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total amount raised in the respective Annual Confer ences 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

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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, consisting of three or more Members of the Church, who shall, after conferring with the Minister or Ministers stationed among them, make an estimate of the amount necessary to furnish to each a comfortable support, taking into consideration the number and condition of his family, which estimate shall be subject to the action of the Quarterly Conference; and to which shall be added the amount apportioned for the support of the Bishops and Presiding Elder; and the Stewards shall provide

by such methods as they may judge best to meet such amount. The Traveling and Moving Expenses of the Ministers shall not be included in the estimate, but shall be paid by the Stewards as a separate item.

CHAPTER II.

AID OF SUPERANNUATED MINISTERS AND OTHER CONFERENCE CLAIMANTS.

¶ 292. Superannuated Preachers, the widows of deceased Preachers, and their children under sixteen years of age shall be Conference Claimants, unless the claim be voluntarily relinquished, or disallowed, in whole or in part, by the Conference. We recommend that each Annual Conference devote one service at each Annual Session to the interests of Conference Claimants; that each Annual Conference establish a permanent fund subject to its own control, and under such regulations as it may adopt, the income of which may be added to the other moneys for the support of its own Claimants; and that each Congregation shall annually observe a Sunday upon which the Pastor shall present this cause to the Members and friends of the Church. A collection shall be taken annually in each Congregation for the support of Conference Claimants. The names of all Claimants on the funds of the Conference hereinafter provided for shall be referred to a Conference Board of Stewards. Each Conference shall determine for itself whether the action of this Board shall be final.

¶ 293. All moneys received by the Annual Conferences for distribution in aid of the support of Con

ference Claimants shall be divided into two sums: The first shall be called the Conference Claimant Fund, consisting of (1) the annual collections, taken in the Churches for the purpose; (2) the proceeds of the Chartered Fund and dividends of the Book Concern, in whole or in part, as may be determined by each Annual Conference; and (3) specific gifts and bequests. The second shall be called the Special or Annuity Fund, which shall consist of such sources of revenue as may be devised and appropriated by each Annual Conference. The Conference Claimant Fund shall be distributed annually among the persons whose claims are allowed on the basis of necessity. The Special or Annuity Fund shall be distributed upon the following basis: Each Superannuated Minister shall be allowed annually $10 for each year of his effective service; each widow shall be allowed annually $5 for each year in which she was the wife of a Minister during his effective service; provided, her name be entered on the Annuity List by order of the Conference; each child under sixteen years of age of a deceased Minister shall be allowed annually $2 for each year of the father's effective service. These claims shall be paid pro rata from the moneys in hand by the Conference Board of Stewards, or by such Board as the Conference may approve. An amount sufficient to meet the allowance of the Conference Claimants under the provisions of this plan shall be apportioned among the Charges upon such a basis as the Conferences may determine.

294. It shall be the duty of the Quarterly Conference of each Charge within whose bounds a Superannuated Minister or the widow or child of a deceased Minister may reside, to appoint a Committee whose

duty it shall be to make an estimate of the amount necessary to provide such Minister, widow, or child a comfortable support; such estimate to be sent to the Board of Stewards of the Annual Conference with which the Claimant is connected. The Conference Board, however, may consider and report upon the case of any Claimant overlooked by the Quarterly Conference Committee.

¶ 295. Effective Ministers who have not been able to obtain their allowance from the people among whom they have labored may present a claim to the Conference to be paid out of the money at the disposal of the Conference; and such claim may be paid, or any part thereof, as the Conference may determine. In no case, however, shall the Church or Conference be held accountable for any deficiency, as in the case of debt.

¶ 296. Whenever any Claimant on the Funds of a Conference shall be in debt to the Book Concern, the Conference of which he is a Member shall have power to appropriate the amount of the claim allowed to him, or any part thereof, to the payment of said debt.

¶ 297. When a Member of an Annual Conference is accused of crime in the interval of the Conference session, and is suspended by a Committee, and subsequently convicted by his Conference and expelled, his claim upon the Funds of the Conference shall cease from the time of his suspension. And when a Member of an Annual Conference is suspended and is afterward restored, he shall have no claim on the Congregation nor upon the Funds of the Conference during the period of such suspension.

¶ 298. Every Annual Conference has full liberty to adopt and recommend such plans and rules as it

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