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METHODIST CONFERENCE STATION
ING COMMITTEE.
Amon~ the many important matters
dealt with by the annual Conference of
the Methodist Church, the stationing of
ministers in active work occupies a pro
minent place. About 120 ministers and
probationers are appointed to more than
100 circuits, missions, and churches
throughout the State, and the work is
done m a systematic manner. This after
noon the ministerial committee, com
prising the president and secretary ot
Conference, the general secretary of home
missions, the chairman of each district,,
auti one minister elected by the financial
session of each district synod, will meet
in the Samuel Way Hall, Maughan
Church, to prepare the first draft ot sta
tions. This will be laid upon the table
at the opening session of the representa
tive conference, when, by permissive legis
lation of the General Conference, the
Conference may add an equal number ol
lay representatives, making the total
strength of the enlarged committee 41
members. Though the power to make al
terations in the station sheet resto
alone with the stationing committee, the
adoption of the sheet as a whole is
entirely in the hands ox the pastoral
conference, so that the sheet itself may
pass between the stationing committee and
the ministeral conference several times,
Until a sheet is prepared which is accept
able to both, w/ieu it becomes the "'final
reading of stations," and is officially re
cognised throughout the connexion as the
minister's authority <to preach and perform
all others -acts of religious worship and
discipline in the several churches of the
circuit to which he is appointed for the
ensuing ecclesiastical year. During the
consideration of stations both ministers
[ and authorised representatives of circuit
: quarterly meetings have the right to ap
[ proach the committee in reference to their
appointments, and it is a fine tribute
to the good judgment and broad sympa
thies of the committee, and the Chris
tian spirit prevailing in the circuits,
that though in some years more than
CO ministers may receive appointment.? to
fresh circuits, only the very smallest de
gree of disappointment or dissatisfaction
will exist.
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