PRESIDING ELDERS
Ques. 1. What are the duties of a Presiding Elder?
Ans. 1. To travel through his appointed District, in order to preach and
superintend the spiritual and temporal affairs of the Church.
2. In the absence of the Bishop, to take charge of all the traveling and
local preachers, and exhorters, in his District.
3. To change, receive, and suspend preachers in his District during the
intervals of the Conferences, and in the absence of the Bishop, as the
Discipline directs.
4. To be present, as far as practicable, at all the quarterly meetings,
and call together the members of the Quarterly Conference, over which he
shall also preside.
5. To decide all questions of law which may come up in the regular
business of the Quarterly or District Conferences, when submitted to him
in writing, subject to an appeal to the President of the next Annual
Conference; but in all cases the application of law shall be with the
Quarterly or District Conferences, which shall record in its journal all
such questions and decisions.
6. To take care that every part of the Discipline be enforced in his
District; to promote, by all proper means, the cause of the Epworth
League, Church Extension, missions and Sunday-schools, and the
publication, at our own press, of tracts and Sunday school books; to
inquire carefully at each Quarterly Conference, whether the rules
respecting the instruction of children have been faithfully observed;
and to report to the Annual Conference the names of all delinquent
traveling preachers within his District.
7. To attend the Bishops when present in his District; and to give them,
when absent, all necessary information by letter, of the state of his
District.
8. To direct the candidates for the ministry to those studies
recommended for them by the Bishops.
9. To procure at the fourth Quarterly Conference full statistics from
every charge, to be reported at the Annual Conference, in case the
preacher in charge fails to make his report.
10. If any preacher absents himself from his circuit, the Presiding
Elder shall, as far as possible, fill his place with another preacher.
Ques. 2. Shall the Presiding Elder have the power to employ a preacher
who has been rejected at the previous Annual Conference?
Ans. He shall not, unless the Conference should give him liberty under
certain conditions.