CHAPTER VI.

MISSIONARY BISHOPS.

¶ 179. A Missionary Bishop is a Bishop elected for a specified Foreign Mission field, with full Episcopal powers, but with Episcopal jurisdiction limited to the Foreign Mission field for which he was elected.

¶ 180. A Missionary Bishop is not, in the meaning of the Discipline, a General Superintendent.

¶ 181. A Missionary Bishop is not subordinate to the General Superintendents, but is coordinate with them in authority in the field to which he is appointed. In the practical application of this coordinate authority, when the General Superintendents are making their assignments to the Conferences, any Missionary Bishop who may be in the United States shall sit with them when his field is under consideration; and arrangements shall be made so that once in every quadrennium, and not oftener unless a serious emergency arise, every Mission over which a Missionary Bishop has jurisdiction shall be administered conjointly by the General Superintendents and the Missionary Bishop. In case of a difference of judgment the existing status shall continue, unless overruled by the General Superintendents, who shall have power to decide finally.

¶ 182. A Missionary Bishop is amenable for his conduct to the General Conference, as is a General Superintendent.

¶ 183. The election of a Missionary Bishop carries with it his assignment to a specified Foreign Mission

field, and such Bishop cannot be made a General Superintendent except by a distinct election to that office.

¶ 184. A Missionary Bishop shall receive his support from the Missionary Society.

¶ 185. A Missionary Bishop shall be ex officio a member of the General Missionary Committee, and shall, in his field, cooperate with the Missionary Society of the Church in the same way in which a General Superintendent cooperates in the Foreign Mission field over which he has Episcopal charge.

¶ 186. When a Missionary Bishop, by death or other cause, ceases to perform Episcopal duty for the foreign field to which he was assigned by the General Conference, the General Superintendents shall at once take supervision of said field.

¶ 187. The transfer of a Preacher from a field within the jurisdiction of a Missionary Bishop to a Conference under the Episcopal supervision of a General Superintendent, or from a Conference under the Episcopal supervision of a General Superintendent to a field within the jurisdiction of a Missionary Bishop, shall require mutual agreement between the two Bishops; and a similar agreement shall be required between the two Bishops having charge when the proposed transfer is between two Foreign fields over which there are Missionary Bishops.

¶ 188. In case of a complaint against, or the trial of, a Missionary Bishop, the preliminary steps shall be as in the case of a General Superintendent, but the Missionary Bishop may be tried before a Judicial Conference in the United States of America.

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CHAPTER VII.

PRESIDING ELDERS.

¶ 189. Presiding Elders are to be chosen and appointed by the Bishops.

¶ 190. The duties of a Presiding Elder are:

§ 1. To travel through his District.

§ 2. In the absence of a Bishop to take charge of all the Traveling Ministers, Local Preachers, and Exhorters in his District, as the Discipline directs.

§ 3. To change the appointments of Preachers in his District, if necessary, during the interval between the sessions of the Conference, and in the absence of a Bishop; provided, that a Presiding Elder shall not change a Preacher in his district from a Charge to which he has been appointed by a Bishop and appoint him to another to which he could not be legally appointed by a Bishop. The law of limitation applies also to Supernumerary, Superannuated, and Local Preachers who are employed in the Pastoral work. ¶ 173, § 3.

§ 4. To preside in the District Conference in the absence of a Bishop.

§ 5. To be present, as far as practicable, at all the Quarterly Meetings, especially at the first and fourth, and at each to call together the Quarterly Conference to transact the business assigned to it by the Discipline.

§ 6. To issue Licenses and to renew them, in accordance with the action of the District or Quarterly Conferences. § 7. To oversee the spiritual and temporal business of the Church in his District.

§ 8. To see that all Charters, Deeds, and other Conveyances of Church property in his District conform

strictly to the laws, usages, and forms of the State or Territory within which such property is situated, and also to the Discipline.*

§ 9. To see that all Church property is well insured. § 10. To promote by all proper means the interests of Missions, Church Extension, Education, Sunday Schools, and Epworth Leagues; to observe the rules of the Church on these and other benevolent causes, and to secure conformity thereto by both Pastors and Quarterly Conferences.

§ 11. To report to the Annual Conference the condition and statistics of the literary and theological institutions located in his District, and under the care of our Church: and to ask at the last Quarterly Conference of each Charge, the questions set forth in ¶ 338.

§ 12. To carefully inquire at each Quarterly Conference whether the rules respecting the instruction of children have been faithfully observed; and to report to the Annual Conference the names of all Pastors within his District who have not observed these rules. TT 46, 347, 348.

§ 13. To take care that every part of our Discipline be enforced in his District.

§ 14. To decide all Questions of Law involved in proceedings pending in a District or Quarterly Conference, subject to an appeal to the President of the next Annual Conference; but in all cases the application of law shall be with the Conference.

§ 15. To attend the Bishop when present in his District, and to give him by letter, when absent, all necessary information of the state of his District.

*For specific information on the laws of the States and Territories concerning Church Incorporations, Trustees, Titles, etc., consult The Religion of the Republic, by Rev. A. J. Kynett, D.D., Secretary of the Board of Church Extension.

§ 16. To furnish the Member of the General Missionary Committee for his General Conference District, prior to the annual meeting of that Committee, a written statement of the condition of the Missions under his care, and of their pecuniary needs.

§ 17. To direct the attention of candidates for the Ministry to the advantages of a thorough training in the literary and theological schools of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and also to direct those who are admitted on Trial to the Course of Study prescribed by the Bishops.

§ 18. To explain to Preachers on Trial, as well as to those who are to be proposed for Trial, that the Annual Conference may refuse to admit them to Full Membership without doing them any wrong.

¶ 191. If any Pastor absent himself from his Charge the Presiding Elder shall, as far as possible, fill his place with another Preacher, who shall be paid for his labors out of the allowance of the absent Pastor, and in proportion thereto.

¶ 192. A Presiding Elder shall not employ a Preacher who has been rejected by the previous Annual Conference, unless the Conference give him authority.

CHAPTER VIII.

PASTORS. (Preachers in Charge.)

¶ 193. The duties of the Pastor of a Station or Circuit are:

§ 1. To have the oversight of the other Preachers in his Pastoral Charge.

§ 2. To appoint all the Leaders; to change them