The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-05-23
THEY PREFER TO HOLD THE OFFICES.
The Preachers of the A. M. E. Church Will
Not Share Official Trusts with Laymen.

The devotional exercises at the A. n. E. Con.
ference. yesterday morning. were conducted by
DR.. w. B. Derrick. who offered an eloquent
prayer. Bishop Turner. he of the strong voice,
presided. and as o consequence decorum was .
little better than usual Early in the morning
tho conference adjourned for . few minutes,
and the delegates were photographed in front Of
Bethel Church. Upon reassembling q motion
was made to 60 into an immediate election Of
general Offices, but an amendment setting the
hour at 8 o'clock prevailed.
Bishop Payne then offered the following reso-
luton. which was signed by himself and j. q.
Clark: 'Inasmuch as there are about 2. 900 pas
tors supported by the laymen, eleven bishops
supported by the laymen, and seven general Of
feers supported by the lsymen. Resolved, that
lsymen be eligible to election for two Of the
general Offices" The resolution was laid on the
table.
A delegate by the name Of Graham moved
that the convention adjourn sine die at Friday
noon, and . Mr.. Dyson moved &c amend by pro-
viding to meet in Charleston, s. c., in 1892
The entire matter was ruled out by the
bishop. The delegates then proceeded to the
consideration of the unfinished business of the
previous day. When the report of the COM
mittee on Discipline was called up Section 4
was withdrawn. and Section 5. which provided
for the introduction of the short litureical service.
such as was used In the al. E. Church, was.
after considerable debate. defeated. The under
standing is that those pastors who desire to en-
ploy the liturgy may do 90.
The consideration Of Section 6, relating to the
order Of services, was next considered. but be-
fore the conference passed upon it. Bishop Payne
was called upon for q report concerning his
church history. He said: I'm 1848 | was
authorized by the General Conference to write
the history Of the A. M. e. Church, and / now
have it completed. In searching for materials,
in arranging. in sitting the chaff from the wheat,
and putting all that is valuable in historic form,
forty years have been consumed"
The Bishop further stated that the General
Conference of 1856 had ordered that the book
concern should publish the history when com-
pleted and that he should receive a royalty of %
per cent. At his present advanced age, how
ever. such royalty would be Of little profit. aud
he therefore asked that the orders of the Gen
eral Conference Of 1856 be aunuiled and a differ
ent arrangement made. A committee consisting
of j. T. Jenifer. M E. Bryant. w. III. Hunter,
A. M. Green and James II. Hubbard was ap-
pointed to consider the matter.
A motion was adopted to send q fraterna1
delegate to the M. e. Conference in session in
New York. but the appointment was taken un-
der consideration by the Bishop.
u COut0ulkOu u ~ Y I0OOu tOOk uU ITO
election of general officers. of which there are
some half . dozen. In addition to the honor
and salary which attach to these positions. they
are considered somewhat in the light OF step
ping -stones 70 the bishopric. Nominations for
the Office of business manager of the Christian
Recorder were first heard, but there proved lit
tie rivalry for the position, DR.. j. q. Embry,
of Philadelphia. being elected almost unani-
mously. There were but a few scattering votes
for other candidates. DR.. Embry has been the
manager Of the Book Concern ut Pniladel-
phia for . number of years. For the
position of editor of the Recorder, DR..
b. F. Lee, Of Philadelphia, was chosen on the
first ballot, receiving l62 votes to 40 altogether
for the rest Of the candidates. DR.. Lee 10 one of
the best-known ministers in the church. When
the conferences came to vote for the editor of the
A. NJ z. Review there was q lively competition
between DIR. Il. j. Coppep, OF Philadelphia, and
Prof. W. s. Scarborough, of Wilberforcs Uni
versity. On the third ballot. however, DR..
Coppen was elected, receiving l36 votes, Prof.
Scarboroueh's vote having dropped to 40. After
the elecrioo Of DR.. Copper was announced, the
conference adjourned.
Tho conferences devoted its evening session TO
Mite Missionary Society. One OF the features
of the exercises was the excellent music. Bishop
Campbell presided. and made the opening ad-
dress. He referred to the Importance OF wom-
ems work. although for the first sixty years of
its history the A. NJ. Z. Church had
been unable to support q single foreign
missionary. He said that the reason of this was
that the women had never been called into
service, but as soon as the men learned that
they could not get along without "the rib they
did better. Addresses were delivered by Bish-
op-elect Tanner, DR.. j. NJ. Townsend. Mr..
Trent. of Chicago. and others. After the sd-
dresses a local branch of the society
was established with a promising membership.
The newly-established Southern Christian
Recorder. now published by Bishop Turner OF
Atlanta. Ga. will have its first general editor
bailoted for to-day. There are several persons
spoken OF for this position, Three OF them are
Prof. H. T. johnson, president of the West
Tennessee College Rev. r. F. Hurley, of Lou
islana, aud Rev. ]. + Hsyne. of Charleston,
S. G.