Nathan Bangs · 38 of 73
Book II. From the First Conference in 1773 to the First Regular General Conference in 1792. · Chapter 3 · SECTION VI.
On the constituting of Deacons, and their Duty
Question 1. How is a deacon constituted?
Answer By the of a majority of the conference, and the laying on of the hand, of a bishop.
Question 2. What is the duty of a deacon?
Answer
To baptize, and perform the office of matrimony in the absence of the elder.
To assist the elder in administering the .
To see that the other preachers in this circuit behave well, and want nothing.
To renew the tickets quarterly, and regulate the bands.
To appoint all the stewards and leaders, and change them when he sees it necessary.
To hold watch-nights and love-feasts.
To hold quarterly meetings, and therein diligently to inquire both into the temporal and spiritual state of each society.
To take care that every society be duly supplied with books: particularly with the ’ REST, INSTRUCTIONS FOR CHILDREN, and the PRIMITIVE PHYSIC; which ought to be in every house.
To take an exact account of the number in Society, and to bring it to the conference.
To send an account of his circuit every quarter to his elder.
To meet the men and women apart in the large societies, once a quarter.
To overlook the accounts of all the stewards.
To appoint a person to receive the quarterly collection in the classes, and to be present at the time of receiving it.
To see that public collections be made quarterly, if need be.
To move a yearly subscription through those circuits that can bear it, for building churches.
To choose a committee of lay-members, to make a just application of the money, where it is most wanted.
Question 3. What other directions shall we give the deacons?
Answer Several
To take a regular catalogue of the societies in towns and cities, as they live in streets.
Leave your successor a particular account of the state of the circuit.
See that every band-leader have the rules of the bands.
Vigorously, but calmly, enforce the rules concerning needless ornaments and drams.
As soon as there are four men or women believers in any place, put them into a band.
Suffer no love-feast to last above an hour and a half.
Warn all from time to time, that none are to remove from one circuit to another, without a note of recommendation from the elder or deacon, in these words: A. B., the bearer, has been an acceptable member of our society in C., and inform them, that without such a certificate, they will not be received into other societies.
Everywhere recommend decency and cleanliness.
Read the rules of the society, with the aid of the preachers, once a year, in every congregation, and once a quarter in every society.
On any dispute between two or more of the members of our society, which cannot be settled by the parties concerned, the deacon shall inquire into the circumstances of the case, and having consulted the stewards and leaders, shall, if agreeable to their advice, recommend to the contending parties a reference consisting of one arbiter, chosen by the plaintiff, and another by the defendant; which two arbiters so chosen, shall nominate a third (the three arbiters being members of our society) and the decision of any two of them shall be final. But if either of the parties refuse to by such a decision, he shall be immediately expelled.
N. B. If any member of our society enter into a lawsuit with another member before those measures are taken, he shall be expelled.
No deacon that ceases to travel without the consent of the conference, certified under the hand of a bishop, shall on any account exercise the peculiar functions of his office.
