Methodist Episcopal Church, South and South and was criticized for holding slaves. The 1844 General Conference voted to suspend Bishop Andrew from exercising his episcopal office until he gave up the slaves. Southern delegates to the conference disputed the authority of a General Conference to discipline bishops. The cultural differences that had divided the nation during the mid-19th century were also dividing the Methodist Episcopal Church. The 1844 dispute led Methodists in the South to break off and form a separate denomination, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC,S). The statistics for 1859 showed the MEC,S had as enrolled members some 511,601 whites and 197,000
Information Affairs Authority Information Affairs Authority The Information Affairs Authority refers to Bahrain's ministry of information. It was formed in July 2010 by a decree of King Hamad separating the information portfolio from what was then known as the "Ministry of Culture and Information". The president of the Information Affairs Authority is appointed directly by the King of Bahrain and has the rank of a minister in the Bahrain government. The first president of the Information Affairs Authority was Fawaz bin Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, who is a member of the Al Khalifa ruling family and a cousin of King Hamad and