Church Temperance Society. Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. City Missionary or Church Extension Society. Total Disciplinary Benevolences. Hospital. OTHER BENEVOLENCES Total Benevolences. OTHER CASH ITEMS Support of Conference Claimants.1 Support of Bishops.1 General Conference Expenses. Total. To Statistician's Report, ¶89. CHAPTER III LAY ELECTORAL CONFERENCES The Composition, Organization, and Powers of the Lay Electoral Conference are set forth in the Constitution of the Church, Division III, Chapter II, Article III, ¶¶ 39–47. I. Election of Delegates ¶ 91, § 1. The first or third Quarterly Conference of each Charge for the Conference year within which a Lay Electoral Conference is to be convened shall appoint one Judge of Election and two Tellers, who shall constitute the Election Board of the Charge; provided the said Charge be composed of but one Church. The Election Board shall fix the time and place for the holding of an election for one Lay Delegate to the Lay Electoral Conference and one Reserve Lay Delegate in accordance with the provisions of Division III of the Constitution of the Church. § 2. The Election Board shall see that suitable public notice of the time and place of the election shall be given, public announcement of the same being made at two regular preaching services at least, on different days, within the six weeks immediately preceding the election. It shall take charge of the election, receive and count the ballots, and certify the whole number of votes cast and for whom cast to the fourth Quarterly Conference, which shall declare the result and give to the person receiving the highest number of votes for each place a certificate of elec tion, which shall be signed by the District Superintendent and the Secretary of the Quarterly Confer ence. § 3. In every Pastoral Charge which consists of more than one Church or Society the Quarterly Conference shall appoint a Judge of Election and two Tellers for each of such Churches or Societies, and each of such Boards shall proceed as is provided for the Election Board of a single Church. The Quarterly Conference shall proceed in the same manner as is provided for Pastoral Charges having but one Church or Society. § 4. When duly convened for the election, in cașe of the absence of one or more members of the Election Board the lay members assembled shall have power to fill vacancies. § 5. The Secretary of the fourth Quarterly Conference shall certify the result of the ballot without delay to the Secretary of the preceding Lay Electoral Conference, or to any other person designated by said Conference to prepare the roll of the ensuing Lay Electoral Conference. Said certificate shall contain the names of the Lay Delegate and of the Reserve Lay Delegate elected, the post office of each and the name of the Pastoral Charge. II. Laymen's Associations 92. There may be assembled at the seat of the Annual Conference a Laymen's Association organized within the bounds of the Conference, composed of Delegates selected from the Charges in such manner as the Laymen's Association may determine. The purpose of such Association shall be to advance the local and Conference interests of the Church and to enlist all laymen in the general activities of the denomination. CHAPTER IV CENTRAL MISSION CONFERENCES ¶ 93, § 1. When in any of our foreign Mission fields there is more than one Annual Conference or Mission, if ordered by the General Conference it shall be lawful to organize a Central Conference, to be composed either of all the Members of those Annual Conferences or Missions, or of Delegates from the same, elected according to such ratio as may be agreed upon between the constituent parties, who may also provide for the admission of Laymen to such Conference, the number of Lay Delegates not to exceed that of the Clerical Delegates. § 2. The first meeting of the Central Conference shall be called by the Bishop in charge, at such time and place as he may select, to which all the Members of the Conferences and Missions concerned shall be invited, and at which a ratio of representation shall be fixed by the Conference. The time and place of future meetings shall be determined by the Central Mission Conference; provided, that it shall meet at least once in four years. § 3. A General Superintendent or a Missionary Bishop, if present, shall preside over a Central Mission Conference; but in his absence the Conference shall elect a President from among its own Members. Missionary Bishops have equal rights and privileges with General Superintendents in the sessions of the Central Mission Conferences with which they are connected. § 4. A Central Conference may take under its supervision the educational, publishing, and other connectional interests which may have been committed to it by the Annual Conferences and Missions; but never in contravention of the Book of Discipline, or the orders of the General Conference; and it shall have no authority to involve the Board of Foreign Missions in any financial responsibility, nor to hold or control the property of the Board without the official permission of said Board. § 5. In the Central Conference the right shall be reserved to vote by Conferences or Missions whenever the Delegations from one third of the several Conferences or Missions represented shall so demand. In such cases the concurrent vote of the Delegations from two thirds of all the Conferences and Missions present and voting shall be necessary to complete an action. § 6. A Central Conference may fix the boundaries of the Annual Conferences within its bounds, proposals for changes first having been submitted to the Annual Conferences concerned as prescribed in ¶¶ 482484, provided, however, that the number of Annual Conferences which may be organized within the bounds of a Central Conference shall first have been determined by the General Conference; and provided, further, that no Conference shall be organized with less than twenty-five Members. § 7. When a Central Conference has been duly organized it shall not be discontinued except by order or consent of the General Conference. |