Morning journal and courier., 1892-03-12
THE ANNUAL SESSION

BYkW
 THE ANNUAL SESSION
 Df the New York East Conference-l Delegates to General Conference Changes in New Haven Churches
 and Throughout the State-The
 Woman QuestiOn n at the General or , National Conference. The New York East conference of the Episcopal church will convene March 30 in the New York avenue church, Brooklyn Bishop D. A. Goodsell will preside. Among the more important du- ties will be the election of delegates to the general conference, which meets in Omaha in May. Rev. Dr. J. M. Buckley, editor of the Advocate, will lead the delegation. l Dr. George P. Mains of Brooklyn, Dr. J. O. Peck of New York. Dr. Joseph Pullman l of New Britain, will probably be elected as delegates. Among the changes in ! Connecticut are the following: Rev. F. Mason North of Middletown has been elected secretary of the New York Church society and will probably accept Rev. MT. Stark of Vermont has been invited to succeed him at Midd1etown. Dr: Prince of Stamford will go to Bristol; Rev. D; R. Downey of Mamaroneck will succeed him at Stamford. Rev. MT. W. H. Bar tow, from Patchogue, L. |, will go to Waterbury. Rev. Allan M. Rossie of Hartford will go to Mamaroneck. There are several changes to occur in New Haven. Dr. M. B. Chapman of the First M. E. church will go to the New York | avenue church, Brooklyn, and Dr. Will fam v. Kelley of Brooklyn will succeed him at the First church. Rev. Frank A. Scofeld of Higganum will succeed Rev. James Coote at Grace church and Rev. R. T. Cooper of New Milford will follow Rev. MT. Blakeman at the Epworth church
 There will be discussions at the confer l ence on general subjects, but their nature has not yet been generally decided.
 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE GENERAL l CONFERENCE. ----r.
 The general conference holds it's quad rennial session in Omaha as above stated. The sessions will occupy the entire month of May, and for several reasons they prom ise to be fraught with most notable re- sults. Methodists are looking forward to the general conference with great in terest
 At least two questions are bound to l come up the sentlement of which may cause the birth of new denominations. A l large number of other questions are likely to cause undue excitement, as upon them may be reflected the influence of the greater questions, without any reference whatever to the merit or demerit of the lesser. Many of the annual conferences have instructed their delegates to the gen. eral conference how to vote on the ques- tion of admitting women to the confer ences, and, whether favorably or unfavor- ably, to cast their votes on every other question, no matter how remote, accord ingly. Therefore, delegate in favor of the admission of women will not vote for any man opposed to their admission, no matter what office he may be put up for
 The general conference will be a very large body. It will be made up of six ministerial and two lay delegates from each of the Ill annual conferences. It will be presided over in turn by the six teen resident bishops of the denomination. The east and west were directly arrayed against each other in the preliminary votes that the general conference of 1888, which met in this city, directed should be
 taken on the woman question in 1890 and
 1891, the west voting largely in favor of admitting women, and the east on the other side. The delegates that the west
 ern conferences have elected are known to , be almost all "women" men, while ir instances, to guard against any possibility of conversion by the eloquent orators o1
 the other side in the conference, specia
 instruction has been given to vote for the : admission of women as lay delegates. IT , the case of the Cincinnati conference delegate who has been instructed that way 3 is pronounced "anti-woman" man.
 l Will the east adopt the same tactics? is 8 question often asked in Methodist circles
 In New York and Brooklyn, where tn!
 most numerous, the prevailing sentiment . is that the delegates will not be hamperec I in any such way. There is no likelihood Q that any but anti-women men, however will get place on the delegation iron I either the New York or the New York Eas : conference.
 g The New York Times says: Amos
 John Wesley in America divided upon the slaver . question into two parts, which have never beel ], less than a, generation ago. when the laity de l. manded and received at the hands of the clerg
 ersl Since then the % se He5
 the church has been remarkable, and manyJfn
 hs ss l. Five women succeeded in getting elected a delegates from as many conferences to the ger eral conference of 1888. They were Miss Frar n ces E. Willard of the Rock River conference
 Amanda G. Rippey of the Kansas conference is Mary c. Hind of the Minnesota conference, Al e gie F. Newman of the Nebraska conference an 10 Lizzie D. Van Kirk of the Pittsburg conference l. They were elected under the interpretation c n the term Hay" as including both men and we was not
 The decision to exclude the women was nc
 cussion had taken pIace WI When # tas!a Was naII all
 1e ba5 a5 out shs so tbe it was G
 should be referTea to the e ent}re & ne;h ehurck Th n months of October and November, 1890, wer
 the Church over twenty @ % one years of % age, witi U out distinction of sex, should vote on the que. te tion As the result would only be taken as ind ' eating the sentiment of the church, it was ful to ther agreed that all the annual conference matter in 1884, the provision being that if thret y fourths of their number favored the admissio g would take it up, while fourteen, a majority f. the quorum of it's members, should be suficier was east by the New York East conference; I the B BoSRyh district 15 a of this N theT y the NewYork East districtithere are 70 churches
 Tash t9ok the vote m Ia the a9 ReT York a. vote. The New Haven district has s1 churche 71 of which took the vote. The churches whic smallest in the eonferenee The e resui5 of tn at vote was 1893 for admitting women and 3,91
 Sufficient interest was not taken in the que
 ton in all parts of the country to bring out
 ! D. churches refrained altogether from passing o
 it, while several conferences fai ed to repol st what action, if any, they had taken. It is inte . esting, however, to note that the returns frol 3H presiding elders districts show 1s2 600 vote ,a | in favor of the women to 9,u33 against, th
 majority being 73,48 The total vote cast WE
 only 291, ,314 out of 1,531 ,624 members reported la | On the basis that the membership of the entir nn church was 3, 900, it was estimated that { in least 700 900 would be entitled to vo under tn o. | condition of being twenty-one years of age
 over. Applying the same proportion to tn
 membership of the districts above mentioned, CT will be seen that the vote brought out was yer
 small.
 i'd The leader of the advocates of the admissio
 of women is Miss Frances E. Willard of tn
 Woman's Christian Temperance union. The ol rt position is led by the Rev. Dr. James M Buckle la of the Christian Advocate.
 an The other question referred to as likely . cause another split in the church is one whic 5: the colored members of the denomination hay
 been agitating for some time. They want repr D. sentaton of kind different from that which tL E. women are demanding. They argue that the
 numbers entitle them 10 secretaryships and sin oh liar offices in the great societies ot the churcl
 They al o declare that one of their numbe
 ought to be honored with an election to the Epi
 copacy. Tn re is no likelihood that their appe,
 will be favorably answered by the conferenc
 and there is, therefore, danger that they wi
 withdraw from the church, and either go int
 one Of the many Methodist denominations f6 B colored people, where they will not be in such
 subordinate position as now, form ne
 church for themselves.
 eral conference will have to take up is that col
 1 O EDisn0nacv Tn aoyr1a apI,a rtarof fbor