The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-05-30
WEDNESDAY, MAY 80, 1888.
The Great Church Assemblies.

woman s WORK IN the cnurCn Dy eSlaD-
fishing an order of deaconesses. Their
duties are defined as ministering to the
poor, visiting the sick, caring for the
orphan, seeking the wandering, and,
relinquishing wholly all other pursuits,
devoting themselves in general way to
such forms of Christian labor as may
be suited TO their abilities. The con-
ference has also taken another i'm
portant step in extending the pastoral
term from three to five years. AL
though the itineracy has been regarded
as one of the principal sources of the
growth of Methodsm, there has been a
growing feeling that frequent changes
of pastors placed churches of this de-
nomination at disadvantage. 1t re-
mains to be seen whether this radical
change results favorably to the inter-
ests of the church. Another matter of
considerable importance has been de-
cided-the standing of a missionary
bishop in the church. 1t has now been
determined that within his own field of
labor missionary bishop has all the
rights and powers of regular bishop
and that he is to be supported in the
same way. There has been an inter-
esting discussion on the relations of
church choirs to the government of the
church, in which the present tendency
to introduce operate and other like
music into the church service was
deprecated by several delegates. The
temperance question has been vigor-
ously discussed, and the majority de-
cided that while "we hold that the
proper attitude of Christians toward
this traffic is one of uncompromising
opposition, and while we do not pre-
sumo to dictate to our people as to
their political utilization, we do express
the opinion that they should not per-
nit themselves to be controlled by
party organizations that are managed
in the interest of the liquor traffic"
The election of five new bishops by
the great Methodist body has excited
much interest, and the canvass was
quite as lively as contests in political
conventions. On one of the ballots
evidences of repeating were found and
announced by the tellers, which shows
that one or two of the delegates had
more zeal for the election of their
favorite candidate than honesty. The
attempted fraud met with stern re-
Duke from the convention and the pre-
siding bishop. After successive bal
lettings the conference elected five new
bishops in three days, as follows: Rev.
DR.. John r. Vincent, Rev. DR.. James
N. Fitzgerald, Rev. DR.. Isaac w. Joyce,
Rev. DR.. John p. Newman and Rev.
DR.. Daniel A. Goodsell, in the order as
named. DR.. Vincent is fifty-siX years
of age and began preaching in the Bal
timore conference in 1850. Seven years
later he was transferred to the Rock
River Qll.) conference. He has been
extensively engaged in Sunday-school
work and is prominent in the Chau-
tauquan movement. DR.. Fitzgerald is
in his tiftieth year and was formerly
lawyer. He entered the ministry in
the Newark conference twenty years
ago, and is better known as secretary
of the Mission Society than in any
other capacity. DR.. Joyce belongs
to the Cincinnati conference and has
preached since 1859. He has been
pastor of two of the leading Methodist
churches in Cincinnati. Dr. Newman
was born in New York city in 1927 and
is preacher, traveller and author of
note. From 1870 to 1873 he was pastor
of the Metropolitan church in Wash
ington, and during that time was chap
lain of the United States senate. At
ter serving as pastor in New York he
was again assigned to the Metropolitan
church in Washington. He was called
to minister to General Grant during
his long illness and otliciated at the
funeral. DR.. Goodsell is forty-eight
years of age and his entire ministry has
been in New York and vicinity. He
has been for fifteen months secretary
of the church board of education. The
conference also elected Rev. j. NJ. Tho
burn as missionary bishop to India and
Malaysia. He is fifty-two years of age
and has been missionary in India
since 1859.
Another great body of evangelical
Christians is holding its annual as
sembly in Philadelphia-the Presby-
terians, with six hundred delegates.
At the same time the General Assem-
bly, of the Presbyterian Churches South
is in session at Baltimore, attended by
one hundred seventy delegates. Re-
, peated efforts have been made to unite
the two branches of the church, but
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