MILDMAY INSTITUTIONS AND MISSIONS

[s. 493] : The Mildmay Conferences were inaugurated in 1856 by the Rev. William Penne father, Vicar of Mildmay Park, at Bermet. The chief purpose, to persuade members of various ChrisSt. Jude’s, tian Churches openly to acknowledge their spiritual union in Christ, seemed to many fraught with danger of an actual exhibition of disunion and confusion. In fact, they were so succe ful that in 1869 the corner-stone of a large Conference Hall was laid at Mildmay, and the institution became a center of union for Christians of all Mildmay Modern Protestant denominations, and has facilitated the prosecution of a variety of evangelistic and mi ionary enterprises. The Conference Hall is used not merely for the annual conferences, but for weekly evangelistic services, and there are special rooms for Bible cla es, mothers’ meetings, tea meetings, etc. Closely connected with it are a deacone house, a training home for lady workers for home and foreign mi ionary work, called “The Willows,” a nurses’ house. Memorial Cottage Hospital and orphanage, while a mi ion hospital at Bethnal Green, and a convalescent home at O ulston are under the same management. Special interest attaches to the Penne father Memorial Home for Mildmay workers who are disabled by sickne or age, and to the mulberry tree in a corner of the Park, under which it has been the custom to gather afternoon meetings during the conferences. The three departments especially connected with foreign mi ion work are the Bible cla for men in Conference Hall, which has sent out a large number of workers, ordained and lay; the Deacone House, and the Willows Training The Bible cla is represented in the School. Church of England, Free Church pastorates, on the foreign fields in China, India, Persia, South America, and Africa, and in work for the Jews. The Deacone House is the administrative headquarters for the three branches of its work: medical, home and foreign mi ions. The graduates are found in every part of city work as well as on the foreign field, including some of the most difficult sections, as Arabia, Kashmir and Central Africa. For the most part Mildmay workers go in connection with the regular mi ionary societies, and in the training institute there is a The special cla in preparation for the CMS. organization is more closely in charge of work in London and among the Jews, particularly Eastern Europe, and the Jaffa Medical Mi ion and Hospital is closely affiliated with it. The City Mi ion work includes rescue work, house to-house visitation by the deacone es, and any phase of benevolent effort that seems important. The whole organization is under the care of a board of trustees and council, including representatives of the Church of England and the Free Churches. 494