490                 A. M. E. REVIEW.

of men or board of trustees claim to represent the Meth-
odist Church, should they decline absolutely to be bound by
the expressed will of the great majority of the governing
body of the Church, and should claim for themselves power
to do what they will, regardless of the wishes of the Church
expressed through its governing bodies; and this, despite
the fact that it be admitted that the institutions were
founded by the Church, and would have no existence to-day
unless they had been nourished and supported by the Church.
Whatever may be said or proved as to the technical legal
status of an institution before the civil courts, would it not
be a remarkable situation that men who own allegiance to
the Church and who have pledged themselves to be subject
to the discipline of the Church, to attend upon its ordi-
nances and support its institutions, should refuse to be bound
by the declared will of the Annual of General Conference,
should set at naught the expressed will of the Church as de-
clared by its governing body, and yet claim to be the repre-
sentatives of the Methodist Church in such action?  What-
ever the civil courts might determine in such cases, it would
seem that the moral rights of the Church to control should
be sufficient to determine the action of loyal sons of the
Church.
  But the present situation is the strongest proof possible
that there is no definite assurance of permanent ownership
and control by the Church unless it is so nominated in the
bond; and, if the Church intends to continue her college
work, she must make her moral ownership legal wherever
that is not already the case, and it must be definitely pro-
vided in the charter that the Church shall in some effective
way have a voice in the selection of the men who are to carry
on this exceedingly important department of her work.
  And this does not imply that the Church proposes to inter-
fere with matters of detail in the administration of the in-
ternal affairs of the educational institutions, but that she
shall have power to protect her interests and to hold the in-




			

OHS/National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center Serial Collection

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 1

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  01
Date:  07/1911