Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-04-25
Conference Notes.

This afternoon, for the only time dur
ing the week, women are among the
presiding officers and speakers.
The services of Sunday morning and
Sunday evening will both be at City
hall.
Never before in the history Of the
Maine conference has the presiding
bishop had the honor of presenting his
brother as one of the speakers.
Says the Portland Express: 1.-THE
splendid Methodist church is having
its annual festival at Augusta. The
conference is at once Il business session
of one Of the best organized and most
potent religious forces in America, and
also a season of spiritual uplift and
refreshing, which sends the professors
Of that faith to their home better
qualified to understand the problem of
life, and better equipped to continue
their struggle toward the spiritual, to
which the Methodist church points as
the common goal of all mankind. In
the work of the reclamation of the
world from the asserted powers of the
various forms of evil, the Methodist
church has always taken a front rank
1t can be depended upon to do glori-
Gus work whenever and wherever the
battle for good is raging against the
forces of evil. In our own State it
may be depended upon 10 stand as q
solid wall against the encroachment
of the saloon, whether that force is
represented by avowed friends of the
liquor traffic or is disguised under the
cloak of reSubmiSSiOn and druggists
laws"
Over en- a beautiful hilltop in East
Readfield, only eight miles from the
present meeting place of the Methodist
conference, stands the mother church
of Maine Methodsm. East Readfield
was selected by Jesse Lee, the great
Methodist home missionary, as the
headquarters for the first Methodist
| preaching circuit established in Maine.
| That was in September 1874, two
weeks after Lee entered the district Of
| Maine and preached at Saco the first
Methodist sermon ever delivered in a
| Maine community. He had been as
| signed to this territory as missionary
| of the New England conference which
met in August at Lynn. the most east
| erly charge then in, the conference.
| The church there was dedicated June
| Il. 1895. 1T has been enlarged and re-
| paired and is in good condition. The
New England Methodist conference
met with the East Readfield church
'''~ $50 1875, the first Methodist
Coincidence held in Maine. A presiding
elder, rine minister's of circuits and 936
members comprised the Methodist or
ganizatiun in Maine The business
sessions were held in the meeting house
and the preaching and eXhortation
services in the open air The venerable
Bishop Asbury preached to 1.S00 people
pie assembled in a moving field,
while the saddle horses and en- occa-
sional wagon horse with their equip
| ment which the people had used in
coming many miles to the conference
were scattered through the woods in
the vicinity wherever there was room
to hitch horse in the bushes. This
church of which all the other Methodist
churches in Maine are direct
descendants will be preserved DIS
an historic shrine of the de-
nomination till, perhaps centu-
ries hence, she may fall before the
raVageS of fire or storm. Every year
summer visitors to this region visit
the spot which has become one of
the shrines of Methodism in the world.
The memorial service to be held in
the church at 2.30 P. NJ, Sunday, will
be presided over by Rev. Sylvester
Hooper of Old Orchard. The service
will be in memory of Rev. N. D. Sen
ter of Westbrook the only member Of
the conference who died during the
year, the wife of Rev. H. A. Peare of
Kezer Falls and the following widows
of members Of the conference, Mrs
Henry Crockett of F'ayette, Mrs. E. F.
Blake Of Spencer, Wis. Mrs. w. r.
Bartlett of Mechanic Falls and Mrs
Hosea Hewitt of South Berwick. There
will be singing by the conference
quartet. Bishop Hamilton will also
speak in regard to the bishops who
have died in the four years since the
last general conference.
Probably the most eloquent of the
many speeches made at the conference