EXCHANGE OF MISSIONS.
BY SECRETARY STRIEBY.
At the regular meeting of the Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association, held Sept. 11, 1882, the following resolution was adopted:
Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to invite a conference with the Am. Board respecting the advisability of transferring our African work to the Board, and assuming the work among the Indians now carried on by the Board.
In accordance with this vote a delegation from our Executive Committee, consisting of Drs. Ward and Roy, Mr. Mead and Secretary Strieby held an interview with the Prudential Committee of the American Board in Boston, Sept. 14, at which the proposed exchange was fully and fraternally considered. The Prudential Committee of the Board subsequently passed a resolution recommending to the Board the approval of the transfer, if all legal and other difficulties could be obviated. In response, the Board, at its late meeting in Portland, Oct. 3, passed the following resolution:
Resolved, That further arrangements for the Dakota Mission be referred to the Prudential Committee with power, but with the earnest recommendation that the whole mission be transferred to the care of the American Missionary Association, unless the practical difficulties shall prove to be insuperable.
On the 13th of October, a meeting was held in New York, of a special committee of the Prudential Committee of the Board, and of a special committee of the Ex. Com. of the A. M. A., in which the principles and methods, as well as the difficulties in the way of the transfer, were again considered.
The spirit of that meeting was not that of sharp bargaining in commercial values, but of an earnest desire on the part of Christian brethren, representing affiliated missionary societies to consummate an arrangement that would facilitate the upbuilding of the Redeemer’s Kingdom. Yet commercial values were canvassed. The Board has in its Indian missions, buildings for churches and schools, and other property, estimated at $36,000. The value of the properly of the A. M. A. at the Mendi Mission can be stated with less definiteness, but the buildings for churches, schools, and industrial work can hardly be worth as much as that of the Board in the Dakota Mission. But in addition to this property there is the fund from the estate of Rev. Charles Avery, for African missions. The points of difficulty suggested and discussed were: the legal authority of the Association to transfer this Avery fund; the continuance of the Mendi Mission by the Board; and its assumption of the Arthington Mission. On the first point—the transfer of the Avery fund—a legal opinion, very clear, and so far as could be judged, satisfactory, was obtained, of which the following is the decisive portion.
“Under the bequest thus given to the American Missionary Association, it cannot lawfully delegate to another the discretion which the testator has intrusted specifically to it. But it may delegate to others the execution of purposes which are approved by its discretion, and which are within the objects defined by the testator. It may employ the agency of its own officers and servants in the application of the income, or it may employ the agency of other organizations, as in its discretion may be most fit, useful and efficient in accomplishing the testator’s purposes.”
In regard to the second point, the Committee of the American Missionary Association expressed the wish that the Mendi Mission should be continued, while the representatives of the Board deemed it unadvisable, on account of the great enlargement of its African work recently entered upon; and on the third point, in like manner and for the same reasons, they thought the Board would be indisposed to assume the responsibilities of the Arthington Mission. No final settlement of these points was attempted, it being deemed necessary to wait until this annual meeting of the Association should, if it thought best, approve of the exchange of the missions, and, as the Board had done, remit to the Committee the authority to arrange details. With a view to securing such approval, I shall now proceed in behalf of the Executive Committee to give the reasons for the exchange of missions.