CHAPTER VIII.

THE ELECTION AND CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS AND THEIR DUTIES

Ques. 1. How is a Bishop to be constituted?

Ans. By the election of the General Conference, and the laying on of hands of three Bishops, or at least of one Bishop and two Elders.

Ques. 2. If by death, expulsion, or otherwise, there be no Bishop remaining in our church, what shall we do?

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 according to our form of ordination.

Ques. 3. What are the duties of a Bishop?

Ans. 1 (a) To preside in the General and Annual Conferences.

(b) To fix the appointments of the preachers in the Annual Conferences; =provided=, he shall not allow any preacher to remain in the same circuit, station or mission more than six years successively, except where the presiding Bishop thinks a longer term of service will promote the welfare of the charge. The Book Agent, Editor of the Christian Index, the Secretaries of Missions, Church Extension and Epworth Leagues, superannuated and supernumerary preachers, Missionaries in foreign stations, Chaplains to military posts, preachers who may be appointed to labor for seamen and the American Bible Society and the presidents, principals or other teachers of seminaries and other institutions of learning under our superintendence are exceptions to the =time limit= as above indicated,

(c) When requested by an annual conference, the Bishop may appoint a preacher for a term of years to any seminary or institution of learning not under our supervision and care.

(d) He shall have authority when requested by the Annual Conference to appoint an agent, who shall travel throughout the bounds of such conference for the purpose of organizing Sunday Schools, aiding needy ones, and distributing tracts. (e) When requested by any annual conference, he shall have authority to appoint an agent or agents who shall travel and work in the interest of our literary institutions.

Sec. 2. To choose the Presiding Elders, fix their stations, and to change them when he judges it necessary, provided, however, that no Elder shall preside longer than six years consecutively, nor shall be reappointed to a district until he has served, at least, two years, in the pastorate or otherwise. (Mission fields excepted.)

3. To change, receive, and suspend preachers in the intervals of the Conferences, as necessity may require, and as the Discipline directs.

4. To ordain bishops, elders, and deacons; and to see that the names of the persons ordained by him be entered on the journals of the Conference.

5. To decide all questions of law coming before him in the regular business of an Annual Conference: =provided=, such questions be presented in writing, and with his decisions be recorded on the journals of the Conference. When the Bishop shall have decided a question of law, the Conference shall have the right to determine how far the law thus decided or interpreted is applicable to the case then pending. An Annual Conference shall have a right to appeal from such decision to the College of Bishops, whose decision in such cases shall be final. And no Episcopal decision shall be authoritative except in the case pending, nor shall any such be published until it shall have been approved by the College of Bishops. And each Bishop shall report in writing to the Episcopal College, at an annual meeting to be held by them, such decisions as he has made subsequently to the last preceding meeting; and all such decisions, when approved by the College of Bishops, shall be recorded in a permanent form, and published in such manner as the Bishops shall agree to adopt; and when so approved, recorded, and published, they shall be authoritative interpretations or constructions of the law.

6. To hear and decide appeals of the Quarterly Conferences on questions of law, when he shall be presiding in any Annual Conference; and the question contained in the appeal, together with the Bishop's decision, shall be recorded on the journal of the Annual Conference.

7. To see that the Districts be formed according to his judgment; =provided=, that no District shall contain more than eighteen appointments.

8. To unite two or more circuits stations or missions together, for Quarterly Conference purposes, allowing the financial interests and pastoral duties of each to remain separate and independent; and to divide a circuit, station, or mission into two or more, when he judges it necessary.

9. To spend at least six months annually from charge to charge, through out his Episcopal District, in order to preach, and to oversee the spiritual and temporal affairs of the Church.

10. To organize Annual Conferences in the interval of the General Conference, when in his judgment it seems wise to do so; and to see that one clerical and one lay delegate be elected from such Conference to the General Conference, according to the provision of the second "Restrictive Rule."

11. To appoint one of their number to preach the quadrennial sermon before the General Conference on the day of its opening.

12. They shall divide the entire Church into Districts, according to the number of active Bishops.

13. The Bishops shall choose their own work.

14. They shall change their Districts at least every four years.

15. Any Bishop elected since 1873 shall be automatically retired at the General Conference nearest his seventieth birthday.

16. No Bishop shall be treasurer or custodian of an Educational or General Church moneys.

17. A Bishop shall not raise or cause to be raised, collect or cause to be collected, or receive any public donations from any Annual Conference or Conferences in the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.

18. The Bishop shall be President of the Board of Trustees of all schools and colleges located in his district.