In 1856 the members of the African Meth odist Episcopal Church residing in Canada formed the British Methodist Episcopal Church and elected Willis Nazrey, then bishop of the A. M. E. Church, as their bishop. In 1884 the church was reunited and the British M. E. Church ceased to exist except in a very small minority.
The General Conference is the supreme governing body and, as in other Methodist bodies, it has only legislative power for the church. It is composed of all the bishops, General Conference officers, college and uni versity presidents and deans of theological schools, two ministerial and two lay delegates from each annual conference. If a conference has more than 60 members it is entitled to an additional ministerial delegate for 30 members or fraction of the same exceeding 15. The Annual Conference is composed of all the traveling elders, deacons and licentiates and all the local elders and local deacons and two laymen from each district in the bounds of the conference. Members of other conferences visiting the session of the conference have the right to speak in debate but cannot vote.
The District Conference is composed of all traveling ministers, local preachers and one steward from each quarterly conference in a presiding elder's district. The District Con ference does considerable work done by the Annual Conferences in other churches, such as the preliminary examination of candidates for adnussion to the ministry.
The Quarterly Conference is the governing body of the local church. The women of the church have a large share in the local govern ment. There are not only stewards but stew ardesses as well. From three to nine belong to each local Quarterly Conference. The church also makes use of the services of deaconesses. The bishops, however, are spe cifically prohibited from ordaining women to the ministry.
The present Board of Bishops consists of 16 members, 15 of whom are in active service.
The church is divided into 15 episcopal dis tricts over each of which a bishop presides for a period of four or more years, as the Gen eral Conference shall direct. The limit of service of presiding elder or pastor is five years.
The educational work of the church in cludes 20 institutions of which 10 are of col legiate grade, two are normal schools and one an industrial school. For the training of their ministry they have two theological sem inaries : Payne Theological Seminary, located at Wilberforce, Ohio, and connected with Wilberforce University; and Turner Theologi cal Seminary, connected with Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Ga.
The Missionary Society was organized by the General Conference of 1844 and includes both foreign and home missions in its work. Previous to that date, however, the church had conducted mission work in Hayti, sending Scipio Beans as missionary in 1827. In 1830 mission work was begun in Santo Domingo. In 1820 missions were established in Sierra Leone by Rev. Daniel Coker. In 1878 work was begun in Liberia and in 1889 in the Trans vaal. In 1908 and 1912 Bishop Heard was sent to Africa as resident bishop. In 1912 Bishop Johnston was resident bishop of South Africa. In 1916 Bishop Ross succeeded Bishop Heard, while Bishop Beckett succeeded Bishop Johnston. The headquarters of the Mission ary Society is located in New York Bibliography.— Jeni fer, John T.,
First Decade of African Methodism in Arkan sas and Indian Territory,'