Nathan Bangs · 13 of 28

Chapter 5. The General Conference of 1820. · Part 4

Article 5. The board shall have authority to make by laws for regulating its own proceedings, to appropriate money to defray incidental expenses, and to print books at our own press, for the benefit of Indian and other foreign missions, fill up vacancies that may occur during the year, and shall present a statement of its transactions and funds to the society, at its annual meeting, and also shall lay before the General Conference a report of its transactions for the four preceding years, and the state of its funds.

Article 6. Ordained ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, whether traveling or local, being members of this society, shall be, ex officio, members of the board of managers.

Article 7. The annual meeting, for the election officers and managers, shall be held on the third Monday in April, in the city of New York.

Article 8. At all meetings of the society and of the board, the president, or, in his absence, the vice president first on the list then present, and in the absence of all the vice presidents, a member appointed by the meeting for that purpose, shall preside.

Article 9. Twenty-five members, at all meetings of the society, and thirteen at all meetings of the board of managers, shall be a quorum.

Article 10. The minutes of each meeting shall be signed by the chairman.

Article 11. It is recommended, that within the bounds of each annual conference there be established a conference missionary society, auxiliary to this institution, with branches, under such regulations as the conferences shall respectively prescribe. Each conference, or other auxiliary society, shall annually transmit to the corresponding secretary of this society a copy of its annual report, embracing the operations of its branches, and shall also notify the treasurer of the amount collected in aid of the missionary cause, which amount shall be subject to the order of the treasurer of the parent society, as provided for in the thirteenth article.

Article 12. Any auxiliary or branch society may appropriate any part or the whole of its funds to any one individual mission, or more, under the care of this society, which special appropriation shall be publicly acknowledged by the board: but in the event that more funds be raised for any individual mission than is necessary for its support, the surplus shall go into the general treasury of the parent society, to be appropriated as the constitution directs.

Article 13. The treasurer of this society, under the direction of the board of managers, shall give information to the bishops annually, or oftener, if the board judge it expedient, of the state of the funds, and the sums which may be drawn by them for the missionary purposes contemplated by this constitution: agreeably to which information the bishops shall have authority to draw upon the treasurer for any sum within the amount designated, which the missionary committee of the annual conferences respectively shall judge necessary for the support of the missions and of the mission schools under their care; provided always, that the sums so allowed for the support of a missionary shall not exceed the usual allowance of other itinerant preachers. The bishops shall always promptly notify the treasurer of all drafts made by them, and shall require regular quarterly communications to be made by each of the missionaries to the corresponding secretary of the society, giving information of the state and prospects of the several missions in which they are employed. No one shall be acknowledged a missionary, or receive support out of the funds of this society, who has not some definite field assigned to him, or who could not be an effective laborer on a circuit.

Article 14. Whenever a foreign mission is to be established, either among the aborigines of our country or elsewhere, it shall be the duty of the bishop making such appointment immediately to notify the treasurer of the missionary society of the place, the number of missionaries to be employed, together with the probable amount necessary for the support of any such mission; which information shall be laid before the managers of the society; and they shall make an appropriation according to their judgment, from year to year, of the amount called for to sustain and prosecute the mission or missions designated; for which amount the missionary, or the superintendent of the mission or missions, shall have authority to draw on the treasurer of the society, in quarterly or half-yearly installments.

Article 15. In all cases oft he appointment of a missionary, the name of such missionary, and the district in which he is to labor, together with the probable expenses of the mission, shall be communicated by the bishop or the mission committee of each annual conference to the treasury of this society; that a proper record of the same may be preserved.

Article 16. This constitution shall not be altered but by the General Conference, upon the recommendation of the board of managers.”

It was ordered that five hundred copies of the report on missions together with the amended constitution, should be immediately printed, that the delegates might furnish themselves with copies to carry to their respective districts and circuits.

These doings of the conference in relation to the Missionary Society exerted a most favorable influence upon the cause, and tended mightily to remove the unfounded objections which had existed in some minds against this organization.

Having witnessed much confusion in the conference when appeals from the lower tribunals had been presented, the following clause was added to the Discipline, with a view to regulate the manner in which appeals should be hereafter conducted

“In all the above-mentioned cases it shall be the duty of the secretary of the annual conference to keep regular minutes of the trial, including all the questions proposed to the witnesses, and their answers, together with the crime with which the accused is charged, the specification or specifications, and also preserve all the documents relating to the case, which minutes and documents only, in case of an appeal from the decision of an annual conference, shall be presented to the General Conference, in evidence on the case. And in all cases when an appeal is made, and admitted by the General Conference, the appellant shall either state personally or by his representative (who shall be a member of the conference) the grounds of his appeal, showing cause why he appeals, and he shall be allowed to make his defense without interruption. After which the representatives of the annual conference, from whose decision the appeal is made, shall be permitted to respond in presence of the appellant, who shall have the privilege of replying to such representatives, which shall close the pleadings on both sides. This done, the appellant shall withdraw, and the conference shall decide. And after such form of trial and expulsion, the person so expelled shall have no privileges of society or sacraments in our Church, without confession, contrition, and proper trial.”

These are all the acts and doings of this conference worthy of record, except what has been heretofore noticed concerning the election and duties of presiding elders, and the resolutions regarding the Book Concern and slavery, which will be noted in another place. It may be proper, however, to add, that Nathan Bangs was elected principal, and Thomas Mason assistant agent and editor of the Book Concern; and as this conference resolved to establish a branch at Cincinnati, Martin Ruter was appointed to its agency.

The conference adjourned May the 27th, to meet again in the city of Baltimore, May 1, 1824.

The conflicting opinions in relation to the presiding elder question, on slavery, and concerning renting pews in churches, and some other matters, had elicited considerable debate, and sometimes, as is usual on such occasions, not of the most hallowed and conciliatory character, by which means the feelings of some of the members were somewhat chafed, and they went home under a state of mind not the most friendly one toward another. Time for calm deliberation, however, and the mutual interchange of sentiments and feelings in their respective annual conferences, gradually wore away this momentary irritation, and restored them to that fervor of spirit and devotion to the cause of God by which they had been heretofore distinguished.