METHODISTS. 



589 



General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church S>nth, for the first time since the 

 .vpai-M inn of the two churches in 1844. The 

 i'-tatilisliiiiont of fraternal relations between 

 these two churches hud heen the subject of long 

 and painful effort. The circumstances of the 

 separation were originally unpleasant: differ- 

 ences upon the slavery question prevented 

 reconciliation while slavery existed, and the 

 events of the civil war and the remembrance 

 of them afterward have operated to make the 

 division wider. The first successful step tow- 

 ard fraternity was made by the Northern Gen- 

 eral Conference of 1872. It appointed a dele- 

 gation to visit the General Conference of the 

 Church South, in 1874. This delegation made 

 a happy impression on that body, and were 

 received with unexpected favor. The South- 

 ern General Conference appointed a delega- 

 tion to visit the present body. It included the 

 Rev. Dr. Lovick Pierce, the oldest minister of 

 the Church South, and an active participant 

 in the discussions which accompanied the sep- 

 aration ; the Rev. James A. Duncan, D. D., 

 President of Randolph-Macon College, and L. 

 C. Garland, LL. D., Chancellor of the Vander- 

 bilt University. Dr. Pierce was represented 

 by letter. Drs. Duncan and Garland attended 

 in person, and addressed the conference. In 

 order to remove all obstacles to formal frater- 

 nity between the two churches, a commission 

 consisting of three ministers and two laymen 

 was appointed to meet a similar commission, 

 already appointed in behalf of the Church 

 South, to adjust all existing differences. Be- 

 sides the customary delegations from other 

 Methodist Churches in the United States, Can- 

 ada, and Great Britain, fraternal delegates 

 were received from the African Methodist 

 Episcopal Church, and an address from the 

 Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. A fra- 

 ternal delegate was ordered sent to the Wes- 

 leyan Methodist Church in America, which 

 had not heretofore been in correspondence 

 with the General Conference ; and a commis- 

 sion of six ministers and six laymen was ap- 

 pointed for the purpose of conferring with 

 other Methodist Churches concerning questions 

 of fraternity and union. Numerous proposi- 

 tions were made to the General Conference rel- 

 ative to changes in the character of the office 

 of presiding elder, particularly seeking to limit 

 the number of presiding elders, and to provide 

 for their election by the annual conferences, 

 instead of being appointed by the bishops, as 

 had always been the rule. The conference re- 

 fused to recommend a change of the discipline 

 so as to allow of the election of presiding 

 elders. It, however, provided for taking the 

 sense of the Church through the annual con- 

 ferences upon a proposition to give the annual 

 conferences authority to determine how many 

 presiding elders' districts should be formed, 

 "provided no conference should have less than 

 two nor more than eight" districts, nor any 

 district more than sixty charges. 

 VOL. i vi. 84 A 



A resolution was adopted declaring that the 

 conference considered KM introduction of lay 

 delegation into the several annual con ft s 

 as a question of very great importance, and 

 that the interest it had awakened entitled it to 

 serious consideration ; and directing the ap- 

 pointment of a committee of five ministers and 

 five laymen to consider the propriety of it, 

 and, if they deem it expedient, report a plan. 



The committee appointed in pursuance of 

 the order of the previous General Conference 

 to prepare a code of ecclesiastical jurispru- 

 dence and procedure, had completed their 

 work and presented their report. The con- 

 ference found it impossible to complete the 

 consideration of it satisfactorily this session, 

 and ordered it referred to another commission 

 to consider it, and report it or some other code 

 to the next General Conference. Provision 

 was made contingently for the division of con- 

 ferences into two or more conferences, em- 

 bracing, in whole or in part, the same terri- 

 tory, so as to include the white and colored 

 members in separate conferences, whenever 

 such division should be requested by a major- 

 ity of the white members and also a majority 

 of the colored members of any annual confer- 

 ence. But it was declared that such division 

 should not be made where the general desire 

 of the conference is against it, where it is not 

 clearly seen that the state of the work would be 

 improved by it, or where the interests and use- 

 fulness of even a minority might be damaged 

 or imperiled by it. The Georgia and Alabama 

 Conferences, having requested it, were divided 

 in accordance with this action. 



A change in the basis of representation in 

 the General Conference was proposed to the 

 Annual Conferences, so as to permit it to be 

 constituted of one delegate for every ninety- 

 nine ministers, instead of one for every forty- 

 five, as now, and two lay delegates from each 

 Annual Conference. 



The bishops were authorized to organize the 

 Foochow Conference in China; the North 

 India Conference, and the South India Confer- 

 ence, out of the India Conference ; the Con- 

 ference of Sweden, the Conference of Norway, 

 and a conference in India. Provision was 

 made for two visitations by the bishops during 

 the ensuing quadrennium to the missions in 

 Europe, India, Japan, and China. A visit by 

 one of the bishops to Liberia during the next 

 four years was also recommended, with a view 

 partly to the extension of the missions into the 

 interior. 



A revision of the hymn-book was ordered. 

 The Board of Education were instructed to 

 give special attention to the educational wants 

 of the people of the South. The amount ap- 

 portioned to each pastoral charge to be raised 

 for the support of the bishops was made a 

 )>/<> rut, i claim with that of the stationed 

 preachers and presiding elders. Resolutions 

 were adopted approving the course of the Cen- 

 tennial Commissioners in closing the exhibi- 



