METHODISTS. 



481 



XII. Conntess of Huntingdon's Connec- 

 tion. The conference, which was held at Mar- 

 gate in June, resolved to petition the Court of 

 Chancery for permission to unify the various 

 trusts of the Connection, and for authority to 

 extend the compass of the fourteenth article of 

 Religion, relating to baptism, so that it shall 

 read, " Baptism may be rightly administered to 

 infants or believers' by sprinkling, pouring, or 

 immersion " the effect of which would be to 

 permit Baptists to minister in the churches. 



XIII. Australasian Wesleyan Methodist 

 Church. The seventh General Conference of 

 the Australasian Wesleyan Methodist Church 

 met in Adelaide, South Australia, May 10. The 

 Rev. William Morley was chosen president. 

 The conference was attended by 152 represent- 

 atives of the annual conferences in the colonies 

 of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria. Tas- 

 mania, South Australia, New Zealand, and the 

 islands of Polynesia, viz., the New South Wales 

 and Queensland. Victoria and Tasmania, South 

 Australia, and New Zealand conferences. A 

 communication was received from the General 

 Conference of the Primitive Methodist Church in 

 Australasia concurring in the opinion expressed 

 by all the annual conferences connected with 

 the several Methodist Churches in the colonies 

 "that the unification of Methodism through- 

 put Australasia would conduce to the glory 



of God and the extension of his kingdom," and 

 expressing gratification at learning, through the 

 action of the quarterly meetings', that the de- 

 sire for the organic union of all the Methodist 

 Churches in Australasia was so general. The 

 communication contained a recommendation 

 that, if the Wesleyan General Conference should 

 not see the way clear within a reasonable time 

 to the consummation of union, the general union 

 negotiations be then discontinued for a while. 

 Tn considering the question of the union of the 

 Australasian Methodist. Churches, upon which 

 the annual conferences of the several Methodist 

 bodies had acted favorably in one shape or an- 

 other, a motion declaring amalgamation imprac- 

 ticable and advising the formation of a Methodist 

 Federal Council in each colony, was lost ; after 

 which, and after free discussion of the whole 

 subject, the following minute was adopted : 



The General Conference reaffirms its judgment 

 tli at union with the other branches of Methodism in 

 these colonies _ practically identical in belief and 

 teaching with itself, sprung from the same spiritual 

 stock, and separated from it merely by differences in 

 iH-desiastical order, would be fortlie glory of God and 

 the advancement of Christ's kingdom. It defines, as 

 the general constitutional basis upon which it is pro- 

 posed to unite with any or all of the other Methodist 

 Churches, the plan agreed upon by the conference of 

 Methodist bodies held in Melbourne in 1892, and rec- 

 ommended to this conference by the Victoria and 

 Tasmania Conference, and which 'is printed under the 

 head of " Proposed Constitution " in the Appendix on 

 Methodist Union. 



The conference empowers and authorizes each an- 

 nual conference to carry into effect, within its own 

 bounds, at the earliest period found practicable, and 

 on the constitutional basis thus defined, union with 

 any or all of the other Methodist Churches, all financial 

 and business questions arising out of such union to be 

 decided by the annual conference concerned. The 

 resolutions further provided that, for the purpose of 

 enabling the union to be carried into effect, and in 

 VOL. xxxi V. 31 A 



the event of its being accomplished, the permissive 

 powers of legislation conceded to the annual confcr- 

 - ences be extended, and each annual conference be 

 authorized, in the event of union with any other Meth- 

 odist Church within its bounds, to frame for iteelf 

 regulations in harmony with the " Proposed Consti- 

 tution ;" constituted a Standing Committee on Meth- 

 dist Union, to meet and deliberate in the interval 

 betwixt this and the next General Conference its 

 decision upon any plan of union submitted to it for 

 consideration to have the force of a decision of the 

 General Conference; arranged that until Methodist 

 union shall have become general throughout Austral- 

 asia, the name of the uniting Churches shall be the 

 Australasian Wesleyan Methodist Church, with the 

 distinct agreement that, when the union becomes gen- 

 eral, the united Church shall be denominated the 

 Methodist Church of Australasia ; and directed that 

 '_' pending organic union, and as a method of hasten- 

 ing its approach," each annual conference invite any 

 or all of trie other Methodist bodies to join in creating 

 within its bounds a Federal Council of Methodist 

 Churches, the functions of which were defined in sub- 

 sequent clauses of the resolution. It was further or- 

 dered that, "should any annual conference proceed 

 to effect union on the basis agreed to in this General 

 Conference, this conference directs that the final vote 

 by which union is consummated must be carried by 

 a majority of not less than two thirds of those present 

 and voting on the occasion." 



The regulation having reference to women 

 preaching was ordered expunged from the Con- 

 stitution. The enactment thus repealed de- 

 clared .that, in general, women ought not to 

 preach, but provided that if any woman thought 

 she had an extraordinary call from God, she 

 should, in general, address her own sex alone ; 

 and imposed other restrictions upon the privi- 

 lege, which are now removed. Gratitude was 

 expressed by resolution for the success of the 

 missions in New Guinea. The Mission Board 

 was directed to take what steps are possible for 

 the evangelization of the 10.000 coolies who have 

 been brought from India to Fiji. The confer- 

 ence recommended that church properties, or 

 such parts of them as might be suitable for the 

 purpose, " be thrown open on week nights for 

 the use of workingmen and others, when after 

 the hours of labor they may be supplied with op- 

 portunities of wholesome society, surroundings, 

 recreation, and general improvement." The 

 Christian Endeavor movement was approved. 

 The name of the district meetings was changed 

 to district synods. The Methodist people in the 

 colonies were urged to support the movement 

 for the reintroduction of Bible reading into the 

 State schools. The question of general superin- 

 tendency was remitted to the annual confer- 

 ences, " to be dealt with as they may respective- 

 ly decide, in accordance with the provision for 

 conferring permissive legislative powers upon 

 the annual conference made by the General 

 Conference of 1890." Eesolutions were adopted 

 favoring temperance and pledging support to 

 measures for placing in the hands of the people 

 the power to diminish or suppress the traffic in 

 intoxicating drink ; urging the maintenance of 

 the sanctity of the Sabbath, and the election to 

 Parliament and the municipal councils of men 

 who will co-operate in that cause ; and condemn- 

 ing the opium traffic and gambling. 



The report on educational institutions showed 

 that there were connected with the Church 4 

 provisional theological institutions, having 13 



