The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-16
METHODISTS MEET
 NEXT WEDNESDAY Annual Conference Will Be Held At New Decatur MORRISON WILL PRESIDE This Will Be the Bishops First Ap- point ment to Alabama-confer-
 ence to Be Held at the
 Central Methodist.
MORRISON WILL PRESIDE
BY E. M. GLENN, Tuscumbia.

l
 The 39th session of the North Alabama conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, south, will convene in Central church, New Decatur, at o'clock, Wednesday morning, November lS under the presidency of Bishop H. C. Morrison.
 This Is Bishop Morrison's first appoint ment to the presidency of the North Alabama conference, and the first session of the body, to be held in New Decatur although several sessions have been held in the neghboring municipality of De- catur
 Several circumstances conspire to invest ] the approaching session with more than usual interest. First and foremost, ;, source of unusual interest centers in the l president of the conference. In Southern l Methodist administration circles, Bishop Morrison seems to have laid a predicate 1 for doing things after a unique fashion. He proceeds apparently upon the hypoth- l esis that the president of a conference must be possessed of information as full ! and as definite as may be possible to ob- l tain, not from one single source chiefly nor from several sources mainly, but l from all various sources available. Then the appointments are made, according to i the best light afforded. In some quarters
 
 because of certain incidents of admins tration; but the criticisms have generally 1 come from those who had failed to work the bishop, as may have been their wont. The rank and file have in- variably applauded what he has done. Conference Politics.
 Bishop Morrison is credited with hold ing in particular adherence anything and everything that in the remotest degree is suggestive of conference politics or com i pines. He seems to stand for a fair and impartial distribution of the labors, hon i ors and dignities of the conference; TO- tation in office, equalization In work and pay, and the proper recognition of CO., ordinate interests in general. It is sort of open secret, that large petition went to the College of Bishops last May l for the assignment of this bishop to this conference at this time. Therefore is his coming hailed with pleasure by the con ference at large; and 1t is confidently ex- pected that his administration will be timely, wholesome and satisfactory.
 Methodist preachers and Methodist lay men who take stock in annual conference affairs would be less than men if they did not occasionally betake themselves to sort of forecast of events, probable or de- sirable. Several clerical gentlemen of prominence, including five presiding eld- ! four years tenure of present positions, hence under necessity of change. Fest is therefore given this year to these be- fore-conference forecasts, or states" This is particularly true as pertains to the i five elders aforesaid. These, who now must move are men of parts and of prominence, and in their respective dis tricts have generally given good account of themselves, have magnified their office md Il m in fr.of I is alpf fuaa1 fnt them that they have manifested a good degree of fitness for that particular line of church work, and have attained such measure of proficiency as to entitle them to careful consideration for further ser vice of the same sort. Most likely they have. all of them, been at more or less pains to render themselves adopts in their sphere. hence might not be averse to being continued in the same line of service.
 Elders Do Not Die.
 There is in Methodist annals legend running to the effect that flew presiding elders die. and none resign" Yet there are occasional variations from the letter of that legend. Undoubtedly. there is no more difficult or onerous position in the Methodist itinerant system than the pre- siding eldership; and to this may be add ed that in some quarters the office itself y somewhat below par Nevertheless the office seems to hold for some men ''pe- culiar fascination There is no law in the Methodist statute books prohibiting an elder continuing in the office for a term beyond four years. And for long time the general policy of the appointing power was to continue a man in the elders office indefinitely, looking chiefly to the standard of availability. Hence some men, in some conferences. have seemed to have a "cinch' on the elders office. and have spent large portion of their ministerial life therein. Lately 1 however. there has grown up in the church at large pretty decided and a pretty strong sentiment that it is better | for the man himself and better for tine conference; that when one has seen service for four years ill the presiding eldership he should then put in some years in some other branch of the itin- i erancy-notably in the pastorate That sentiment in north Alabama is unmstaX ] able. among preachers and people. But the bishops have not generally paid any particular attention to that sentiment if they were appraised of it's existence and have been guided in their conclusions and in their appointments to the elder , ship according to the best judgment sug- gested by conditions. individual and gen eral as these have been made to ap- pear
 i A Keen Question.
 What in the premises, this bishop may | do is the keen question. On this partic- ular point, Bishop Morrison's adminis- tration has been generally all one way; | to reappoint no man elder who has been | in that office for four consecutive years. | Nevertheless. it is thought that. under given conditions, he might be inclined to deviate from his general rule; hence the slate makers seek to take into account | the possibilities in the case. and figure | on the likelihood of this that four year-elder being retained in the cabinet | at all events Then another slate is made up, supposing that there will be five new l elders appointed--fiye men who are not now in the cabinet, to take the places of those five who hence at the end of their tether Who will these five new mon be? That is a ponderous question. 1 If all the men whose rames are mentioned i in this connection should actually break l into the cabinet, then the bishop must needs carve out some two or three dog ems of new districts for their aceommo- dation However, when all the states are examined and all the recommendations recorded and the various opinions classl- fed, then it will appear that the bishop , has, as matter of fact, done precious little talking, of a nature to give any man a cue as to his real intentions. So IF work in window