METHODISTS. 



481 



manac of this Church for the year 1869 reports 

 the following statistics : 



There are 798 churches and 863 Sunday- 

 schools. The missionary contributions were 

 $90,616.62, and the contributions to the Sun- 

 day-school and Tract Union were $1,666.36. 

 The number of local preachers is given at 377. 



The Church has two bishops ; the Mission- 

 ary Society supports 167 missions in America 

 and Europe. The high-schools of the Church 

 are the Northern College, at Plainfield, 111., the 

 Union Seminary, at New Berlin, Pa., and the 

 Ebenezer Orphan Institution, at Flat Eock, 

 Ohio. The Church sustains the following peri- 

 odicals: The Evangelical Messenger and the 

 Sunday-school Messenger, Der Christliche Bot- 

 schafter, and Der Christliche Kinderfreund, 

 published at Cleveland, Ohio ; and Der Evan- 

 gelischeBotscJiafter, published in Wurtemberg, 

 Germany. 



VII. THE AFEICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL 

 CHUKCH: AND THE AFEICAN METHODIST EPIS- 

 COPAL ZION CHURCH. The statistics of the 

 former body, in 1868, were : Travelling preach- 

 ers, 600; churches, 586; members, 200,000; 

 Sunday-school scholars, 60,000. The Christian 

 Recorder, Philadelphia, is the organ of this 

 denomination. It has a college, Wilberforce 

 University, near Xenia, Ohio. The last-named 

 Church reported, at the last General Confer- 

 ence, 694 preachers and 164,000 members. 



Both these Churches held, in May, 1868, 

 their Quadrennial General Conferences at 

 Washington. At the General Conference of 

 the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a 

 delegation was received from the American 

 Unitarian Association, who stated that they 

 desired to assist the Church by appropriating 

 some $3,000 to $4,000 to help the cause of 

 missions and education, but in doing this did 

 not want to interfere with their religious be- 

 lief. The General Conference adopted a basis 

 of action. It was reported with regard to the 

 basis of union with the African Methodist 

 Episcopal Zion Church, which was agreed upon 

 at a convention of representatives of the two 

 bodies in 1864, that the congregations which 

 had voted upon it had expressed a willingness 

 VOL. vin. 31 A 



for union, but had not approved the plan of 

 the convention. The Conference, therefore 

 declined to consolidate the union, and asked 

 for a new conference with the Zion Church to 

 agree upon another plan. Three additional 

 bishops were elected, making the total number 

 seven. The bishops of this Church are or- 

 dained for life. 



At the General Conference of the African 

 Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the bishops 

 in their address recommended the establish- 

 ment of an institution tft be called the Eush 

 Institute. A plan of consolidation between 

 this Church and the African Methodist Episco- 

 pal Church, which had been agreed upon by 

 committees of the two bodies in 1864, was re- 

 ported ratified by a majority of the churches 

 and conferences of the African Methodist Epis- 

 copal Zion Church, and a committee was dele- 

 gated to report the fact to the General Confer- 

 ence of the other body. As, however, the 

 churches and conferences of the latter Church 

 had failed to ratify the union on the basis pro- 

 posed, the Zion General Conference declined 

 to take further action on the subject at present. 

 A committee on correspondence with the 

 American Colonization Society reported against 

 the aims and operations of the society as ad- 

 verse to the true interests of the colored race in 

 the United States. The Conference expressed 

 its satisfaction at the origin and success of the 

 freedmen's schools. A committee was ap- 

 pointed to confer with a committee of the 

 Methodist Episcopal Church on a plan of 

 union ; and, in view of the probability of union, 

 the ministers were advised to study the disci- 

 pline of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The 

 Zion Church has six bishops or general super- 

 intendents, who are elected for four years, and 

 are not ordained. 



VIII. THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHUECH IN 

 CANADA. The Methodist Episcopal Church in 

 Canada embraces three Conferences the Ni- 

 agara, Ontario, and the Bay Quirite with 2 

 bishops, 216 travelling preachers, and 58,457 

 members. 



IX. WESLEYAN CONNECTION IN GEEAT BEIT- 

 AIN. The Wesley an Methodist Calendar for 

 1869 reports the following statistics : 



Of the members, 550,055 are "in full con- 

 nection," and 44,480 are "probationers." In- 

 crease of members in Great Britain during the 

 last year, 5,310 ; decrease in Ireland, 66 ; in- 

 crease of foreign stations, 680. 



