CHAPTER I MINISTERIAL SUPPORT I. Stewards 305. There shall be not less than three nor more than twenty-one Stewards in each Circuit or Station. After each annual election one of the Stewards shall be appointed by the Quarterly Conference a Recording Steward, and one a District Steward. But when two or more Pastoral Charges shall be united, the Stewards of the several Pastoral Charges shall hold office until the Quarterly Conference shall elect a new Board. 306. Let the Stewards be persons of solid piety who are members of the Church in the Pastoral Charge, who both know and love Methodist Doctrine and Discipline, and are of good natural and acquired abilities to transact the temporal business of the Church. 307. The Pastor shall have the right to nominate the Stewards, but the Quarterly Conference shall confirm or reject such nominations. The Stewards elected at the Fourth Quarterly Conference shall enter upon the discharge of their duties on the adjournment of the next Annual Conference, and shall hold office for one year, or until their successors are elected. 308. The duties of Stewards are: To take an exact account of all the money or other resources received for the support of the Ministers in the Charge, and to apply the same as the Discipline directs; to make an accurate return of every expenditure of money, whether for the Ministers or the poor members of the Church; to seek the needy and distressed in order to relieve and comfort them; to inform the Ministers of any sick or disorderly persons; to tell the Ministers what they think wrong in them; to attend the Quarterly Meetings, the Official Board Meetings, and the Leaders and Stewards' Meetings of the Charge; to give advice, if asked, in planning the Circuit; to attend committees for the application of money to Churches; to give counsel in matters of arbitration; to provide the elements for the Lord's Supper; to write circular letters to the Societies in the Pastoral Charge, exhorting them to greater liberality, if need be, and urging 'systematic giving in accordance with Special Advice VII, and also to let them know, when occasion requires, the state of the temporal concerns of the Charge. ¶ 309. Stewards are accountable for the faithful performance of their duties to the Quarterly Conference of the Charge, which shall have power to dismiss or change them at pleasure. II. Stewards and Ministerial Support ¶ 310. The more effectually to raise the amount necessary to meet the estimates made for the sup port of Ministers, let the Stewards at the beginning of the year estimate the amount needed monthly. Then let them ascertain from each member of the Church, and, as far as practicable, from each attendant of the Congregation, what each will give as his monthly contribution. 311. Let these sums be entered by the Recording Steward in a book which he shall keep as Treas urer of the Board of Stewards. If the total amount of these sums shall not equal the amount needed monthly, then let the Stewards apportion the deflciency among all such as are willing to assume such deficiency, setting down to each person, with his consent, the additional amount which they think he ought to pay. 312. Let the Stewards then adopt and carry out a Financial Plan by which everyone, except such as prefer to make weekly contributions through their Class Leaders, shall have the opportunity of regularly contributing each month or oftener, not grudgingly or of necessity, the sum which has been pledged by him. Let these contributions be paid regularly to the Recording Steward or Class Leader, and be brought by them to the Leaders and Stewards' Meeting, Official Board, or Quarterly Conference, as the case may be; and let the Stewards report to the first Quarterly Conference of each year the details of the Financial Plan. Also, let them report to each subsequent Quarterly Conference whether the Financial Plan, including the further directions contained in this chapter, has been faithfully carried out. The Recording Steward shall keep an individual account of all the pledges and contributions, and shall pay the money collected under the direction of the Stewards, to the Ministers authorized to receive it. 313. The Stewards of each Pastoral Charge shall provide for raising the amount apportioned to it by the Annual Conference for the support of Conference Claimants, either by a public collection, or in such |