The Negro's church,.

Fellowship and Community Activities

157

FELLOWSHIP IN THE COMMUNITY
As an active community institution, the church is necessarily affected by its environment. Some individual churches
have sought community contacts by performing special kinds
of social work. Many have cooperated with other churches,
or with community institutions and agencies, through ministerial alliances and associations; in religious educational activities; in cooperative humanitarian movements; in social
welfare, poor relief, and the like; and in obtaining preventative and corrective legislation and administration in civic
affairs.
Virtually all of the 591 ministers of this study are connected with some kind of a local ministerial body. It has
already been indicated that a number of the 609 churches,
especially in the northern cities, have been affiliated with
community religious educational work. Churches generally
also contributed to the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. movements, the Community Chest, the Urban League, and the
N. A. A. C. P.
However, church cooperation and work with governmental
agencies, public schools, or commercialized amusements, has
been very limited, so far as could be ascertained in this study.
INTERCHURCH SERVICES AND MINISTERIAL UNIONS
Union services, or joint meetings of two or more churches
are held for various purposes. In some localities these union
meetings follow denominational affiliations. When this is
the case, Methodists meet with Methodists, Baptists with Baptists, and so on. But there is an encouraging gradual increase
in cooperative efforts without regard to denominational affiliations. Approximately 100 per cent. of the 609 churches of
this study engage in them.
Almost every local church is represented by its minister in
a city ministerial body. In each of the twelve urban localities, there were one or more denominational ministerial