Untitled - Electric Scotland

CHAPTER XVI.
THE LONDON EPISCOPATE.
THE BISHOP OF LONDON S FUND THE LADIES DIOCESAN ASSOCIA
TION SISTERHOODS CHOLERA EPIDEMIC OF 1 866 ST. PETER S
ORPHANAGE BISHOP S ILLNESS THIRD DIOCESAN CHARGE.
1863-1867.
NOTHING has yet been said about what is popularly
regarded, and not without reason, as the greatest and most
memorable act of Tait s London Episcopate the incep
tion and foundation of The Bishop of London s Fund.
In his Charge of 1862, delivered immediately on his return
to London, after declining the Archbishopric of York, he
described, with many careful statistics, the spiritual desti
tution of vast regions of the Metropolis. The population
of London, as he pointed out, was annually increased by
about 40,000 souls, and all the efforts which had been
made were inadequate to overtake these steadily ad
vancing needs. Between 1851 and 1861, sixty-six per
manent and twenty-one temporary Churches had been
opened, providing accommodation for about one-sixth of
the increased population.
"The appalling fact accordingly transpires," said Bishop Tait,
that, whatever were our spiritual wants in this respect in 1851,
all our great exertions have not lessened them, but have at best
prevented the evil from growing worse." l
He pointed out that there were three parishes in the
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1
Charge of 1862, p. 62.