THE orientation of the churches with the modern social movement is a matter of great perplexity. In the first place, the social movement itself, especially in its community aspects, is comparatively recent, and is developing and differentiating with amazing rapidity. New and highly specialized professions are arising within the field of social work. At the recent meeting of the American Prison Congress, for example, the psychiatrist, the psychologist, the psychiatric nurse, the teacher psychologist specializing in the reformation of abnormal children, the scientific dietitian conducting research into the relation of diet to delinquency and subnormal mental states, were most in evidence in the discussions. Psychiatry is a new and wonderful branch of medicine, and the professional training of the psychologist who works in the psychopathic clinic is as rigid as that of the physician. A like insistent professional ideal is forcing its way into institutions for the care of neglected and dependent children, into the work of the friendly visitor and into recreation and community organization. In short, every social field where the church is at work, or is likely to be at work in the future, is specializing. These conditions force a constant readjustment of work and institutional relationships on the part of the churches as well as of community welfare agencies, and they bring the church face to face with the problem of developing specialized workers.