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.