General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church

“ Bishops Roberts and George, called on them during the time of the Conference, in order to advise them to wait until the meeting of their General Conference, and see what they would do towards organizing our church according to the views of the New-York annual Conference of our white brethren the last year, and urged their advice by mentioning that as the door of the old connexion would be shut against the Stilwellites, so it would be shut against our people also, if they should conclude to get their ordination from that source. ”

“ Come, let us go up to the next General Conference of our Church, and pass a law that all the colored Methodists in America and Canada must come into our Church—bishops, elders, exhorters, and laymen—and thus accept the magnanimous “opportunity for usefulness to our race.” ”

“ It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospitals, and more prayers to Heaven, than any. God bless the Methodist Church! Bless all the Churches! And blessed be God, who, in this our great trial, giveth us the Churches!
“A. Lincoln.” Memorials were sent up to this General Conference, also asking for a colored pastorate and conference organization. Several petitions from the colored members within the District of Columbia and the States of Delaware and Maryland were presented, praying for this. ”

“ THE PROBLEM. Just what was intended by that General Conference touching this vexed question may be easily found out, if allowed to take as a basis the trite saying, “We have no way of judging the future but by the past.” The declarations of the several General Conferences of our Church warrant us in declaring the following as her principles: “ (1) God made of one blood all men for to dwell on the face of the earth; (2) God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” ”

“ The ministers are becoming familiar with the mode of conducting business, and many of them are rapidly improving. At their recent sessions they elected representatives to this body according to the form of the Discipline for electing delegates. Whether these representatives should be admitted, you alone have authority to decide. In our judgment, the success of this work demands all the encouragement which the General Conference can properly give. ”

“ No person shall be licensed to preach without the recommendation of the Church of which he or she is a member, or of the Leaders' Meeting of the charge to which he or she belongs. Nor shall any one be licensed to preach {99} without first being examined in the Quarterly Conference on the subject of doctrines and discipline, and giving satisfactory evidence of his or her ability to read the word of God; nor shall any license be valid unless signed by the President and Secretary of the Conference. ”

“ A Local Preacher who has been notified by the Presiding Elder, or preacher in charge, of a bill of charges and specifications thus found against him, shall not be allowed to exercise the functions of his office until the case has been presented to, and determined by, the Quarterly Conference. ”

“ No Deacon or Elder who ceases to travel without the consent of the Annual Conference, certified under the hand of the President of the Conference, except in case of sickness, debility or other unavoidable circumstances, shall, on any account, exercise the peculiar functions of his office, or {140} even be allowed to preach among us ”

“ In its conferences ministers and laymen were of equal number, the laymen being chosen by the circuits and in some cases by “guardian representatives” elected for life by conference. Otherwise the doctrines and order of the Connexion were the same as those of the Wesleyans. At the time of the union with the Bible Christians and the United Methodist Free Church in 1907 the Methodist New Connexion had some 250 ministers and 45,000 members. ”

“ That the conference membership of a Methodist Episcopal minister shall not be jeopardized by appointment as pastor of a federated or undenominational church where such a church is required for the largest service to the community.”
Theological students and college students are not to be outdone by their elders in bravery. ”

“ The Bishop, or the Elder appointed by him, to preside in the Conference, with an advisory committee of three, chosen by the Conference, to make out the stations and appointments of the Preachers.
4. All the other proceedings of the Conference to be as conformable to the rules and regulations generally followed in our Conferences, as circumstances will admit of.
5. Their Discipline, doctrines, government, and rules of order in all things, to be as conformable to ours as possible, so as to secure to themselves their own peculiar rights and privileges. ”

“ Resolved, That we advise that the colored local 86preachers now employed, or who may be employed, within the bounds of the Philadelphia and New Jersey Annual Conferences, be assembled together once in each year by the bishop or bishops, who may preside in said conference, for the purpose of conferring with the said colored local preachers with respect to the best means for promoting their work, and also for the purpose of assigning their work, respectively ”

“ When any traveling preacher is located he shall be amenable to the Quarterly Conference of the charge last filled by him, until he presents his certificate of location to some other Quarterly Conference. ”