The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-03-30

CONFERENCE RING.
Methodist Church Politics
Have a Lively Airing
at Newark.
NO LADY DELEGATES
Lowrie and Ryman Elected to Go
to Observation-Disclosures of
the Superannuated.
sreesalto the jersey cttp Wears.

EN1 RSAAn NhsS0t
II
Srecfalto the Jersey Citu Wears
NEWARK. March 80, 1sse.AAn attempt
10 weaken the voting power Of large con-
ferences of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in America and increase the
power of the small conferences, a pro-
ceeding described as almost ~scandalousr
by Presiding Elder J. B. Faulks of Jer-
sey City. was knocked on the head SO
far as the Newark Conference was con-
cerned at the extraordinary session of
that body on Saturday afternoon last in
ST. Paurs Church IN this city.
II seems almost sacrilsglous to talk of
9 ring within the Methodist Church;
but II is a fact that under the existing
iaecuiSahlf ratio of ministerial and lay
REPRESENTATION of the churches at the GEN
eral Conferences. a few small conferences
have for some time been able to control
The election of bishops and make just
what laws they thought fit to govern the
millions of Methodists throughout the
length and breadth of the United States.
and this state of things has long been a
thorn IN the sides of the brethren repre-
senting the conferences at large.
Just as if this situation was not hard
enough to bear, this small group of small
conferences, a veritable ring" lately
proposed a quasi-gerrymandering plan, to
be Submitted to the General Conference
in May next, by which the inequality will
be aggravated. AT present a conference
consisting of only twenty ministers, and
there are many of them, is entitled to a
ministerial delegate in the ratio of one
for every twenty members, and q large
conference has only one for every forty
V S0 T19f n La0ntnranRA of IN
pastors each man had a tweptieth part
Of q vote. while IN a conference. say like
mat OF Newark, with about 225 members.
which could only send FIVE delegates, each
pastor had the forty-ffth part of a vote.
Ia the case of a layman il. was infinitely
worse. The conference of 20 members
sends ore layman; Newark WITH its $50
layfaen or thereabouts sends only 2 dele
Now it is proposed to give every little
conference the right to send ! in every IA,
and the large conference 1 in e5, or in
onaer words, as DIR. Faulks puts it, to
weaken the big bodies and Strengthen the
small ones and thus place a conference
Ike that Of some OF the Pennsylvania
members, absolutely at the mercy of a
few conferences one hundred times small
er in number.
No sooner had Bishop Cyrus Foss at
Saturday afternoons session announced
that a discussion of this constitutional ~
amendment was in order than nearly every
memoer ot the conference e~ndeavored TO
obtain the floor and tear to rags and tat,
fefS the Objectionable proposition. =
The Rev. DIR. il Boswell of Engle-
wood succeeded in catching the Bishops
eye, and he at once proceeded to point
70 make mince meat of the shred of an
argument in its favor. How unfair, he
said, was the amendment when anybody
remembered that in a conference of 20 the
lowest number a bishop could organize.
the patio was to be l in IA, while in a
thus making 20 pastors have as much
power as 20, a condition as inequitable
and absurd as It was possible to con
ceIVe- why, he continued, Just think
of if, half a dozen small conferences with
an aggregate membership of 800 have more
voting power than one conference with a
membership of 1000. and if we include
the lay delegate vote in all its present
nnfairness. why this handful of men
and make laws for the entire body Of
Methodists, while absolutely thousands
OF pastors and lay delegates cannot OBJ
the United States to equal this excepting
1t be the United States Senate, where a
small State WITH a few thousands of citi-
the big States of New YorkA New Jersey
and Pennsylvania. with then millions. I
be killed" loud cheering.)
wish to undersccre every word ut
tered tered By 9g. the las. last SPEAK spsakSef halt althQggh he ! = has IS
Presiding Elder Faulks, and the breth-
rem and the Bishop indulged in a hearty
laugh at DR.. BcswelPs expense.
But" continued DR.. Faulks to make
amends for his sally, sit is a good speech
and worth repetition. This proposition we
animus of the movement which seeks to
secure indirectly what it ought to secure
to change a ratio and make It worse than
It is now. ("Hear, hear, that's so" cried
the brethren.)
Brother John [. Hayes, seeming a fine
opportunity. to raise a squall, said he was
always with the. underdog, and, but he
= dld9 3 gava any f m Z f because J the R sad
make. Bishop Foss hesitated at first
gaye way on hearing loud cries for
and the. proposition buried under a ma
Gritty to- vote AYE" ana they were re-
warded for their pains with derisive
At the mornings session the ministers
negatived the proposition to change the
restrictive rule in the Discipline which
gates for an annual conference and said
delegates must be male members" In
sqe ab1eTnooa eub snf sseo for c 1af;na dama
be men or women, The lay1nen only the
60 to the General Conference on a pro-
position to that effect submitted to them.
Although beaten on the main point the
to Tx for the Annual Conference, and ii
was this question which came before the
pastors on Saturday afternoon.
In anticipation of an exceedingly lively
debate the church was crowded. Ladies
occupied every. seat in the gallery, and
many of them took possession of pews
of the brethren within the bar of the
conference. Le.. within the third window
from the bishops seat. Driven out%of
their seats the brethren sat in the aisJes.
in the organ loft and at the foot of the
dais. where sat Bishop Foss and the see5
retaries.
NOV for asrow," gleefully said Brother
Hayes, rubbing his skinny hands and
from time to time smoothing three long
gray hairs drawn from behind his left
ear across his shining bald pate; but he
was woefufly disappointed. If was agreed
R@o4Ae~