Various functions which have no necessary connection have now
come to be accumulated on the same individual. The parish
priest is expected not only to lead the worship and perform the
rites of his church, but to be a preacher and teacher; not only
to visit his people, but to control the organizations in his parish
for the relief of the poor, the care of the sick, the education of
children, etc. The result is that in many cases he is overburdened
 with work which he has not the time, and possibly not
the capacity, to perform. Might one solution of the difficulties
which confront us be found in returning to a subdivision of these
offices? Without attempting to discuss whether it would be
desirable or not to commit any one of them to suitable women
duly appointed, I must confine myself to two or three to which
the war directs special attention.

Pastors.
Those of us whose business it has been during the last ten
months to work among the families of our soldiers and sailors
have had opportunities for proving the advantages and the
drawbacks of our parochial system. Our work has taken us into
parishes where the clergy are the friends and pastors of their
people. But in others we find not a few people—the wives and
mothers who have given their men to die for the country—who
appear to be untouched by the Church, unvisited, uncared for in
their sorrow and loneliness. And the effect of the parochial
system may be that just those who have a regard for Church
order feel themselves precluded from initiating work for the
Church in these parishes where they see it is most needed.
Are the people to remain unshepherded, or might it be possible
in such cases that the Pastoral care of the women and children
should be entrusted to well qualified women appointed by the
Bishop ?
Teachers.
The war has shown how great a responsibility. rests upon
those who preach and teach for forming the ideals and aims
which raise or degrade the conscience of the people. Theirs
perhaps will be the largest part in the task of reconstruction,
and if the Church is worthily to lead in this great task special
attention should be given to the office of the Church teacher.
In other departments of knowledge we naturally seek instruction
from those who are experts in their subjects. The modern
distaste for sermons is surely not wholly due to indifference on
the part of the laity, but largely to the fact that the Church has
been too slow to recognize that for giving religious instruction
also special qualifications are required—spiritual insight, trained
powers of thought and expression, sufficient intellectual equipment.
 It is not reasonable to demand this of those whose time