

METHODISTS. 



507 



III. METHODIST PROTESTANT CHURCH. This 

 Church includes forty-four annual conferences, 

 with 1,200 itinerant ministers and 130,000 lay 

 members, holding church property which is 

 valued at $3,000,000. 



The General Conference of the Methodist 

 Protestant Church met at Pittsburg, Pennsyl- 

 vania, in May. The Rev. G. B. McElroy, Presi- 

 dent of Adrian College, was chosen President. 

 Measures were adopted for the participation of 

 the Church in the (Ecumenical Conference of 

 Methodist Churches, to be held in London in 

 1881 ; for the appointment of a minister and a 

 layman as members of the Western division of 

 the Committee of the Conference; and for the 

 appointment of three ministers and three lay- 

 men as delegates to the body. A petition was 

 presented asking the Conference to take action 

 against the connection of members of the 

 Church with the Masonic order, the obligations 

 and principles of which, it was alleged, were 

 "repugnant and antagonistic to Christ and 

 holiness." To this the Conference replied that, 

 as the petitioners did not state what were 

 the features of Masonry to which objection 

 was made, and as they were unknown to the 

 body, and as the fact was indisputable that 

 many of the most exemplary members of the 

 various Christian denominations were con- 

 nected with the Masonic institution, "there- 

 fore it is to be assumed that the petitioners 

 are mistaken in their estimate of freemasonry. 

 While it is evident, 1 ' the Conference report said, 

 " that that estimate is based, at best, upon a 

 mere guess or conjecture, and as the General 

 Conference can not, consistently with its digni- 

 fied character as a church legislature, under- 

 take to work in the dark, especially if in doing 

 so it would gravely pronounce many of our 

 brethren in Christ to be antagonistic to him," 

 the Conference therefore decline to take any ac- 

 tion with reference to freemasonry. A resolu- 

 tion was adopted declaring the endowment of 

 additional theological chairs in all the denomina- 

 tional colleges to be a positive necessity, which 

 should be provided for as soon as practicable. 

 With reference to the salaries of ministers, the 

 Conference declared that the declaration in the 

 Book of Discipline on elementary principles, 

 that pastors should be given "a religious com- 

 pensation for their labors," implies such a com- 

 pensation as shall, by mutual agreement of pas- 

 tor and people, be acceptable to both ; therefore, 

 that the pastor's consent to the amount of salary 

 allowed him is necessary to constitute a bind- 

 ing obligation on all the parties concerned. 

 The Colorado Conference (colored) was recog- 

 nized as a mission conference. Provisions were 

 made for putting the two Book Concerns of 

 the Church at Baltimore, Maryland, and Pitts- 

 burg, Pennyslvania, under the control of the 

 General Conference. 



IV. AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

 The General Conference of the African Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Church met at St. Louis, Mis- 

 souri, May 3d. Among the more important 



items of business transacted were the election 

 of three bishops (the Rev. R. H. Cain, the Rev. 

 W. F. Dickerson, and the Rev. H. M. Turner, 

 LL. D.), the appointment of delegates to the 

 (Ecumenical Methodist Conference, and the 

 adoption of a proposition to negotiate for a 

 union with the British Methodist Episcopal 

 Church in Canada. The bishops met at New- 

 port, Rhode Island, August 12th, to make ar- 

 rangements for carrying out some of the orders 

 of the General Conference. A committee was 

 appointed to prepare and publish Mr. Wesley's 

 Liturgy and Ritual. It was ordered that as 

 soon as practicable all the bishops should wear 

 robes. A constitution was adopted for a con- 

 nectional literary, historical, and educational 

 association. A committee was appointed on 

 the subject of union with other colored Meth- 

 odist bodies. Other committees were appointed 

 to prepare a course of studies to be published 

 in the Book of Discipline, and to arrange for 

 giving public notices of the festivals of the 

 ecclesiastical calendar, etc., and call attention 

 to the observance of them. Bishop Turner 

 was deputed to visit Africa, and Bishop Dick- 

 erson to visit Hayti, Samana, and Santo Do- 

 mingo, in the interest of the missions of the 

 Church. 



The commissioners appointed to arrange for 

 a union of the British Methodist Episcopal 

 Church, met at Toronto, Ontario, September 

 8th, during the session of the General Confer- 

 ence of the British Methodist Episcopal Church 

 at that place, to execute the duty with which 

 they were intrusted. A resolution was passed 

 by the General Conference of the British 

 Church, expressing a desire for union with the 

 African Methodist Episcopal Church, and com- 

 missioners were appointed to treat with tho 

 commissioners of that body. Articles of agree- 

 ment were prepared providing for the accept- 

 ance of the members of the British Methodist 

 Episcopal Church into the African Methodist 

 Episcopal Church, and the recognition of Bish- 

 op Disney, of the former body, as junior bishop 

 of the latter body, and the organization of the 

 British Churches into the tenth Episcopal dis- 

 trict, with Bishop Disney as bishop in charge ; 

 the union to become of force when the articles 

 of agreement shall have been ratified by a 

 majority of the members of the British Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Church and by two thirds of 

 the Annual Conferences of the African Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Church. The British Church 

 became an independent body in 1860. Its ju- 

 risdiction extends over the Dominion of Can- 

 ada and the West Indies; and it had in 1880 

 three Annual Conferences the Ontario, Nova 

 Scotia, and West Indies Conferences one bish- 

 op, 77 itinerant and local ministers, 2,684 mem- 

 bers, 37 Sunday-schools with 1,727 scholars, 

 and one newspaper, "The Missionary Messen- 

 ger." It had also foreign missions in the West 

 India Islands. 



V. WESLETAN CONNECTION. The following 

 is a summary of the statistics of the Wesleyan 



