Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-01-31
POWER OF A METHODIST BISHOP.
Eighteen Men who Have Spiritual Rule
Over Many MiIliora.


Eighteen Men who Have Spiritual Rule
Over Many Miiliora.
The Methodist Church is one Of the
most highly organized, or rather is
the most highly organized, OF all the
Protestant denominations. But with
out going into minute detail We may
say briefly that the Board of Bishops
is the highest Order in the Methodist
system. It consists of twenty-one
persons who are elected by the general
conference to fill vacancies by death or
deposition-a bishop cannot resign.
1t is within the power of the general
conference to enlarge this number if,
in its opinion, the needs Of the church
require. The new bishop is ordained
with elaborate ceremonies, and,
Methodists claim, with true apostolic
succession through the Wesleys.
OF these twenty-one men, eighteen
have supreme and well nigh arbitrary
jurisdiction over worldwide Metho-
dism, and two of these ere practically
retired, thus reducing the active force
to sixteen. How this supervision
shapes itself into routine may be indi-
Gated to show the extent and charac-
ter OF this authority. There are in
the Methodist Church 124 conferences,
103 of which are in this country, while
twenty-one are distributed through
India, China, South America, Mexico
end Europe. These conferences may
be called the grand division of NLetho-
dism. They are always subdivided
into two OF more districts, and repre-
sent from fifty 70 500 or mere "charges"
or churches. Each Of these confer
ences holds an annual session, at
which bishopmust preside. He has
associated with him in authority on
such occasions what is known as the
cabinet" a body composed of the
bishop and the presiding elders of the
conference. The presiding elder, it
should be said, is the chief executive
of each district conference, and is
himself person of great authority.
1t each conference the bishop, in con-
sultation with his cabinet, decides
upon, appoints and announces the pas
torates for the coming year, and from
I this decision there is no appeal. 4
Methodist minister must either take
his assignment or disobeY orders and
practically quit the ministry.
Thus, theoretically at least, these
twenty-one bishops have in their arbi-
trary power the Location and work of
the 80, 900 ministers of the Methodist
Church, power which cannot find q
parallel outside of the Roman Catho-
lie Church, if indeed it be equalled
there.
It will be observed that the Metho-
dist bishops are not confined to a
diocese. Roughly speaking, each
bishop visits the whole church in from
twelve to fifteen years. The bishop,
however, has an episcopal residence,
though he may not be much at home.
These residences are fixed by the
general conference, and the choice IS
then made by the bishops themselves
in the order of their seniority. Thus
it happens that bishop often officially
resides ut great distance from the
sceno of the work with which he is
most prominently identified. Bishop
Vincent's home, for example, is at
Kansas City, though he is commonly
associated with Chautauqua interests.
In addition TO these varied and I'M
portan5 tasks within the bounds Of
our country, two or more Of the TWEEN
ty-olo bishops are chosen TO visit the
foreign conferences. These men
should be carefully distinguished
from what are known as missionary
bishops, the only Methodist bishop
corresponding to the Anglican bishop
that is, with q well-detined and per-
manent diocese, and wEo therefore
correspond pretty closely to presid-
inS elder, though he has presiding
elders under him. These visiting
bishops travel throughout the world
and are effective everywhere.
It will be seen from this cursory
sketch that the group of Methodist
bishops are vested with more power
than any body OF ecclesiastics in the
Protestant Church. As Bishop Fal-
lows of the Reformed Episcopal
Church remarked: ga Methodist
bishop has more power in his little
finger than have in my whole body"
It only remains to be said that this
group of men exercise their enormous
powers with rare wisdom, moderation
and fidelity. Church Economist.
When Gloves Were Only For Ornament.
Il /.