The Book of Religions / Comprising the Views, Creeds, Sentiments, or Opinions, of All the Principal Religious Sects in the World, Particularly of All Christian Denominations in Europe and America, to Which are Added Church and Missionary Statistics, Together With Biographical Sketches

Swedenborgians.

Believers in the doctrines of Swedenborg are found in all the states in the Union. In Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio, are eight ordaining ministers, ten priests and teaching ministers, fifteen licentiates, and between thirty and forty societies. There are between two and three hundred towns or places in the United States where the doctrines of the New Jerusalem church are received by some portion of the people.

The number of Swedenborgians in the United States is about five thousand. The societies of this class of Christians in England are more numerous than in the United States. In Sweden they are quite numerous.

Periodicals.—The New Jerusalem Magazine is issued monthly at Boston, Mass.; the Precursor is issued monthly at Cincinnati, Ohio; the New Churchman is issued quarterly at Philadelphia.

Unitarians.

Of this denomination, there are about three hundred churches and congregations in the United States, and near that number of ministers. In the city of Boston it is one of the most numerous and influential classes of Christians, having eighteen societies, most of which are large and flourishing. In the Middle, Southern, and Western States their congregations are fewer, but gradually multiplying.

Periodicals.—The Christian Examiner, the Monthly Miscellany, and the Christian Register, are published in Boston, Mass.

A favorite project of Christian philanthropy with the Unitarians has been the “ministry to the poor” in large cities and towns. They have established such an institution in Boston, New York, Cincinnati, Louisville, Providence, and elsewhere. In Boston, three large and commodious chapels have been erected, and three ministers constantly employed, by the aid of funds obtained from individual donors and annual subscriptions from associations in the several churches of the denomination.

Universalists.

There are, in the United States and Territories, one United States Convention, one United States Universalist Historical Society, twelve State Conventions, fifty-nine Associations, eight hundred and seventy-five societies, five hundred and fifty meeting-houses, and five hundred and forty preachers. Besides these, there are twenty-one periodicals published by the order, and twenty new books have been published within the year, besides reprints. There are also five schools in the patronage of the denomination. There is an Educational Association in Maine, a Sunday School Association in Massachusetts, a Publishing Association in Pennsylvania, a public library of fifteen hundred volumes in Ohio, and two Book Associations in Indiana and Illinois.

By adding the numbers of societies, etc., in the British Provinces, to those in the United States, there are, at present, the grand total of one General Convention, twelve State Conventions, fifty-five Associations, eight hundred and ninety-five societies, five hundred and fifty-six meeting-houses, and five hundred and forty-six preachers.