The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-04-07
METHODIST COUNCIL
The General Conference to Be Held in
Cleveland.
TO LAST THROUGH MAY
Interesting Questions to Be De-
bated-Women Delegates Filling
Various Offices-New bishops
Limits of Pastorates.

Bacheller)
The general conference OF the Metho-
dist Episcopal church is held every
four years. in the month of May. Elab-
crate preparations are being made for
the conference of 1896. which Will be
held at Cleveland, Ohio. An appropria-
tion of $50 900 has been made TO cover
the expenses incident to the great
gathering, which will last a month.
About $50 delegates will be in attend
ance. The Rev. A. j. Palmer, ID. d., OF
New York, is chairman of the commit
tee on entertainment, as he was in 1892.
In 1883 he was secretary of the same
committee, the business of which he
has at his fingers ends.
Great interest in this quadrennial
event of the denomination is being
manifested by Methodists everywhere.
The general conference Is the only leg
islative body in the Methodist Episco-
pal church. Its decisions govern 125
annual conferences and the 100000 OF
members of perhaps the most aggres-
sive of religious bodies. Seventeen of
the conferences represented belong to
foreign nations-India, China, Italy,
Japan, Liberia, Mexico, Germany, Nor
way, Sweden, South America and
Switzerland being among the lands
sending delegates. The mission con-
ferences have no direct representa-
tion at the general conference.
Delegates are both ministerial and
lay The former are elected by votes of
the ministers and assembled in annual
conferences, one delegate to each As
ministers. The lay delegates are chosen
by what are known as electoral con-
ferences. These are composed in each
conference of one delegate from each
quarterly conference. An electoral con-
ference cannot choose more than two
lay delegates, which arrangement pro-
vides for the dominance of ministers in
the councils of the church. If a con- |
ference should send but one minister to
the general conference, IL would also |
send but one lay delegate.
The bishops, or general superintend- |
ents of the church, are the presiding |
officers at the sessions of the general |
conference.-the and nothing more-for |
they are not members of the confer |
ence. They can neither debate, vote |
nor Veto They preside in the order of |
their seniority. At Cleveland, Bishop |
Bowman will preside on the first day, |
and Is bishops will succeed him on con- |
secutive days. after which his turn will |
come again, and so on.
Important questions will come up for |
consideration by this grave and rever- |
end body. Four women have been |
elected delegates-shall they be given |
seats or not? The question involved |
has been agitated for years, and the |
time to settle II has come. AS a rule |
western women desire the change; |
eastern women I'm general oppose il. |
Miss Francis Z. Willard is head and
front of the women who clamor for
equal rights with men in the govern |
ment of the church, and Bishop Fitz- |
gerald is her knight and champion i'm |
the contest. In fact, Fitzgerald is the |
radical bishop of the denomination. |
The leader OF the conservative side is |
the Rev. James M. Buckley, ID. D.. edi- |
tor of the Christian Advocate, the off, |
cial organ of the church. In the de- |
bates on the woman delegate question |
which took place in the general confer |
ence eight years ago, DIR. Buckley |
greatly distinguished himself Among |
giants in debate there is none more for
midable than Buckley, who is always |
alert. energetic, genial and full of re-
sources. In anticipation of the great /
meeting at Cleveland, the votes of an
nual conferences are being taken. Re-
suits point to a decided victory for
Miss willard and Bishop Fitzgerald.
Even the cleverness of DR.. Buckley
canont successfully stem the tide of the
inevitable, and Methodists who hold /
conservative views on this interesting
question are consoling themselves with
the reflection that after all, only a few
women of the Miss Willard type are
likely to be elected delegates, while
the vast majority of the sisterhood
will concern themselves not a bit
about candidates and votes, but will
still be content TO remain keepers at
home"
The recent death of the Rev. DIR.
Sanford Hunt. senior book agent OF the
church. leaves an important affice va
can't Conjectures are entirely vain as
to who will be elected his successor
There are doubtless many ministers |
who could fill the office with sufficient
ability; and IL is expected that not a
few names will be presented, and an
exciting and prolonged contest follow.
The same may be said of the election
of a missionary secretary to succeed
the Rev. ]. o. Peck, ID. D., deceased.
In short. fat offices are not altogether
unsought, and seem as attractive to
churchmen as to people in the depraved /
world outside.
This applies particularly in the cleo
ton of bishops, of whom perhaps five
or six will be chosen at the coming
conference. Their office as general su-
perintendents OF the church, with the
power OF appointing ministers, is one
of great responsibility and honor; and.
as leading minister OF the church re-
marked in conversation with the writer
they are little men only once in four
years. at the general conference, when
their immediate function is nothing
more than to administer the rules of
debate and to sit on the platform.
A momentous practical question TO
be decided at this meeting. is whether
or not the time limit of the itinerancv
shall be changed or modified. At pres
ent no minister can remain in charge
of one congregation or circuit longer
than five years. City pastors and con-
gregations are in many cases opposedl
to the maintenance of this as an i'm
perative rule, contending that II is pre-
judicial TO the interests of Methodism
in the centers OF population. Previous
~ to the year 1883 the limit was three
years, but the victory of the city in
terest eight years ago will not be fol-
lowed. IL is expected. by any radical
change this year. Led by DIR. Buckley
the old-fashioned Methodists who con-
tend that the frequent change of pas
tors Is desirable. giving TO many con-
gregations instead OF few the advant-
ages Of the ablest ministry. and open
ing mauV ODpCrtuuifiQs for rising merit ]