Schweiker v. Husser

• Decision Date: 31 March 1893
• Citation: 146 Ill. 399,34 N.E. 1022
• Parties: SCHWEIKER et al. v. HUSSER et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

146 Ill. 399

34 N.E. 1022

SCHWEIKER et al.

v.HUSSER et al.¹

Supreme Court of Illinois.

March 31, 1893.²

Appeal from appellate court, first district.

Bill for injunction brought by George Husser and others against William Schwelker and others. Complainants obtained a decree, which was affirmed by the appellate court. Defendants appeal. Affirmed.White & Johnson and A. M. Pence, for appellants.

Judd, Ritchie & Esher, for appellees.

The other facts fully appear in the following statement by BAILEY, C. J.:

This was a bill in chancery, brought by George Husser and others against William Schweiker and others, to restrain the defendants from interfering with complainant Husser in acting as pastor of St. John's Society, known as Noble Street Church, Chicago, of the Evangelical Association of North America. The bill alleges that complainant Husser is the lawful pastor of the society; that defendant Schweiker is now acting as such pastor, but is not legally entitled to do so; and that the other defendants, who are the trustees of the society, support defendant Schweiker in his unlawful occupation of the puipit, church, and parsonage of the society, and exclude complainant Husser therefrom, and also exclude the other complainants, who are members of the society, and adhere to Husser as the lawful pastor, from worshiping in the church with Husser as their pastor.

The Evangelical Association of North America is a religious denomination originally organized about the year 1800, among the German speaking people of the state of Pennsylvania, by Jacob Albright. Since that time it has extended into various portions of the United States, including the state of Illinois, and to some extent to foreign countries, so that it now embraces 25 annual conferences, and has about 150,000 communicants. Albright had formerly been connected with the Methodist Episcopal church, and the form of doctrine, discipline, organization, and church government adopted by him and his associates for the religious body formed by them were to a very great degree patterned after those of the denomination of which he was formerly a member. The Evangelical Association, as the bill alleges, and as the evidence tends to show, is organized under the associated or connectional form of church government, having a formulated constitution or code of rules, known as the ‘Discipline,’ and having a system of graded ecclesiastical executive, legislative, and judicial bodies and officers, for the administration of its church laws and its internal affairs, in and by which rules and system of government each local society or congregation is a subordinate member of the general organization, and all such bodies, officers, and societies, as well as the individual members of the denomination, are subject to the provisions of the Discipline. The various bodies, supreme and subordinate, which constitute the denominational organization, stated in the order of their priority, are a general conference, annual conference, quarterly conferences, societies or congregations, and classes. The general conference, in which is vested the supreme legislative, judicial, and executive authority of the denomination, is a representative body, convening quadrennially, and being composed, in addition to the bishops and certain other denominational officers who are ex officio members, of delegates selected by and representing the several annual conferences, the basis of representation being one delegate for every fourteen members, and for every fraction of seven or over, of the annual conferences. An annual conference is held each year in each of the several districts into which the territory occupied by the denomination is divided, and is composed of all the itinerant preachers within the respective districts who, by ordination, are in full connection with the ministry. In the selection of pastors for the various societies or congregations, the itinerant system is adopted, and the pastors are appointed each year at the annual conferences, the power of assigning pastors to their respective fields of labor being by the Discipline vested in the bishop and presiding elders. It will thus be seen that the government of the denomination is essentially ecclesiastical, the laity, as such, having no seat or voice, by representation or otherwise, in either the annual conferences or the general conference, and no control of the appointment of their pastors. At each meeting of the general conference, bishops are appointed to serve for the term of four years, their number being fixed each time at the discretion of the conference. The Discipline provides that at the general conference a bishop shall preside, but, if no bishop is present, a presiding officer shall be elected by the conference, and that bishops present who are not in the chair shall be ex officio members, and that two-thirds of the aggregate number of delegates shall constitute a quorum; also, that ‘at annual conferences a bishop shall act as president. If there be no bishop present, the conference shall elect one of the elders chairman.’ Sections 73 and 74 of the Discipline are as follows: ‘Sec. 73. The general conference shall have power to make rules and arrangements for our church, under the following restrictions: (1) The general conference shall have no power to alter, detract from or add to any of our Articles of Faith, except with regard to the governments of other nations. (2) It shall have no power to alter any rules or forms of our Church Discipline, (the rules of our temporal economy being excepted,) unless such alterations are previously recommended by two thirds of the members of all the annual conferences who may be present at the sessions of the same, whereupon the general conference shall have power, by a majority of three-fourths of their votes, to alter any of our rules and forms, excepting the Articles of Faith. It shall also have power, by three-fourths of its votes, to recommend to the annual conferences an alteration of any of said rules and forms, and, after such alteration shall have been approved by two-thirds of the members present at the sessions of all the annual conferences, it shall by our bishops be declared a law, and introduced as such into our Church Discipline. Sec. 74. The general conference is the supreme court of law in the church. It shall decide upon the legality of all acts of the annual conferences, and upon all such cases as may arise between the annual conferences, and such as may arise between any incorporated society of the church and its officers or any annual conference; and in its judicial capacity it shall decide, render verdict, and declare judgment only in such cases as are lawfully brought before it for adjudication. It shall have power to make such rules and regulations as will enable it to execute the powers conferred upon it.’ Section 71 of the Discipline is as follows: ‘Sec. 71. The time and place of the general conference shall be appointed by the bishops, with a consent of a majority of the conference; and, if there be no bishop present, the general conference shall do it by a majority of votes, or the oldest annual conference, who then shall give the other annual conferences due notice of the time and place.’ It is further provided by the Discipline that the bishops shall be amenable for their conduct to the general conference, which shall have power, if circumstances require, to depose the bishop from office or expel him from the church; also, that if a bishop shall be accused, during the interval between the sessions of the conference, of immoral conduct, three of the elders shall meet and examine him, and, if they shall actually be of the opinion that he is guilty of the alleged crime, they shall call one or two presiding elders, and as many preachers standing in full connection as they may deem necessary, yet so that they be not less than seven in number, whereof at least one shall be a presiding elder. These are constituted a conference, who shall examine the charge alleged against the bishop, and, if two-thirds of the members thus called shall find him guilty of the charge brought against him, they shall have power to suspend him from office until the next general conference, which shall then determine the whole matter. But a charge against a bishop must be preferred in writing, and subscribed by those who are willing to substantiate the alleged crime, and the accused bishop is to have a copy of the same.

A meeting of the general conference was held at Buffalo, N. Y., in October, 1887, and no question is made by either party as to the regularity or validity of that body as the lawful general conference. At that time, three bishops had been appointed and were in office, viz. Bishops Esher, Bowman, and Dubbs, and all three were present and took part in the proceedings of the conference, each presiding during portions of the session. It had been usual, on former occasions, for different societies belonging to the denomination who desired to have the next session of the general conference held with them, to present to the conference invitations to that effect, and tendering their hospitalities to its members. These invitations were considered by the bishops and conference in determining the place for the next meeting. At the conference held at Buffalo in Cotober, 1887, but one invitation of that character was received, and, before the place for holding the next meeting was finally selected, that invitation was withdrawn. The conference thereupon, by a unanimous vote, passed the following resolutions: ‘Resolved, that the next meeting of the general conference shall begin on the first Thursday of October, 1891. Resolved, that the matter of appointing the place of the next general conference be referred to the board of publication.’ The board of publication named in the second of these resolutions is an official board of the denomination, having charge of its book...