540 



METHODISTS. 



Total for Foreign Missions $566,139 



II. MISSIONS IN THE UNITED STATES, NOT IN AN- 

 NUAL CONFERENCES, TO BE ADMINISTERED AS 

 FOREIGN MISSIONS 81,722 



III. DOMESTIC MISSIONS : 



Welsh missions $1,500 



Scandinavian missions 37,470 



(rcnnan missions 39.869 



French missions 7,550 



Chinese missions 9,500 



Japanese missions 5,545 



American Indian 4.500 



Bohemian and others 9,450 



English-speaking 203,064 



Total 373,443 



IV. Miscellaneous 90,000 



V. For outstanding drafts 77,691 



Grand total $1,200,000 



The foreign missions returned in 1887, 135 

 American missionaries, 130 assistant mission- 

 aries (wives of missionaries), and 62 mission- 

 aries of the Women's Foreign Missionary So- 

 ciety ; 2,257 native agent?, of all kinds, male 

 and female; 44,255 members, 16,013 proba- 

 tioners, and 50,742 adherents; 5,223 conver- 

 sions during the year ; 2,409 adults, and 3,099 

 children baptized ; 15 theological schools, 32 

 high-schools, and 647 other day schools, with 

 a total of 22,458 pupils, and 1,712 Sunday- 

 schools, with 83,945 pupils. The domestic 

 missions returned 2,893 missionaries, 2,259 as- 

 sistant missionaries, 5 agents of the Women's 

 Foreign Missionary Society, 60 other agents, 

 3,442 local preachers, 250,787 members, 44, 644 

 probationers, 15,289 adults, and 16,172 chil- 

 dren, baptized; 34 day-schools (in New Mex- 

 ico and Utah), with 1,613 pupils; and 5,067 

 Sunday-schools, with 250,304 pupils. 



General Conference. The General Confer- 

 ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church met 

 in the city of New York, May 1. The quad- 

 rennial address of the bishops, after reviewing 

 the growth of the Church and its interests 

 during the past four years, called attention to 

 some important questions that had never been 

 decided, which would come before the Confer- 

 ence for solution. One of these questions was, 

 whether a lay electoral conference has the 

 right to send as its representative a person 

 who has no membership in the bounds of 

 the conference represented. A second was, 

 whether women were eligible as lay delegates 

 to the General Conference. Five women had 

 been chosen by as many lay electoral confer- 

 ences to represent them, and were expected to 

 be present to claim their seats. In view of 

 the novelty of the question which this action 

 raised, and of the reception of protests against 

 the admission of the women-delegates, it had 

 been determined not to place their names upon 

 the roll until the validity of their claims could 

 be decided upon by an organized conference 

 composed of delegates whose titles were not 

 questioned. The Conference decided that lay 

 delegates must be members within the confer- 

 ence which they represent ; and that " under 

 the constitution and laws of the Church as they 

 now are, women are not eligible as lay dele- 

 gates in the General Conference." It ordered, 



however, that a vote be taken in November, 

 1890, at every place of public worship, and in 

 1891 at all the annual conferences upon an 

 amendment to the restrictive rules, providing 

 that the lay delegates " may be men or women." 

 The terra for which a preacher maybe allowed 

 to remain in the same station (previously three 

 years) was extended to " not more than five 

 years, after which he shall not be appointed to 

 the same place for five years " ; and the presid- 

 ing elder's term was extended to six years, 

 with a similar interval of six years before he 

 can be appointed again to the same district. 

 The status of a missionary bishop was denned 

 as that of an officer having full episcopal pow- 

 ers, but with jurisdiction limited to the foreign 

 field to which he was elected ; not subordinate 

 to the general superintendents, but co-ordi- 

 nate with them in authority there ; and receiv- 

 ing his support from the episcopal fund. Pro- 

 vision was made for the recognition and ad- 

 ministration of self-supporting missions, of 

 which two have been organized in South 

 America and Africa and defining their rela- 

 tions to the Church and the Missionary Soci- 

 ety. Consent was given to the organization 

 of an autonomous Methodist Church in Japan, 

 by the union of Methodist missions in that 

 country, whenever the missions concerned 

 shall determine to take the step. An article 

 concerning deaconesses defines their duties 

 and the form of Christian labor to which they 

 may devote themselves ; declares that no vow 

 shall be exacted from them, and that "any one 

 of their number shall be at liberty to relinquish 

 her position as a deaconess at any time " ; in- 

 stitutes a board for the control of their work, 

 which is empowered to issue licenses to them. 

 A constitutional commission of seven minis- 

 ters and seven laymen was appointed to revise 

 certain paragraphs in the discipline, in such a 

 way that they shall define and determine the 

 constitution of the General Conference ; state 

 of whom it shall be composed and by what 

 method it shall be organized ; declare its pow- 

 ers and how they shall be exercised; provide 

 the process by which the constitution may be 

 amended ; and report to the next General Con- 

 ference. Provision was made for holding in 

 the United States an (Ecumenical Conference 

 of Methodism -in 1891, the particular arrange- 

 ments for which were intrusted to a commit- 

 tee of five ministers, five laymen, and three 

 bishops. It was ordered that no annual con- 

 ference should be organized with less than 

 twenty effective members. A Board of Confer- 

 ence Claimants was instituted, to have charge 

 of funds contributed for the benefit of superan- 

 nuated preachers, and the widows and orphans 

 of preachers ; auxiliary to which boards may be 

 organized in the annual conferences. Five new 

 bishops were elected, to wit : The Rev. John 

 H. Vincent, D. D., LL. D. ; the Eev. James N. 

 Fitzgerald, D. D. ; the Rev. Isaac W. Joyce, 

 D. D. ; the Rev. John P. Newman, D. D., 

 LL. D. ; the Rev. Daniel A. Goosell, D. D. ; 



