Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1902 — YOUNG MEN WIN IN CHURCH. [ARTICLE]

YOUNG MEN WIN IN CHURCH.

Methodists Adopt New Constitution by Required Vote. The conservative element in the Methodist Episcopal Church lias been routed. The younger members have won in the adoption of the new constitution which was before the last general conference, held in Chicago in May, 1900. At the conference the proposed constitution was referred to the various annual conferences throughout the country. It has been announced that the constitution has been approved by the necessary three-quarters vote. The vote is ns follows: Yeas, 8,196; nays, 2,513. The different annual conferences have been voting on the new constitution for a year and a half and the subject has been the principal topic* of interest among bishops, clergymen and laymen. The conservative element, which opposed the new organic law of the church because it provided for the admission of women as delegates to the general conference, made war on the new constitution all along the line, but met with defeat. The vote, however, whs exceedingly close at times and the final result seemed in doubt until the ballots had been revised. The result is interpreted ns a victory for the younger and more liberal clement in the church. With few exceptions the conferences embracing the large cities voted in favor of the changes proposed. The Southern States and the missionary conferences in China, India, Japan and those in other foreign countries gave large majorities for the new laws. One hundred and twenty-one annual conferences voted on the question, n total of 10,700 ballots being cast by delegates.'/ The principal changes psQvided for by the new constitution are in giving women the right to sit as delegates in the general conference, giving laymen’s electoral meetings authority to vote on constitutional questions and it changes the vote necessary in the general conference to amend the constitution from threefourths to two-tliirds.