CHAPTER I.

SUPPORT OF EFFECTIVE MINISTERS.

1. Stewards.

T276. There shall be not less than three nor more than thirteen Stewards in each Circuit or Station, one of whom shall, after each annual election, be appointed by the Quarterly Conference a Recording Steward, and one a District Steward. But when two or more Charges shall be united the Stewards shall hold office until the First Quarterly Conference shall elect a new Board.

¶ 277. Let the Stewards be persons'of solid piety, who both know and love Methodist Doctrine and Discipline, and who are of good natural and acquired abilities to transact the temporal business of the Church.

¶ 278. The Pastor shall have the right to nominate the Stewards, but the Quarterly Conference shall confirm or reject such nomination. The Stewards elected

at the Fourth Quarterly Conference shall enter upon the discharge of their duties on the adjournment of the next Annual Conference, and shall hold office for one year, or until their successors are elected.

T279. The duties of Stewards are: To take an exact account of all the money or other resources received for the support of the Ministers in the Charge, and to apply the same as the Discipline directs; to make an accurate return of every expenditure of money, whether for the Ministers or the poor Members of the Church; to seek

the needy and distressed in order to relieve and comfort them; to inform the Ministers of any sick or disorderly persons; to tell the Ministers what they think wrong in them; to attend the Quarterly Meetings, the Official Board Meetings, and the Leaders and Stewards' Meetings of the Charge; to give advice, if asked, in planning the Circuit; to attend committees for the application of money to Churches; to give counsel in matters of arbitration; to provide the elements for the Lord's Supper; to write circular letters to the Societics in the Circuit, exhorting them to greater liberality, if need be; and also to let them know, when occasion requires, the state of the temporal concerns of the Charge.

T 280. The duties of the District Stewards are: To attend the Annual District Stewards' Meeting when called by the Presiding Elder, and to perform the duties specified in T 290.

¶ 281. Stewards are accountable for the faithful performance of their duties to the Quarterly Conference of the Charge, which shall have power to dismiss or change them at pleasure.

II. Stewards and the Support of Ministers.

¶ 282. The more effectually to raise the amount necessary to meet the estimates made for the support of Effective Ministers, let the Stewards at the beginning of the year estimate the amount needed monthly. Then let them ascertain from each Member of the Church, and, as far as practicable, from each attendant of the Congregation, what each will give as his monthly contribution.

¶ 283. Let these sums be entered by the Recording Steward in a book which he shall keep as Treasurer of the Board of Stewards. If the total amount of these

sums does not equal the amount needed monthly, then let the Stewards apportion the deficiency among all such as are willing to assume such deficiency, setting down to each person, with his consent, the additional amount which they think he ought monthly to pay.

¶ 284. Let the Stewards then adopt and carry out a Financial Plan by which everyone, except such as prefer to make weekly contributions through their Class Leaders, shall have the opportunity of regularly contributing each month, or oftener, not grudgingly or of necessity, the sum which has been pledged by him. Let these contributions be paid over regularly to the Recording Steward or Class Leader, and be brought by him to the Leaders and Stewards' Meeting or Quarterly Conference, as the case may be; and let the Stewards report to the First Quarterly Conference of each year the details of the Financial Plan. Also, let them report to each subsequent Quarterly Conference whether the Plan, together with the further directions contained in this chapter, has been faithfully carried out. The Recording Steward shall keep an individual account of all these pledges and contributions, and shall pay over the moneys collected, under the direction of the Stewards, to the Ministers authorized to receive them.

III. Support of Bishops.

T285. The General Conference shall determine which of the Bishops are Effective and which Non-effective. ¶ 286. It shall be the duty of the Book Committee to make an estimate of the amount necessary to furnish a competent support to each Effective Bishop, considering the number and condition of his family; and the amount, if any, necessary to the comfortable maintenance of the

Non-effective Bishops; and also the amount necessary to assist the widows and children of deceased Bishops: and the Bishops are authorized to draw on the Treasurer of the Episcopal Fund for said amount, and also for their Traveling Expenses.

¶ 287. The Bishop presiding at an Annual Conference, within whose bounds a widow or child of a deceased Bishop may reside, shall be authorized to draw on the Treasurer of the Episcopal Fund for such amount as may be estimated as aforesaid.

T 288. The Book Committee shall divide the aggregate sum required to be raised for these purposes among the Annual Conferences, on the basis of the total amount raised in the respective Annual Conferences for Ministerial support, exclusive of Missionary appropriations, and the Annual Conferences shall apportion the same to the several Districts, and the District Stewards to the several Charges. The amount apportioned to each Pastoral Charge for the support of the Bishops shall be a pro rata claim with that of the Pastors and Presiding Elders; and no Pastor or Presiding Elder shall be entitled to his allowance except to the extent to which the claims of the Bishops are also met by the Charge or District with which such Pastor and Elder are connected. And it shall be the duty of the Annual Conferences to see that the amounts apportioned to the different Pastoral Charges for the support of the Bishops are raised and forwarded quarterly, when practicable, to the Treasurer of the Episcopal Fund.

¶ 289. The Treasurer shall charge the sums paid to the Bishops, and to the widows and children of deceased Bishops, to the Episcopal Fund; and all collections received from the different Charges for the support of the Bishops shall be credited to said Fund. And

the Treasurer shall report annually to the Annual Conferences the amount received from the several Annual Conferences on account of said Fund, and also the expenditures made; and he shall also make to each General Conference a full and detailed exhibit of such receipts and expenditures for the preceding four years.

IV. Support of Presiding Elders.

¶ 290. There shall be annually, in every District, a meeting of the District Stewards (¶ 276), whose duty it shall be, with the advice of the Presiding Elder, who shall preside in such meeting, to make an estimate of the amount necessary to furnish a comfortable support for the Presiding Elder, and to apportion the same, including House Rent and Traveling Expenses, and also the claim of the Bishops apportioned to the District by the Annual Conference, among the different Charges in the District, according to their several ability; and in all cases the Presiding Elder shall share with the Pastors in his District in proportion to what they have respectively received. But if there be a surplus of money raised for the support of the Pastors in one or more of the Charges in his District, he shall receive such surplus, provided he do not receive more than his allowance. The minutes of the District Stewards' meeting shall be kept by a Secretary chosen for the purpose, who shall also record the same in a book of which the Presiding Elder shall be the custodian.

V. Support of Pastors.

¶ 291. It shall be the duty of the Quarterly Conference of each Charge at the session immediately preceding the Annual Conference to appoint an Estimating Committee,