History Of Methodist Reform, Volume I - Media Sabda Org

women on the roll. A Home missionary society was organized, and the work much enlarged under
it. The second Conference was held at Baddash in 1820. There were six ordained ministers, nineteen
on trial, and nineteen women, making a total of forty-four. There were seventeen circuits. The third
Conference was held at Shebbear, in Lake chapel, in August, 1820. An Annuitant Society was
formed, whose capital fund is now 4212. It is for the superannuated and their families. A
connectional magazine was established in 1822. It is now a sixty-four page monthly. In 1822 a
mission was opened in London and in the Channel islands. In 1831 a missionary was sent to Canada.
In 1850 two were sent to South Australia; in 1855 one to Victoria; in 1866 a mission was opened in
Queensland, and in 1877 in New Zealand. In 1885 two missionaries were sent to China, which have
been increased to eight. It is therefore a truly missionary Church, thus showing its credentials as of
Christ. In 1883 their Canada Conference of 71 ministers, local preachers, 181 chapels with 6918
members, and their Sabbath-schools, went into the union of Methodisms. Its statistics for 1891 are:
271 ministers, 1899 local preachers, 1011 chapels, halls, and rooms, with a membership of 30,000.
Its polity is liberal, and, on the question of women preaching, radical. These facts are gleaned from
the paper of Rev. William Higman, President of the Conference, in the symposium of the New York
Independent for 1891, the centenary of Wesley's decease.
The United Methodist Free Churches now demand attention. They embody the most recent and
numerous secessions from the Wesleyan body with their own increase under a prosperity that scouts
the idea that a favoring Providence is on the side of Wesley's paternal polity as embodied in the
Poll-Deed and the Wesleyan Conference. The Union was formed in 1857 between the Associated
Methodists of 1835, whose history was left incomplete in the notice of their organization under the
lead of Dr. Warren; the Wesleyan Reformers of 1849; the Protestant Methodists originating in the
Leeds organ question, and the last secession resulting from the expulsion of Rev. James Everett,
Samuel Dunn, and William Griffith, with the sequel of the loss of one hundred thousand officers and
members to the Wesleyan connection. These sections, or branches of Methodism, finding that their
principles of church government and administration were identical, after friendly negotiations, met
by representation in the town of Rochdale, Lancashire, and in July, 1857, the Union was
consummated, and for more than thirty years it has worked with undisputed satisfaction to all the
contracting parties.
It is under an Annual Assembly. Its constitution is found in a legal instrument called the
"Foundation Deed." The Annual Assembly is purely elective, and that directly from the quarterly
meetings of the circuits. The ratio is one to every circuit having under 500 members, two for every
500 and under 1000, and three for every 1000 members and upward. No qualification is required for
election but membership in the circuit, and no distinction is made between ministers and laymen,
and there is nothing to bar the eligibility of a woman, if elected.
The Assembly has four ex-officio members, the President, the Connectional and Corresponding
Secretaries, and the Treasurer, who form the connecting link between the Annual Assemblies. A
Connectional Committee has charge of the interests of the denomination during the interval of the
Assemblies. The ministry is connectional, and in principle itinerant, but without a restrictive rule as
to limit of pastoral service. Its ministry is also under the absolute control of the Annual Assembly.
It controls all the connectional institutions and funds. "The fundamental principles of the body are
circuit independence and free election to the Annual Assembly, which, however, has no authority