Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 September 1901 — More About the Conference. [ARTICLE]

More About the Conference.

The Northwestern Indiana M. E. conference meets kt Brazil on Thursday of this week, though an opening service will be held the evening before. The conference opens and will probably close, a day later than*usual, This conference is divided into five districts. The Greencastle, with S. B. Towne, D. D., presiding elderpthe Crawfordsville, J. H. Cissel D. D. presiding elder; the Lafayette, Chas. A. Brook, D. D, presiding elder; South Bend, Isaac Dale, D. D , presiding elder and Valparaiso, Samuel Beck, D. D., presiding elder. Rensselaer, which hopes to have the next annual conference. is in the Valparaiso trict. y One of the important questions to come before the coming conference is a proposition to reduce the number of these districts to three. It is said that the movement in that direction is a strong one. Much misunderstanding exists concerning the significance of the removal of the time limit so far as pastoral charges are concerned. The limit still remains for Presiding Elders, who can only serve on one district for a period of six years, but in case of a pastor he may be reappointed indefinitely, but he is only appointed for a year at a time. Each conference year is complete in itself and a pastor may always know the possibility’ of a change at the succeeding session of the conference.