Methodism in the United States

To bind the whole body the existing method required the con currence of each Annual Conference with every proposition. This was inconvenient and occasioned much loss of time ; therefore a General Conference was established to meet once in four years. The first was held in 1792, and therein arose a sharp conflict. James O'Kelly (1735-1826), a Presiding Elder in control of a large district, proposed that, when the list of appointments was read in the Conference, if any preacher was not pleased with his assignment he might appeal to the Conference. The motion being lost, O'Kelly and several other preachers seceded. As all "travel ling preachers" were eligible, without election, to seats in Gen eral Conferences, widespread dissatisfaction prevailed among the distant Conferences. The era of the steamboat and the railway not having arrived, it was possible for two Annual Conferences, adja cent to the seat of the General Conference, to out-vote all others combined. This led to a demand for the substitution of a delegated General Conference, which was conceded by the Conference of 18°8 to take effect four years later.

The slavery storm burst on the Conference in 1844. Bishop James Osgood Andrew (1794-1871), a native of the South, had, by inheritance and marriage, become a slaveholder. After debates of many days, he was requested "to desist from the exercise of the office of Bishop while this impediment remained." The Southern members declared that the infliction of such a stigma upon Bishop Andrew would make it impossible for them to maintain the influ ence of Methodism in the South, and a tentative plan of sepa ration was adopted by the Conference by an almost unanimous vote. The result was that the Methodist Episcopal Church was bisected, and the members of the General Conference of 1848 represented 78o travelling preachers and 532,290 members fewer than it had numbered four years before. After the Civil War the increase in membership was noteworthy. The quadrennial Conference of 1868 represented 222,687 members more than its predecessor; of this gain 117,326 were in the Southern States. In 1872 lay representatives were admitted, the Constitution having been amended so as to make it legal. It was not, however, an equal representation. Not until 190o were lay and clerical repre sentation equalized. In 1864 the time limit of pastorates was lengthened to three years, and in 1888 to five years. This limit was taken off in 1900, and pastors can be reappointed at the will of the Bishop.

In 1900-1904 a general revision of the Constitution took place, and the words "lay members" were substituted for "laymen" in that part of the Constitution which deals with the eligibility of delegates to the General Conference, making possible the election of women. The General Conference has power to make rules and

regulations for the Church, subject only to restrictions which pro tect the Standards of Doctrine, the General Rules, the disposition of the property of the Book Concern and its income, the income of the Chartered Fund, and the right of ministers to trial before a jury of their peers, an appeal, and similar rights of the laity. By a two-thirds vote of a General Conference, and two-thirds vote of the members of the Annual Conference, all of the mem bers of the Lay Electoral Conferences, present and voting, what is said in these "Restrictive Rules" can be altered or repealed, except that which deals with the Articles of Religion and "the present existing and established Standards of Doctrine." In the Annual Conference the Bishop is the sole interpreter of law, sub ject to appeal to the General Conference. The district super intendent visits each charge several times annually. The Methodist Episcopal Church in 1912 adopted the Episcopal area system with a flexible limit on the residence of a bishop in any one area.

The Methodist Episcopal Church South.

After the ad journment of the General Conference of 1844, the representatives of thirteen constituents resolved to determine what should be done to prevent Methodism in the South from being deprived of its influence over the whites and of the privilege, till then fully accorded, of preaching the Gospel and teaching its precepts to slaves. In 1845 a representative Convention was called; this body, with the approval and participation of Bishop Andrew, organized the Methodist Episcopal Church South. At its first General Conference, in 1846, the senior Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Joshua Soule (1781-1867), offered himself to the Church, which accepted him in his episcopal capacity. The Church thus founded began with 46o,000 members, of which 2,972 were Indians, 124,961 coloured, and 1,519 travelling ministers. At the close of the war the Missionary Society of the Church was $6o,000 in debt, the Publishing House practically in ruins, and of the more than 200,000 coloured members in 186o there re mained fewer than 50,000. The Conference of 1866 was held in New Orleans. Radical changes in polity were effected. The time limit on the continuation of pastorates was extended from two to four years. The most radical change was the introduction into the General Conference of a number of lay representatives equal to the number of clerical, and the admission into each Annual Conference of four lay delegates for each Presiding Elder's district.