The Doctrines and Discipline of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church Revised Edition 1918

+When the day appointed by the Bishop is come there shall be a sermon or exhortation, declaring the duty and office of such as come to be admitted Elders; how necessary that ord...

1. Upon the convening of the General Conference, and after religious exercises, the Secretary of the preceding General Conference shall call the roll. If a quorum be found prese...

There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisi...

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where...

Alabama Conference.—Bounded on the North by the Southern Railroad, running from Meridian, Miss., to Selma, Ala., and thence on a straight line to Georgia; on the East by Georgia...

2. The lay members shall be chosen annually by the District Conferences; =provided= that no one shall be a representative who is not twenty-five years of age, and who has not be...

I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die.—John xi. 25, 26.

Art. 2. There shall be a Board of Education of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church to be known as the "General Conference Board of Education," to consist of nine members incl...

1. The General Conference or any Annual Conference or Conferences of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America shall have the right to establish and maintain, Schools, C...

Dearly beloved, forasmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin, (and that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but live in...

+When the day appointed by the Bishop is come, after a suitable sermon or exhortation, one of the Elders shall present unto the Bishop all them that are to be ordained, and say:+

Art. I. There shall be a Board of Church Extension of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America, which shall be conducted as a body corporate under such laws and regulat...

Article I. (1) The General Funds of the Colored M. E. Church in America shall be one hundred thousand ($100,000) dollars per annum; =provided=, the assessment in any Conference...

+Let the service be conducted as on the other occasions of public worship—only the hymns (e. g. 783-780,) prayer, lesson, and sermons, should be adapted to the occasion. The les...

Ans. 1. By the Annual Conference. In the interval of the Conference, he may be received and employed in the work by a Bishop, or the Presiding Elder of the District, until the s...

+At the time and place of laying the corner stone, let the minister cause a suitable hymn to be sung (e. g. 780, 781, or 782). Then shall the minister say:+

Ans. The General Conference shall elect a Bishop; and the Elders, or any three of them, who shall be appointed by the General Conference for that purpose, shall ordain him accor...

Ans. 1. When a traveling elder or deacon is under report of being guilty of some crime expressly forbidden in the Word of God, if it be in the interval of the Annual Conference,...

Art. 1. There shall be a Mission Board of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, chartered according to the laws of the State of Tennessee. The Mission Board shall have general...

3. The Publishing Department was established for the object and purpose of spreading the Christian religion by the publication, sale and dissemination of moral and religious lit...

Ans. 1. The Quarterly Conference shall have authority to license proper persons to preach, and to renew their license annually, when, in its judgment, their gifts, graces and us...

Ans. All the traveling and local preachers, exhorters, stewards (senior and junior), stewardesses (senior and junior), trustees of church property, class leaders, presidents of...

Ans 2. When a bishop shall be under a report or be accused of immorality, three traveling elders shall, after notice to him, carefully inquire into the case and if they believe...

Ans. 1. The General Conference shall be composed of one clerical member for every twenty-eight members of each Annual Conference, and one lay member (who may be a local preacher...

Ans. 1. Before the church of which he is a member, or a select number of them, in the presence of a Bishop, Elder, Deacon or Preacher, in the following manner:

+At the day and time appointed for the solemnization of matrimony, the persons to be married (having been qualified according to law) standing together, the man on the right han...

Art. II. The object of the Epworth League Society shall be to promote piety and loyalty in the young people and friends of the church; to bring into deeper sympathy, closer unio...

Dearly beloved, forasmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin, and that our Saviour Christ saith, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the...

In order to perfect Bible knowledge for the moral and religious training of the children of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America; the General Conference of the C. M...

Brethren, the Church is of God, and will be preserved to the end of time, for the promotion of his worship and the due administration of his word and ordinances—the maintenance...

5. The Board of Directors shall supervise the work of the department, hear and audit the report of the Secretary-Treasurer, and co-operate with him in every possible way to buil...

Ans. 1. Each Annual Conference is authorized to make such modification in the deeds as they may find the different usages and customs of law require in the different States and...

There is only one condition previously required of those who desire admission into these societies, a "desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins." B...

Bishops R. S. Williams, R. A. Carter, N. C. Cleaves; Revs. J. A. Bray, Jno. W. Gilbert, R. S. Stout; Drs. J. F. Lane, J. A. Lester and W. A. Bell.

Ans. 1. A supernumerary preacher is one who is so disabled by affliction as to be unable to preach constantly, but is willing to do any work in the ministry which the Bishop may...

Ans. 1. Let them be men of solid piety, who both know and love the Methodist doctrine and discipline, and of good natural and acquired ability to transact temporal business of t...

Ans. He shall be accountable to the Quarterly Conference of the circuit on which he travels. The Presiding Elder shall call a committee of investigation, and the course of Disci...

Any church or churches in any Annual Conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America, shall have the right to establish an OLD FOLKS' Home, ORPHAN ASYLUM, HOSPIT...

All candidates for the ministry are urged before entering the traveling connection, to secure, if possible, as much training in literary and Theological studies as they can. Cer...

Ans. 1. To receive, try, and expel members, according to the provisions of the Discipline, and to subscribe for the Christian Index. Any minister failing to subscribe for the sa...

The second Sunday in August of each year shall be observed in every pastoral charge throughout the connection as General Missionary Day. On said day the congregation should be a...

1. Every minister, who by the rules and usages of the Church is a claimant on its funds, shall, as far as practicable, have his claim estimated by those who are to pay it, or by...

1. Each Annual Conference shall have a Joint Board of Finance, appointed by the President of the Conference, (unless otherwise ordered,) at the close of its annual session, to h...

1. Each Annual Conference shall elect every two years beginning with its first session after the General Conference, three Elders, who shall be men of experience, judgment and i...

Ans. 1. All the members of the Church, and resident members of the Annual Conference shall come together once a month, or on circuits at least every three months, at every appoi...

5. To decide all questions of law which may come up in the regular business of the Quarterly or District Conferences, when submitted to him in writing, subject to an appeal to t...

Art. II. The object of this Society shall be to enlist the members of our Church in the work of giving aid to mission points and mission preachers in all our conferences; to hel...

Ans. Let the pastor hold prayer-meetings, weekly, in every church where it is practicable; and when he cannot himself attend, let him engage local preachers, exhorters, class-le...

2. The afternoon and evening services shall be the same as the morning, except that one of the lessons, or both, may be omitted, at the discretion of the minister.

1. In all cases, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Annual Conference to preserve the documents relating to the trial of members, which documents only, in an appeal fr...

Ans. 1. There shall be held annually, in each presiding elder's District, a District Conference. The time shall be fixed by the Presiding Elder, and the place by the conference.

Ans. 1. Let Sunday-schools be formed in all our congregations, where ten children can be collected for that purpose. And it shall be the especial duty of preachers having charge...

Ans. Except where the laws of the State or Territory provide differently, the Preacher in Charge, or, in his absence, the Presiding Elder, shall have the right of nomination, su...

1. If there be a murmur or complaint from any excluded person, that justice has not been done in the trial before the Church or committee, he shall be allowed an appeal to the n...

(1) To see each person in his class once a week, at least, in order to inquire how their souls prosper; to advise, reprove, comfort, or exhort, as occasion may require; to recei...

1. When any traveling Elder or Deacon is deprived of his credentials of ordination by expulsion or otherwise, they shall be filed with the papers of the Annual Conference of whi...

2. In his pastoral visitations let him pay special attention to the children; speak to them personally and kindly on experimental and practical godliness, according to their cap...

1. When an appeal of a Local Preacher is made and allowed by the Annual Conference, the President shall appoint a committee of not less than nine nor more than thirteen, who sha...

Be it resolved, first, That we set apart the Sunday nearest the sixteenth of September each year, as Founder's Day, to be observed in the Sunday-schools, Epworth Leagues, and by...

How composed, 37:1; delegates, clerical and lay, 37:1-2; voting, 38:3; time and place of meeting, 38:4; quorum, 39:8; special session, 38-39:5-6; presiding officer, 39:9; power...

1. Do they know God as a pardoning God? Have they the love of God abiding in them? Do they desire nothing but God? And are they holy in all manner of conversation?

Support of pastors, 163:1; of superannuated preachers, 231:IV:1-3; support of presiding elders, 163:2; 185:d; support of Bishops, 164:3; 179:IV:1; retired Bishops, 164:3; 179:V-...

Ans. 1. When persons offer themselves for Church-membership, let the preacher in charge inquire into their spiritual condition, and receive them into the Church when they have g...