Middletown transcript., 1907-05-04
PRESIDING ELDERS

Ministers in tie Methodist Episcopal
Church are already planning to secure
action by the General Conference, which is
to meet III Baltimore in the spring OF 1908,
which will change the manner OF select.
ing presiding elders in all the Methodist
conferences. Under the present rules
the presiding elders, who are superinten-
dents Of districts within the conferences,
are appointed by the bishops who preside
at the annual conferences. 1t is stated by
Methodist leaders that there would be
no objection OF this method of appoint
ment, were it not fol the fact that the
presiding elders are very powerful in the
matter of Methodist pastors to churches,
and the present agitation has arisen from
desire on the part of the rank and file
OF the Methodist ministry that it have
ruling voice in the choosing of these men
to whom is delegated SO much response
bility.
In theory, the bishop who presides at
Ian annual conference in the Methodist
church makes all appointments preach
ers to Charges. As matter of TACT, it is
alleged, the bishop presiding at an annual
conference is assigned to that duty land fire.
quently he has no knowledge of the con-
ditions of churches within the conference
bounds, other than that which he may
gain during the sessions of the conference
or by advice offhe presiding elders. At.
these annual conferences the presiding
bishop and the presiding elders constitute
what is known as the cabinet" and by
this small body seldom consisting of more
than four or five men, the appointment
OF pastors to charges is decided.
Methodist preachers are not objecting
to this method of appointing them to
churches, but they do say that they
should have controlling voice in the
selection Of the presiding elders, the men
who have so much power in the matter.
Therefore, the General Conference is to
be asked to change the rules and permit
every annual conference to elect its presid-
ing elders, taking from the presiding bis
hops the power Of appoint. The confer
ence in this city has adopted memorial
to that effect, and other conferences to
meet this spring are expected to do
the same, and when the fall confer
ences meet it is believed that the agita-
tion will have grown still more.
There are some Methodist leaders who
assert that their church has grown beyond
the need for any presiding elders at all.
These contend that the church will be
greatly helped and its influence extended,
if provision is made for sufficient num-
ber of bishops to visit all the churches
annually or oftener, letting these higher
ecclesiastical officers do the work now
committed to the presiding elders. There
are about five hundred presiding elders
in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and
it is stated that they cost the church
about 100000 annually, besides the ex.
pense of maintaining residences for them.
The same amount of money, these leaders
say, would make it possible to add to
the number of active bishops, so that
the congregations might be stimulated, as
are those of the Protestant Episcopal
Church, by the periodical visit of the
man who, locally, stands at the forefront
of the Methodist system.
Some leaders are not sanguine that the
General Conference of 1908 will make the
desired change either in the method of
the selection of presiding elders or
in their abolition from the system, but
they believe that the agitation of the SUBJ
iect will bring about change, even it
does not come until the conference of
19l2.-New York Eyenaag Post.