This Week in Texas Methodist History  November 19

East Texas Conference Confronts Current Issues November 1900

The East Texas Conference existed from 1845 until 1902 when it rejoined the Texas Conference per action of the MECS General Conference of 1902.   In November 1900 it met in Annual Conference in Pittsburg, Texas, with Bishop Warren Candler presiding.  

Much of the conference business would seem familiar to Methodists in 2023 because the Disciplinary questions would all be answered, committee reports would be submitted, and usual mixture of worship and business would be conducted.  One of the most important business agenda items which comfined worship and business was the ordination and admission of new preachers.   Two of those admitted stand out---Jesse Lee and J. Walter Mills.  Both preachers because quite well known in Texas Methodism.

One feature that existed then, but has since been discarded was the certification of each preacher's good conduct during the previous year.  Such examination took up much conference time as each preacher's name was read out and anyone had the right to challenge the preacher's good conduct.   The Reverends D. F. C. Timmons and J. A. Beagle were both challenged on rumors of misconduct of "official administration".    Both men asked for committees of investigation to be convened so that they could clear their names.  Bishop Candler appointed three preachers for each of the two men who honor had been questioned and, in the end, neither Timmons nor Beagle was subjected to a church trial.

W. P. Pledger was a different matter.  He had left his appointment and told his Presiding Elder that he would surrender his credentials but had not done so.  He had gone to another denomination.  His investigating committee, chaired by future Advocate Editor A. J. Weeks, recommended that a demand letter be sent to Pledger requiring that he return his credentials.   

As usual there were resolutions presented to Annual Conference.  One of them was on a subject with which I was completely unfamiliar.  In 1898 Congress passed an inheritance tax on estates valued at more than $10,000.   The tax was used to fund the war with Spain.  In 1900 it was still in effect.  The East Texas Conference passed a resolution to petition Congress to exempt bequests made to charitable organizations and churches from that tax.  

There were other resolutions concerning tensions in the denomination.  One concerned the Epworth League.  The Epworth League was a young person's organization that should not be confused with the MYF that came along later.  The Epworth League was composed not just of teenagers but included members in their twenties and early thirties.   What was the problem?  In a nutshell, the League was becoming too independent from the "old guard".  Leaguers had set up parallel institutions.  They had their own finances, and eventually owned their own property including Epworth by the Sea near Corpus Christi.  They chose to support missionaries without going through the Board of Missions.   Some though was given to reining in the League, but the East Texas Conference put itself squarely behind the League.  

The main concern was the Holiness Movement.  One can get a good idea of the threat the Movement caused by considering the resolution passed by the 1900 East Texas Conference:

We deplore the fact that there is a horde of irresponsible so-called evangelists constantly working in the bounds of our conference, preaching in tents and halls and professing superior holiness, whose stock in trade is to criticize the ministry and to teach the people that a genuine revival cannot be had in a church, and that some of our people have been impressed by them.   Therefore Resolved that 1st That our preachers ought to preach scriptural holiness as to leave no ground for a charge that they are lowing the Methodist Standard on this great question.  Resolved 2nd, That is the sense of this conference that no ture well-informed Methodist will leave the services of his own pastor to attend the services of strolling evangelists.