492 



METHODISTS. 



mate the proposed union of non-episcopal Method- 

 ists, and that we recommend all our circuits and 

 missions to make toward said union as circumstances 

 may lead us. 



The publication of the American Primitive 

 Methodist magazine was discontinued, and 

 the membership advised to take in its 

 place the American Wesleyan. The strength 

 of the body may be seen from the follow- 

 ing statistics, reported in 1865 : forty-two 

 Sabbath-schools, three thousand and eighteen 

 teachers and scholars, twenty travelling preach- 

 ers, (twenty-one now,) fourteen parsonages, 

 and thirty-six churches, valued at $42,200, 

 under an indebtedness of only $3,000. Their 

 entire communion, preachers and people, aggre- 

 gate over two thousand. The churches are 

 located mainly in the southwestern part of Wis- 

 consin and the northwestern part of Illinois. 



IV. Free Methodist Church.* The member- 

 ship of this church, in 1866, was as follows : 



Church 

 Preachers. Members. Property. 



Genesee Conference 81 2,025 $46,050 



Illinois " .... 25 1,278 42,550 



Susquehanna " .... 21 1,104 7,349 



Michigan " .... 8 482 



Total, 



4,889 



$95,949 



The General Conference of the Church was 

 opened at Buffalo, on October 10, 1866. The 

 discipline was revised, and many changes 

 made, but none affecting the main features of 

 the demomination. Favorable action was taken 

 toward establishing a weekly denominational 

 paper. Kev. Levi Wood was elected editor, 

 and authorized to commence the publication of 

 the paper as soon as five thousand dollars were 

 raised for the purpose. Kev. B. T. Eoberts 

 was reflected general superintendent. 



V. Evangelical Association. The general sta- 

 tistics of this branch of Methodism in 1866 were 

 as follows : 



Conferences. Members. 



East Pennsylvania 9,000 



Central " 6,769 



Pittsburg 4,858 



New York 3,020 



Canada 2,842 



Michigan 1,593 



OhioT 5,436 



Indiana (1865) 4,049 



Illinois 5,691 



Wisconsin 5,201 



Iowa 2,980 



Kansas 250 



Germanyt (estimated) 3,000 



54,689 



To these must be added 2,045 probationers, 

 making the total membership 56,734, against 

 64,185, being an increase of 2,549. The num- 

 ber of itinerant preachers was 436; local 

 preachers, 355 ; adults baptized, 683 ; children 



* See " Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Free 

 Methodist Church for the year ending 1866," Rochester, 

 N. T. 1866. 



t See "Almanac of the Evangelical Association" for 1867, 

 published by the Denominational Book Concern, at Cleve- 

 land, Ohio. 



baptized, 4,735 ; Sunday-schools, 699 ; Sunday- 

 school scholars, 35,530; officers and teachers, 

 7,055; volumes, 86,057; catechetical classes, 

 252 ; catechumens, 2,309 ; churches, 702 ; prob- 

 able value, $882,850 ; parsonages, 171 ; prob- 

 able value, $119,471. 



VI. African Methodist Episcopal Church and 

 African Methodist Episcopal Zion ChurcJi. 

 The former of these bodies has about 70,000, and 

 the latter 42,000 members. The quadrennial 

 General Conferences of both bodies, held in 

 1864, declared in favor of effecting a nnion. 

 The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church 

 held an extraordinary General Conference on 

 the 20th and 21st of September, at Harrisburg, 

 Pa., to discuss the union question. Sixty-one 

 clerical and twenty-two lay delegates were in 

 attendance, together with the entire board of 

 superintendents. 



As the validity of the call of this extra ses- 

 sion was more than doubtful, action in the 

 premises was not reached. The decision of 

 the body amounted only to a postponement of 

 the question till it could be lawfully decided. 

 In no sense is it to be construed into a vote ad- 

 verse to union. On the contrary, the tone of 

 debate indicated a strong tendency to Method- 

 ist unification, and the prophecy was indulged 

 that at no very distant day the whole American 

 Methodist family would be consolidated into 

 one Church. Doctrinally, the two Churches 

 are a unit. The main ecclesiastical point of 

 difference is, the African Methodist Episcopal 

 Church has bishops with the tenure of office 

 during good behavior, and the African Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Zion Church has superintend- 

 ents elected for only four years. 



VI. Great Britain and British Colonies. 

 The 123d Conference of the Wesleyan Con- 

 ference of England was opened at Leeds, on 

 July 26th. Kev. William Arthur was elected 

 president, and Kev. John Farrar, secretary. The 

 vacancies in the Conference were 6 by death, 

 and 10 by the retirement of supernumeraries. 

 The Conference, to complete its number (the 

 " Legal Hundred "), elected 4 new members by 

 nomination ; 12 were elected by seniority. The 

 general statistics of Wesleyan Methodism were, 

 in 1866, as follows: 



These figures show an increase of members 

 in Great Britain, during the last year, of 356: 

 decrease in Ireland, 196 ; decrease on foreign 

 stations, 2,649. 



The " New Conneetio " Methodists repo vf ed 



