shall be held by the Board of Conference Claimants located at Chicago, Illinois, and shall be administered through its connectional Permanent Fund. The Board of Conference Claimants shall also administer all gifts and bequests the custody of which is not otherwise designated, the income of which is intended for the use of Conference Claimants.

§ 2. Annual Conferences are authorized to establish and maintain investment Funds, Preachers' Aid Societies, and organizations and funds of similar character, under such names, plans, rules, and regulations as they may determine, the income from which shall be applied to the support of Conference Claimants. It is recommended that each Annual Conference provide an incorporated Board to administer its permanent funds.

¶ 325, § 1. Conference Anniversary. Each Annual Conference shall hold one service during its session, to be known as the Conference Claimants' Anniversary, for the promotion of the interests of Conference Claimants.

§ 2. Joint Session. The Annual and Lay Electoral Conferences are recommended to hold a Joint Session quadrennially in the interests of Conference Claimants, and, jointly, to adopt such measures as shall promote the active coöperation of Preachers and people in the liberal support of this cause.

§ 3. Veterans' Day. Each Congregation shall observe annually one Sunday as Conference Claimants' Day. The second Sunday in May shall be so observed, unless another day be substituted by the Annual Conference, and shall be known as "Veterans' Day."

4. APPORTIONMENT

¶ 326. There shall be only one apportionment. It shall be the right and duty, solely, of the Annual Conference to make its own apportionment. The Conference Stewards, in determining the total amount which shall be apportioned to the Pastoral Charges in the Conference, shall first estimate the total amount required for the support of all its Conference Claimants. From this amount they shall subtract the income received during the previous year from the Chartered Fund, Book Concern, Connectional Relief, and from all other sources for this purpose, except the receipts from the Pastoral Charges for annual distribution; to this remainder shall be added five per cent for "Conference Percentages," as fixed by the General Conference, to be divided as follows, namely: three per cent for Connectional Relief to be distributed to, the Annual Conferences in accordance with ¶ 472, and two per cent for the salary and office expenses of the Corresponding Secretary; provided, that, when the income from such two per cent shall exceed ten thousand dollars per annum, the surplus shall be paid to Connectional Relief. This final sum, when approved by the Annual Conference, shall be equitably apportioned among the several Pastoral Charges in such manner as the Annual Conference may determine.

¶ 327. Moneys contributed to the Board of Conference Claimants, either for Connectional Relief or for the connectional Permanent Fund, shall be sent to the Treasurer of the Board of Conference Claimants (Chicago, Illinois), who shall issue a voucher for the same; or they may be paid to the Treasurer of the Annual Conference, who shall receipt therefor

and forward the amounts so received to the Treasurer of the Board of Conference Claimants.

5. ESTIMATING COMMITTEE

328. The Quarterly Conference of the Pastoral Charge to which a Conference Claimant is related shall require its Committee on Estimating Ministerial Support to estimate also the amount necessary to provide a comfortable support for such Conference Claimant, giving full information in case of special need. After this estimate has been considered and approved by the Quarterly Conference, it shall be certified by the president and secretary thereof and sent to the secretary of the Conference Stewards for their guidance.

6. CONFERENCE STEWARDS

329, § 1. Each Annual Conference shall elect Conference Stewards, who may be either Preachers or laymen, arranged in classes so that one third of the Members shall be elected each year.

§ 2. The Conference Stewards shall ascertain what Claimants are in special need (that is, whose needs require more than can be paid to them from the Annuity Distribution) and, using as a general basis the estimates received from the Quarterly Conferences and other available information, shall make an equitable allowance to them, which shall be paid pro rata from moneys available for that purpose.

3. Upon the recommendation of the Annual Conference, the Conference Stewards may consider and act upon any claim which the Quarterly Conference may have overlooked.

§ 4. Each Annual Conference shall determine whether or not its Conference Stewards shall make a

preliminary report; and, if so, whether or not it shall be read in open Conference, or the action of the Conference Stewards be final.

§ 5. An Annual Conference shall have authority to recognize as Claimants the widow and minor children of a former Member by agreement with the Conference of which he was a Member at the time of his death.

7. METHODS OF DISTRIBUTION

¶ 330, § 1. There are three methods for the distribution of moneys raised for the support of Conference Claimants, viz.:

1. The Annuity Distribution to Conference Claimants, by Annual Conferences. ¶ 331.

2. The Necessitous Distribution to Conference Claimants, by Annual Conferences. ¶ 333.

3. The Connectional Relief Distribution tó Annual Conferences, by the Board of Conference Claimants. T472.

§ 2. Moneys for the above mentioned purposes shall be derived from public collections, private gifts, bequests, and other sources; and that the Church may effectually meet the sacred obligation to provide a comfortable support for Conference Claimants, the rules and regulations for obtaining and administering the funds established for such purpose shall be observed by all Pastors, District Superintendents, and Bishops, and by all Pastoral Charges, Quarterly, District, and Annual Conferences.

1. The Annual Conference Annuity Distribution ¶ 331. The Annuity Distribution shall be made to Conference Claimants by the Conference Stewards according to the following regulations:

§ 1. The annuity claim of a Retired Minister who has been in the effective relation for thirty-five years as a Member of an Annual Conference shall not be less than one half of the average annual salary paid to the effective members of his Annual Conference, House Rent excluded.

§ 2. The annuity claim of any Retired Minister determined by this standard, shall be not less than one seventieth (1-70) of the average salary of the effective members of his Conference multiplied by the number of years of his effective service, including two years on trial.

§ 3. The annuity claim of a widow shall be determined by the number of years during which she was the wife of a preacher while he was in the effective relation, as a member of an Annual Conference, and shall be one half of the annuity claim of a Retired Minister for such term of years.

§ 4. The term of a father's effective service shall determine the annuity claim of his child, which shall be one fifth of the claim of a Retired Minister, for such term.

§ 5. Whenever a Conference Claimant shall be in debt to the Book Concern, the Conference shall have power to appropriate the amount of the annuity claim, or any part thereof, to the payment of such debt.

¶ 332. Moneys designated for Annuity Distribution shall be distributed on the basis of service, and shall consist of:

§ 1. The dividends of the Book Concern and the Chartered Fund.

§ 2. The income from any investments made by the Annual Conference for Annuity Distribution and held in trust for this purpose.