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regulations of the Board. This department shall be charged with:

(a) The education of the Church in missions by means of literature, Church schools of missions, institutes, and other methods.

(b) The enlistment and training of candidates for the work at home and abroad.

(c) Editing the Missionary Voice and other literature, as may be authorized.

There shall be a committee of thirteen, five of whom shall be women, for this department.

¶470. ART. IX. In addition to the departmental committee, there shall be the following standing committees: Executive, Estimates, Candidates, Nominating (one of whom shall be the General Secretary), and By-Laws, the functions of which committees shall be defined by the Board.

9471. ART. X. There shall be a General Missionary Council composed of the chairman of each Annual Conference Board of Missions and the Conference Missionary Secretary, the Secretaries and Treasurers of the Board of Missions, and the members of the Departmental Committee on Education and Promotion. The Council shall hold an annual meeting for the purpose of promoting the missionary work of the Church and its extension throughout the connection. The expenses of Annual Conference representatives shall be paid by

their respective Boards. The General Secretary shall be the Chairman of this Council.

SECTION II

WOMAN'S WORK

4472. ART. XI. The women of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, are authorized to organize and conduct missionary societies among women and children in the Annual Conferences and in the Churches in the interests of home and foreign missions. These societies shall promote missionary intelligence and activity and secure missionary funds, by means of membership dues, life and honorary membership fees, from devises, annuities, bequests, voluntary offerings, and collections at meetings appointed in behalf of the society.

¶473. ART. XII. There shall be a delegated body to be known as the Woman's Missionary Council. It shall be composed of a President, one or more Vice Presidents, two or more Secretaries, the Treasurer for the Section of Woman's Work, the Candidate Secretary, the Secretary of Organization, the Secretary of Literature, Superintendents of Bureaus, a Corresponding Secretary or alternate, the President or alternate of the Woman's Missionary Society of each Annual Conference Society, the President and Secretary of the

Deaconess Workers' Conference, the Secretaries of the General Board of Missions, both men and women, the Treasurer of the Section of Woman's Work, the women members of the Board of Missions, and ten women elected at large by the Council.

¶474. ART. XIII. (1) The Council shall hold annual meetings for the purpose of hearing reports from the home and foreign fields and from the societies, to consider the fields, lines of work, and various enterprises. It shall make recommendations to the Board of Missions regarding all its work, including estimates needed for its prosecution. It shall also consecrate the women who have been accepted for service as deaconesses, and shall make recommendations to the Board concerning their employment and support.

(2) The Council shall enact its own by-laws and provide a constitution and by-laws for the Conference and Auxiliary Societies, all of which shall be in harmony with the Constitution of the Board of Missions. The Council shall plan to enlarge the membership of the societies, to increase the income from them, and to further the work of missionary education among women and children.

(3) At its annual session preceding the General Conference the Council shall elect its officers by ballot. All property hereafter ac

quired by the Woman's Missionary Societies through devises, bequests, annuities, gifts, or purchase, shall be held by the Board of Missions for the use and benefit of Woman's Work.

¶475. ART. XIV. The office of deaconess is hereby authorized. The office and work of deaconess shall be under the direction of the Department of Home Missions, Section of Woman's Work. When accepted for service, a deaconess shall be a single woman or a widow not less than twenty-three years of age nor more than fifty. She must be a member of our Church, in good standing, and have shown fitness for her duties by active service in some Christian work. She must have good health, a high school education, two years of college work, and must have completed the prescribed course of study in an accredited training school. She must be recommended for consecration by a Quarterly Conference. A deaconess uniform shall be prescribed, but the wearing of it shall be optional. Relinquishing all other pursuits, she shall devote herself to such work as the Church may determine. Anyone applying for recommendation from a Quarterly Conference should have considered this step carefully and believe herself called of God to this work. A deaconess desiring to retire from the work shall be permitted to do so at the close of the term of her appointment, when she shall surrender

her certificate.

If found unsuited to the work

and calling of a deaconess, she shall be retired and her certificate revoked.

SECTION III

ANNUAL CONFERENCE BOARD

9476. ART. XV. (1) Each Annual Conference shall organize a Board of Missions, auxiliary to the General Board, to which it shall report annually. It shall keep the General Board of Missions informed of the status of its work, of unoccupied territory or other needed work, and shall by every means promote the work of the General Board throughout the Conference, and seek in every way to carry forward the missionary work of the Church. The Conference Board shall consist of one layman from each District, and an equal number of clerical members: provided, that each Annual Conference shall be entitled to at least eight members who shall be elected quadrennially by the Annual Conference at the first session after the General Conference.

(2) The Annual Conference memoer of the General Board of Missions, the Conference Lay Leader, the Conference President of the Woman's Missionary Society, and the Conference Missionary Secretary shall be members,

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