CONFERENCES OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH are five in number: 1.
The Quarterly Conference, limited to a single pastoral charge (or local church), and hav ing supervision over it. Its members are (lie pastor, local preachers, exhorters, stewards, and class-leaders, together with the trustees and Sunday-school superintendent, if mem bers of the church. 2. The District Conference, embracing the churches of a presiding elder's district, is composed of the pastors, local preachers, exhorters, and one steward and Sunday-school superintendent from each pastoral charge. It has a general super vision of the temporal and spiritual affairs of the district ; licenses local preachers, has jurisdiction over them, and recommends them to the annual conference for admission on trial and for orders. 3. The Annual Conference, composed wholly of traveling preachers. Possessing no legislative power, its functions are purely administrative. It has the power of discipline over its own members, inquiring annually into the Christian character and ministerial efficiency of each by name. 4. The Judicial Conference, instituted for the trial of bishops who may be accused of wrong-doing, and of appeals by con victed members of an annual conference. The annual conferences severally elect seven
" triers of appeals." In case of an appeal the triers from three adjacent conferences constitute the judicial conference to which it is referred. For the trial of an accused bishop the triers from five neighboring conferences are necessary. 5. The General Con ference, the highest judicatory and only legislative body of the church, meets once in four years. It is composed of one minister for every 45 members of each annual con ference, and two laymen, chosen by lay electors, from the several quarterly conferences within the same territory. Under certain restrictive rules it has supreme authority, with supervision over all the interests and work of the denomination. It elects the bish ops and other general officers. The bishops, who are its presiding officers but not mem bers of it, are subject to its direction and answerable to it for its moral as well as official conduct.