RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Methodists
Jaoan, and maintains a large number of schools and seminaries, and one college. In recent years it has made some modifications. The general conference of Aug., 1907, by a vote of seventy-eight to forty, changed the title of their presiding officer from superintendent to bishop. It now reports 1,132 ministers and 32,166 communicants.
6. The African Methodist Episcopal Church: Early in the history of American Methodism there was dissatisfaction in the colored membership, who were aroused by Question 25 in the minutes of the conference of 1780: " Ought not the assistant to meet the colored people himself, and appoint as helpers in his absence proper white persons, and not suffer them to stay late and meet by themselves? Ans. Yes." In Philadelphia, in 1787, certain colored people belonging to the Methodist Church met to consider their condition. When their ideas were opposed, they withdrew from the church, and Bishop William White (q.v.), of the Protestant Episcopal Church, ordained a colored preacher for them. Asbury, in 1799, ordained Richard Allen (a slave who had bought his freedom, grown rich, and erected on his own land a church for the people of his race) a deacon, he being the first colored preacher ordained by the Methodist Episcopal Church. The African Methodist Episcopal Church sprang from the relations between the white and colored Methodists of Philadelphia. John Emory (q.v.), representing the Methodist Episcopal Church, sent a letter to them stating that the white preachers could no longer maintain pastoral responsibility over them. On account of this they considered themselves disowned by the Methodists, but an attempt was made to regain them. The case was taken into the courts, and was decided in favor of Bethel Church, with the result that the colored people in 1816 organized themselves into an independent body, adopting as its standards the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and, with a few modifications, its form of government. Richard Allen was elected bishop. The church steadily prospered, but not proportionately in education. In 1843 a controversy arose on the subject of the qualifications for ministers, led by Daniel Alexander Payne (q.v.), who had been trained as a theologian in the Gettysburg Theological Seminary, and to him is due a large part of the intellectual progress of the church. In 1863 the church purchased Wilberf orce University in Ohio. This institution has been successfully conducted. After the Civil War, the church increased steadily. Educational work is carried on with intelligence and enthusiasm. The African Methodist Episcopal Church and the British African Methodist Episcopal Church of the Dominion of Canada were united as a result of negotiations begun in 1880. A peculiarity of this body is that it makes the bishops members of the general conference. The African Methodist Episcopal Church has been devoted to missions. Before it was sixteen years old it established a mission in Hayti. In 1847 it founded The Parent Home and Foreign Missionary Society. It carries on missions in Africa, South America, West Indies, and Hawaii, and in Africa its missions have about 12,000 members. This body has produced notable orators, such as Bishops Campbell and
Arnett, who have elicited admiration and respect for themselves, their race, and their denomination. The government of the body resembles that of other Methodist Episcopal Churches in most respects, but includes special differences of its own origination. The corrected returns by Dr. Carroll give the membership at 452,126.
7. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church: The colored people of the City of New York resented caste prejudice, which "forbade their taking the sacrament until white members were served. ' ' This, and the desire for other church privileges denied them, induced them to organize among themselves, which they did in 1796, and in the year 1800 they built a church and called it " Zion." A contract was made between that body and the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States of America, that, as they had no ordained ministers of their own race, the Methodist Episcopal Church should provide them. Under this arrangement " Zion " received the services of preachers of that church for " about twenty years." In the end, a minister, who had been sent to " Zion Colored Church," having seceded from the Methodist Episcopal Church, the trustees of " Zion " invited him to finish out the year, and, when this was done, the members induced him to ordain as elders three of their brethren, already ordained as deacons. These proceeded to ordain others. These elders, following the example of Wesley, ordained one of the number a bishop. During 1820 churches were organized in Philadelphia and New Hampshire. An eight years' controversy began in 1848, which finally reached the civil courts. The laity were admitted to representation in the annual and general conferences in 1851, and by 1858 the spirit of unity in the church had gained the ascendency. As late as 1865 the church had but 92 ministers and 5,000 members; but between 1864 and 1876 it doubled its membership more than five times. This body eliminated the word " male " from the discipline so that the sexes are equally eligible to all positions, lay and clerical. In 1868 an unsuccessful attempt was made by Gilbert Haven (q.v.) and others to promote the union of the Zion Church with the Methodist Episcopal Church. Negotiations for union between the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the African Methodist Church have also proved abortive. In 1868 the episcopacy was made technically a life office; nevertheless the bishop was to be elected quadrennially; if not reelected, he was considered to be " retired," but could retain the title of bishop. This rule, in practise, created dissatisfaction, and in 1880 it was enacted that, without reelection, the bishop should be certain of tenure during good behavior. This church early espoused education, but for a long while its enterprises to promote it were unsuccessful; at last, however, Livingstone College was firmly established under the presidency of Dr. Joseph C. Price, whose abilities were extraordinary. On the platform and in conversation he was irresistible; anywhere in England or America he could secure money for the institution, which became famous. The church publishes weekly periodicals and a Quarterly Review, and is endeavoring to se-
Methodists