CONSTITUTIONAL PRACTICE
AND DISCIPLINE
OF THE METHODIST CHURCH
Seventh Edition prepared (at the direction of the Methodist Conference) by the Law and Polity Committee of the Methodist Church
Published by
METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE
20 IVATT WAY, WESTWOOD
PETERBOROUGH PE3 7PG
First published in 1951
Second Edition 1953
Third Edition 1958
Third Edition with Appendix 1962
Fourth Edition 1964
Fifth Edition 1969
Sixth Edition 1974
Seventh Edition 1988
Volume 2 revised annually this revision 1996
All rights reserved. No part or parts of this book may be reproduced without permission of the Methodist Publishing House
Book I The Principal Act 1 1 Methodist Church Act 1976 1 3.
Index 1,2 [1]
Editor's Note. Text in bold italics differs from that of the previous year, and [. . .] indicates an omission. As is usual, changes in the editorial notes in small type are not marked, nor changes in the contents tables at the head of each Book, Part and Section. There are, however, some further departures this year, because of the weight of the amendments occasioned by connexional restructuring, from the usual practice of marking every textual change, however slight, in the above way. These departures are as follows:-(1) Some material is completely new, or is so heavily rearranged and amended, that there would have been page after page of bold italics, with only occasional and largely uninformative exceptions. It has therefore been printed in ordinary roman type, like this. It consists of Sections 30, 31, 32 and 36 of Standing Orders in Book III, the Constitution of the Methodist Missionary Society in Book IVB, Part 3 and the Guidance as to connexional appointments in Book VI, Part 2, Section 5. (2) Other material has been extensively re-numbered and re- arranged, but with only manageable textual alterations. All textual amendments of any significance have been shown in the usual way, as has re-numbering of Standing Orders, but not insignificant typographic changes nor re-numbering within Standing Orders. That has been done in Part 2 of Standing Orders and the remainder of Part 3. Because of the re-numbering of Standing Orders additional source and destination tables, I and J, have been added to the existing Comparative Tables immediately before the index.