§ 7. An Annual Conference may entertain and try charges against its Members though no investigation upon them has been held, or though an investigation has not resulted in suspension, due notice having been given to the accused.

¶ 223. Any Traveling or Local Preacher who shall hold religious service within the bounds of any Mission, Circuit, or Station, when requested by the Preacher in Charge not to hold such services, shall be deemed guilty of imprudent conduct, and shall after the admonitions ordered in TT 224,240, and if he do not refrain from such conduct, be liable to charges and investigation or trial under the provisions of the Discipline relating to these respective classes of Preachers. A Local Preacher offending against this provision may be tried in the Charge where the offense was committed.

¶ 224. In cases of improper temper, words, or actions, the Minister so offending shall be admonished by his senior in office. Should a second transgression take place, one, two, or three Ministers are to be taken as witnesses. If he continue to offend, let the Presiding Elder proceed as in ¶ 222, § 1.

¶ 225. When a Member of an Annual Conference fails in business, or contracts debts which he is not able to pay, the Presiding Elder shall appoint three judicious Members of the Church to inspect the accounts, contracts, and circumstances of the supposed delinquent; and if, in their opinion, he has behaved dishonestly, or contracted debts without the probability of paying, let the case be disposed of according to ¶ 222, § 1.

T 226. When a Member of an Annual Conference disseminates, publicly or privately, doctrines which are contrary to our Articles of Religion or established standards of doctrine, let the same process be observed

as is directed in T 222, § 1. But if, after the charge is sustained, the Minister so offending does solemnly engage to the Committee of investigation not to disseminate such erroneous doctrines in public or private, the Committee may waive suspension, that the case may be laid before the next Annual Conference, which shall determine the matter.

¶ 227. When a Member of an Annual Conference, in the interval between the sessions of his Conference, declines or ceases to do the work to which he was duly appointed, except for the reasons indicated in ¶ 162, let the Presiding Elder proceed as directed in ¶ 222, § 1. If the Presiding Elder fail to do this, he shall account therefor to the next Annual Conference.

¶ 228. When it is alleged of a Member of an Annual Conference that he is so unacceptable or inefficient as to be no longer useful in his work, or, without reason of impaired health of himself or family disqualifying him for pastoral work, goes into secular business, his case shall be referred to a Committee of five or more Members of his Conference for inquiry, and if said Committee shall find the allegation sustained, and shall so recommend, the Conference may request him to locate. If he shall refuse, and the conditions complained of shall continue, the Conference may, at its next session, after formal trial and conviction, locate him without his consent. But he shall have the right of appeal to a Judicial Conference, which may restore him.

¶ 229. In cases of alleged maladministration—

§ 1. A Minister shall be answerable to his Conference on the charge of corrupt, negligent, or partisan administration, but not for errors in judgment.

§ 2. Errors or defects in Judicial Proceedings shall be duly considered when presented on appeal. But

Errors of Law or Administration connected with investigations under ¶ 222, and Errors of Law made by a Presiding Elder in cases of appeal to a Quarterly Conference are to be corrected by the President of the next Annual Conference on appeal in open session, and the Conference may also order just and suitable remedies for the injury resulting from such errors.

§ 3. Errors of Administration not connected with Judicial Proceedings may be presented in writing to the Annual Conférence, for its judgment thereon, and the Conference may also order just and suitable remedies when the rights of Ministers or Members of the Church have been injuriously affected by such errors.

¶ 230. The Annual Conference may, at its discretion, try an accused Member in either of the three following methods:

1. The entire trial, including the examination of witnesses, may be by the Conference in full session.

2. The Bishop may appoint an Elder as a Commissioner to take the evidence in the case, in whole or in part; and said Commissioner shall cause a correct record of the proceedings before him, and of the evidence signed by the witnesses respectively, to be laid before the Conference, upon which evidence, and such other as may be admitted, the case shall be determined.

3. Or, the Conference may appoint from its Members a Select Number of not less than nine nor more than fifteen, to try the accused, who shall have the right to challenge for cause; which Select Number, in the presence of a Bishop, or of a Chairman whom the President of the Conference shall have appointed, and one or more of the Secretaries of the Conference, shall have full power to consider and determine the case according to the rules which govern Annual Conferences in such pro

Peedings; and they shall make a faithful report in writng of all their proceedings, duly subscribed by the President and Secretary of the Select Number, to the Secretary of the Conference, and deliver up to him the bill of charges, the evidence taken, and the decision rendered, with all other documents brought into the trial.

But the Annual Conference may, when a case cannot be tried during the session for want of testimony, refer it to one of the Presiding Elders, who shall proceed as directed in T 222, § 1.

¶ 231. When a Minister is tried on a charge of immorality, and the Conference or the Select Number shall find that this charge is not sustained by the evidence, but that the Minister has been proven guilty of "high imprudence and unministerial conduct," it may declare this fact, and subject the offender to reproof, suspension, or deprivation of Ministerial office and Credentials.

¶ 232. In no case, of either an investigation or the trial of a Member of an Annual Conference, shall any person act as Counsel who is not a Member of an Annual Conference.

¶ 233. In case any Member of an Annual Conference be deposed from the Ministry without being expelled from the Church, he shall have his Membership in the Church where he resides.

¶ 234. After a Minister shall have been regularly tried and expelled he shall have no privileges of Society or Sacraments in our Church, without contrition, reformation, and confession, satisfactory to the Conference from which he was expelled.

¶ 235. When a Traveling Preacher is accused of immorality and desires to withdraw from the Church, the

Annual Conference may permit him to withdraw, in which case the record shall be, "Withdrawn under complaints." If formal charges of immorality have been presented he may be permitted to withdraw, in which case the record shall be, "Withdrawn under charges:" and if thus withdrawn under "complaints," or under "charges,” the relation to the Church of the Preacher thus withdrawn shall be the same as if he had been expelled.

CHAPTER III.

PROCEEDINGS AGAINST A PREACHER ON TRIAL.

¶ 236. A Preacher on Trial in an Annual Conference is, in reference to Amenability and Appeal, considered as a Local Preacher; but in his case the Presiding Elder shall perform the duties which are prescribed to the Preacher in Charge in the case of an accused Local Preacher.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TRIAL OF A LOCAL PREACHER.

¶ 237. When a Local Preacher (ordained or unordained) is reported to be guilty of some crime expressly forbidden in the word of God, sufficient to exclude a person from the kingdom of grace and glory, the Preacher in Charge shall call a Committee of investigation, consisting of three or more Local Preachers, before which it shall be the duty of the accused to appear, and by which, if the charge is sustained, he shall be suspended from all Ministerial services and Church privi