Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-04-30
METHODISTS READY
FOR GREAT MEETING
To BEGIN THURSDAY
Atlanta Session of General
Conference of South I'm
Church Expected to Be Most
important Yet Held

! The supreme legislative body of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the
general conference, will open it's eight
zenith series of quadrennial meetings in
the Wesley Memorial church Thursday
morning with approximately 400 dis
| tinguished ministers and laymen pres
ent as delegates representing a church
membership of 2,250,000 and with pos
sibly 500 noted visitors also in attend
| ance. The deliberations will call for
the consideration of proposed legislation
which if enacted, will be nothing short
of epoch-making.
Sessions will be held daily for about
three weeks. Since this body holds a
position in the Southern Methodist
| church corresponding to that filled by
the national congress in making me
laws of the United States. it's importance
as church conference can hardly be
| greatly magnifed In all probability,
judging from the important matters 20
be brought up, this conference will de-
velop into the most notable in the his
tory of the southern church.
| Adjunct features will include a ire
mendous patriotic rally on May II. with
Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels
as the principal speaker; the presenta-
ton on May to Emory university of
a bust of the chancellor, Bishop Warren
A. Gambler; a gigantic service in the in
| terests of the American Red Cross, and
various other meetings of great import.
| The conference will be called upon to
elect from three to five new bishops.
To adopt a positive attitude on the
part of the Southern Methodist church
| in reference to fusion with the North
ern Methodist;
To consider proposed legislation the
! import of which is to make sweeping
changes in the method of assigning
| thousands of ministers throughout the
| United States and which tends greatly
to curtail the authority of the bishops;
| To pass on a memorial to place women
of the church on the same footing with
men and to give them an equal Eoice
| with the men in all church affairs;
To consider a proposal to change the
"four-year law" which limits the pas
torate on a minister to four consecutive
years at one charge, and to take up
numerous other important matters
which can be decided only by the general
| conference.
| The matter of union with the North
ern Methodist church is generally be-
1ieved to be doubtful issue. 1t is pre-
dicted by influential ministers and lay
men that the conference either will set
tie this muchly- discussed matter by 60
ing on record once and for all as being
unalterably opposed to the proposed
union or will dispose of the question in
| less emphatic manner by simply tabhng
| the matter indefinitely.
The proposal to curtail the authority
of the bishops, as was outlined ex-
clusively in The Journal of Thursday
and which is said to have originated
| in Nashville, Tenn, is, in brief, to have
as many lay members in the various
bishops cabinets as there are clerical
members, thus giving laymen as much
voice as ministers themselves in fix
ing ministers assignments; to limit the
years of bishops service and to fix set
places of residence for all bishops.
Some of the laymen backing the
movement call it a step toward
"democratizing' the church. Numerous
prominent laymen are openly and en-
phatically against the enactment Of
such sweeping legislation and contend
withs numbers of ministers that the
movement was inaugurated by small
coterie possessing animus against the
bishops, and that it will have no great
weight with the delegates at large.
On the other hand, it is understood
that those promoting the movement
plan for a vigorous fight and claim
quite strong support asserting that the
movement is far from negligible in it's
import.
The petition of the women, which
will be presented in the form of a me-
mortal adopted this month at Knox
willie, Tenn, by the Womans Missionary
council, headed by Miss Belle Il. Ben
nett of Nashville, asks the general con-
ference to grant full lay membership
to the women of the church by making
disciplinary changes and by eliminating
from the discipline the following para
graphs:
"54S 1t is not in harmony with the |
spirit of our law that women be mem |
bers of a district conference.
1894. 1t is not lawful to elect a
woman a steward.
500 A woman may be elected a |
superintendent of a Sunday school, but /
is not thereby a member Of the quar- /
terly conference"
1t is estimated that $500 women |
are members of the church. They ask |
according to the council
That the above restrictions against |
fully one-half of the membership of the |
church be removed from the discipline. /
THAT the word laymen be interpreted |
to include women.
THAT the church to which they are I
giving their lives shall grant them recog- |
milton as full lay members of the /
church of God and truly welcome to /
all of its privileges"
For the recognition and privileges |
which are inherent with membership"
The general conference of 1910 re-
jected a similar memorial by the vote |
of a to 144 and the conference of 1914 |
denied it by the vote of los to III. !
Since 1878 the women have been ask /
ing the general conference either d. .
rectly or indirectly, for a larger share .
in church work. Granting OF their pc
titions has been opposed on the grounds |
that woman would be taken "out of her
snhere. unsexed, caused to neglect the
home and privileged to do what the men
ought TO do"
The question of dispensing with the
four-year law is one which also has
been considered at previous conferences.
In addition to these other important
topics will come up and exhaustive
plans will be made for promoting the
work of the church. Many of the dis
cussions promise to be heated but, judg
ing from previous conferences, the ar