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SECTION VI.

Support of Missions.

1. It shall be the duty of each annual conference, where missions have been or are to be established, to appoint a standing committee, to be denominated the mission committee, (which shall keep a record of its doings, and report the same to its conference,) whose duty it shall be, in conjunction with the president of the conference, to make an estimate of the amount necessary for the support of each mission and mission school, in addition to the regular allowance of the discipline to preachers and their families, from year to year; for which amount the president of the conference for the time being, shall draw on the treasurer of the society in quarterly instalments.

2. Whenever a mission is to be established in any new place, or in any place beyond the bounds of an annual conference, either among the aborigines of our country or elsewhere, it shall be the duty of the bishop making such appointment immediately to notify the treasurer of the Missionary Society of the place, the number of missionaries to be employed, together with the probable amount necessary for the support of any such mission, which information shall be laid before the managers of the society; and they shall make an appropriation according to their judgment, from year to year, of the amount called for to sustain and prosecute the mission or missions designated; for which amount the missionary or the superintendent of the mission or missions, shall have authority to draw on the treasurer of the society in quarterly or half yearly instalments.

3. It is recommended that within the bounds of each annual conference there be established a conference missionary society, auxiliary to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with branches, under such regulations as the conferences respectively shall prescribe. Each conference missionary society shall annually transmit to the corresponding secretary of the parent society a copy of its annual report, embracing the operations of its branches, and shall also notify the treasurer of the amount collected in aid of the missionary cause, which amount shall be subject to the order of the treasurer of the parent society.

4. The treasurer of the parent society, under the direction of the board of managers, shall give information to the bishops annually, or oftener, if the board judge it expedient, of the state of the funds and the sums which may be drawn by them for the missionary purposes contemplated by the constitution. Agreeably to which information the bishops shall have authority to draw upon the treasurer for any sum within the amount designated, which the missionary committee of the annual conferences respectively shall judge necessary for the support of the missionaries and of the mission schools under their care. Provided always, that the sums so allowed for the support of a missionary shall not exceed the usual allowance of other itinerant preachers. The bishops shall always promptly notify the treasurer of all drafts made by them, and shall require regular quarterly communications to be made by each of the missionaries to the corresponding secretary of the parent society, giving information of the state and prospects of the several missions in which they are employed. No one shall be acknowledged a missionary, or receive support out of the funds of the society, who has not some definite field assigned to him, or who could not be an effective labourer on a circuit.

5. In all cases of the appointment of a missionary the name of such missionary and the district in which he is to labour, together with the probable expenses of the mission, shall be communicated by the bishop or the mission committee of each annual conference, to the treasurer of the parent society, that a proper record of the same may be preserved.

6. In all places where drafts are drawn in favour of any mission, if there be funds in the possession of any auxiliary conference missionary society, where such mission is established, the drafts for the support of the mission shall be paid from said funds: if there be no auxiliary society, and there be money belonging to the book concern, the book committee, or presiding elders, or preachers, shall pay the missionary drafts from the book money which may be in their possession; which drafts, when paid, shall be transmitted to the treasurer at New-York; and in no case, where any such moneys are at command, shall the drafts be sent to the treasurer in New-York to be paid.

SECTION VII.

Of the Chartered Fund.

Quest. What farther provision shall be made for the distressed travelling preachers, for the families of travelling preachers, and for the superannuated, and worn out preachers, and the widowsand orphans of preachers?

Answ. There shall be a chartered fund, to be supported by the voluntary contributions

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of our friends: the principal stock of which shall be funded under the direction of trustees, chosen by the general conference, and the interest applied under the direction of the general conference, according to the following regulations, viz.

1. The elders and those who have the oversight of circuits, shall be collectors and receivers of subscriptions, &c, for this fund.

2. The money shall, if possible, be conveyed by bills of exchange, or otherwise, through the means of the post, to the general book steward, who shall pay it to the trustees of the fund: otherwise it shall be brought to the ensuing annual conference.

3. The interest shall be divided into twentytwo parts, and each of the annual conferences shall have authority to draw one twenty-second part out of the fund; and if in one or more conferences, a part less than one twentysecond be drawn out of the fund in any given year, then in such case or cases, the other annual conferences, held in the same year, shall have authority, if they judge it necessary, to draw out of the fund, such surplus of the interest which has not been applied by the former conferences: and the bishops shall bring the necessary information of the state of the interest of the fund, respecting the year in question, from conference to conference.

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