plan of this kind , Mr . Editor , union and co-operation in individual societies would be promoted - a state of things in every point of view desirable , and preliminary to any good to oe expected from a general association of the Unitarian body . The progress of Unitarianism . and the efforts made
for its advancement , would be detailed in these societies , and carried home to and agaiq discussed at the firesides of the members . Thus accurate information would be circulated , and an increased interest in and attachment to
the cause excited , not only amongst the members of the same congregation , but between the scattered societies of the Unitarian body . The calls upon Unitarian liberality , for the erection of new chapels and other important objects , have of late happily been
frequent . But if continued , which I trust will be the case , they cannot be so promptly met , and so effectually answered as they ought to be . The willing giver will from prudential « qtive $ be obliged however reluctantly withhold his aid . We must there-9
^ ^ " — — ™ ^— ^ w ^ V V ^ WT ^* ^ F " ^^ ^~^ ^^ ^^ — " ^ ^^ ^ re look out fQr other and multiplied sovrcps of *» pj > Jy , and call in ihe ? any in aid of the few . Before you u Pfcn for that purpose , which J ^ lst I * prgatni ^ es a fresh set of contribut
ors , and falls so easily upon a | j as not to be felt fry any , does not interne with por supersede the exercise of 7 W pq the part of the affluent ^ in te rs of the Unitarian body . I I ^ * $ A of this project , that I wall | be Mu \ J y gl ^ to Se ; e it superseded Anere \ % indeed on « objection which
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deserves particular notice , viz . that these plans for raising additional sums of money in any congregation , do in fact detract from the stipend of the stated minister ; or where that stipend
is low and insufficient , tend to keep it so . I allow this objection in all its force as applied to many of the topics of sermons on particular occasions and to subsequent congregational collections ; but I deny the assumption upon
which this objection proceeds , as applied to the project detailed , above . It will be found ( except in erases of endovyment ) that a small salary bears a direct proportion to the smallness of a congregation . If this be so , all plans that tend to increase the numbers of a
religious society , tend to the increase of the minister ' s salary ; and this tendency must be granted to all means likely to convey information , excite additional interest , and promote personal attachment and intercourse and congregational union and co-operation .
By some an objection may be felt to the term fellowship fund . I care little about the name , and have not any objection to its being termed an auxiliary fund , a common fund , or any other name , provided the end be kept in view . It certainly is always
desirable to call things by their right names , and I do not propose the project or the designation as at all corresponding with the KOivcvvia ,, the " fel lowship of the primitive Christian church , nor as at all wishing to interfere with that apostolical institution wherein it is observed . Such a
Christian contribution , were it universal , would be more efficient ; and most earnestly would T wish to see it supersede the proposal before you , which is simply a project to organize a new and permanent set . of contributors , and which must stand or fall t > n the ground of expediency alone . One word as to the productiveness of such a
plan , and I have done . So far as I know , we have not any data to form any tolerably correct estimate of thie Unitarian population of the United Kingdom 5 but if for the sake of illustration , we suppose a plan to be adopted which would associate one hundred thousand contributors
throughout the empire , at one penny a week each , it would produce nearly twenty-two thousand pounds per annum , ( 21 , 6 o 6 / . \ 3 s . 4 d . fi when probably at
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f ) r . Thomsons Plan of ft Charitable Fund in Unitarian Congregations , 579
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1816, page 579, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2457/page/15/
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