The Methodist insistence has not been so much upon opinion as upon life. Its distinguishing mark is not so much what men believe, as what they are, what they experience, how they act. The unique traditions of Methodism are, therefore, to be sought in patterns of action rather than systems of dogma.
1944 General Conference Episcopal Address
Taken from the Journal of the 1944 General Conference of the Methodist Church (p. 155)
Available from the Duke Divinity School Archive
Signatories (Bishops of the time):
William F. Anderson, Brenton T. Badley, James C. Baker, Enrique C, Balloch, Bruce R. Baxter, Hiram A. Boaz, John C. Broomfield, James Cannon, Jr., W. Y. Chen, Ralph S. Cushman, U. V. W. Darlington, J. Lloyd Decell, Hoyt M. Dobbs, Charles W. Flint, Juan E. Gattinoni, John Gowdy, Wilbur E. Hammaker, Ivan Lee Holt, Edwin H. Hughes, Robert E. Jones, Z. T. Kaung, Frederick T. Keeney, Paul B. Kern, Lorenzo H. King, Carleton Lacy, Edwin F. Lee, Frederick D. Leete, Titus Lowe, J. Ralph Magee, William C. Martin, Francis J. McConnell, F. H. Otto Melle, George A. Miller, Shot K. Mondol, Arthur J. Moore, John M. Moore, John L. Nuelsen, G. Bromley Oxnam, W. Walter Peele, J. Waskom Pickett, Clare Purcell, Ernest G. Richardson, John W. Robinson, Clement D. Rockey, Charles C. Selecman, Alexander P. Shaw, A. Frank Smith, H. Lester Smith, John M. Springer, James H. Straughn, Raymond J. Wade, Ralph A. Ward, William T. Watkins, Herbert Welch.
