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The Church Expands Slide Show #2: Splits and Mergers
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Use the following script with this presentation:
- Slide 2: On December 24, 1784, 60 of the 83 Methodist preachers in the United States gathered at Lovely Lane Methodist Chapel in Baltimore to organize The Methodist Episcopal Church. This meeting is now known as the “Christmas Conference.”
Earlier that year, John Wesley had consecrated Thomas Coke as the first superintendent of American Methodism and instructed Coke to ordain Francis Asbury as a second superintendent. In the first few days of the conference, Asbury was formally ordained as a deacon, then an elder, and then as a superintendent.
A bit of trivia: Cokesbury, the name used by The United Methodist Publishing House for its bookstores and United Methodist resources is a combination of the names of the first two bishops: Coke and Asbury. The Methodists opened their publishing house in 1789, five years after the Christmas Conference; and it has been in operation ever since.
The Christmas Conference continued until January 2, 1785. During the ten-day meeting, at least twelve men were ordained for Methodist ministry; and the church adopted its Twenty-Five Articles of Religion that stated its beliefs and policies as a newly formed denomination. These articles are still included in The United Methodist Book of Discipline, which is printed every four years.
Pictured: Francis Asbury’s ordination at the 1784 Christmas Conference
- Slide 3: One of the people who participated in Francis Asbury’s ordination at the Christmas Conference was Philip William Otterbein, a preacher in the Reformed Church. In the late 1700s, Otterbein and a Mennonite preacher named Martin Boehm (pronounced “BAYM”) began organizing revivals and class meetings among German-speaking Americans in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Otterbein; Boehm; and other, like-minded German preachers—mostly from Reformed or Mennonite backgrounds—met in 1789 and 1791 to resolve how they could work together to get the most out of their work as evangelists.
On September 25, 1800, Otterbein, Boehm, and thirteen or fourteen other preachers of German descent met again. This conference resulted in the formal beginning of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, or the United Brethren Church. Otterbein and Boehm became the new denomination’s first two bishops.
The United Brethren had close ties to the English-speaking Methodists. Otterbein was a close friend of Francis Asbury’s, and Martin Boehm participated in a Methodist class meeting. As early as 1809, the two churches considered uniting; but the United Brethren were reluctant to adopt a discipline, or strict list of rules and beliefs, like the one the Methodists had written. Another difference that separated the two churches was the issue of language: The Methodists spoke English, while the United Brethren largely spoke German.
Picture: Martin Boehm
- Slide 4: In the 1790s a traveling German preacher named Jacob Albright held revivals and set up class meetings in southeastern Pennsylvania. Albright gathered together leaders and members of his classes in 1803, and together they declared themselves a new church. Albright was ordained the church’s “elder preacher.”
This new church, called the Evangelical Association, began meeting annually. Albright appointed several preachers to travel and preach throughout the mid-Atlantic states (similar to the Methodist circuit riders). One of these preachers was George Miller, who took over leadership of the church when Albright became ill and who presided over the writing of a formal Discipline in 1809.
Picture: Jacob Albright
- Slide 5: When The Methodist Episcopal Church formed in America, it took a strong stand against slavery; the church appealed to many African Americans—both free and slaves—because Methodists believed in welcoming all people and preached a message of hope for all people, especially the poor, oppressed, and enslaved.
But the Methodists did not always live up to their welcoming message. Early on, Methodists bought slaves to work their land; and some Methodist congregations segregated black and white worshipers. The General Conference of 1808 dropped from The Methodist Episcopal Discipline the statement against buying and selling slaves.
Fed up with racial tensions in his church in Philadelphia, an African-American preacher named Richard Allen began a new congregation and became the first African-American ordained in The Methodist Episcopal Church. Further racial tension caused Allen’s congregation, Bethel Church, to leave The Methodist Episcopal Church. Along with a black Methodist preacher named Daniel Coker, Allen formed The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) in 1816. Bethel Church, now known as “Mother Bethel,” is still a thriving congregation (not to mention a popular tourist attraction) today.
Picture: Richard Allen
- Slide 6: Meanwhile, in New York, a group of black Methodist preachers who were fed up with segregation in the church and in the culture started their own Methodist society, with the blessing of Bishop Francis Asbury. Peter Williams, a prominent member of this society, started two African-American congregations in New York in the early 1800s.
Under the leadership of Williams and a white preacher named William Stillwell, these two congregations—Zion Chapel and Asbury Church—left The Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1820 the two congregations drew up their own Disciplineand formed The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ—which is now The African Methodist Episcopal Church, Zion).
One of the best know members of The African Methodist Episcopal Church, Zion was Harriet Tubman, an important leader of the Underground Railroad (which helped slaves escape to freedom) and the movement to abolish slavery.
Picture: Peter Williams
- Slide 7: John Wesley is believed to have once said of the church, “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” In other words, if we hold true to the beliefs that make us Christians, and if we love God and neighbor, it is OK to disagree on how the church should be organized and how we can best follow our calling as a church.
Indeed, disagreement about organization arose in The Methodist Church; and in 1830 a group of Methodists who were upset that lay people were not represented at conferences broke off to form The Methodist Protestant Church.
Some Methodists felt that slavery was just one of those things that we could disagree on. Others held that the church should be opposed to slavery no matter what. After all, freedom from bondage is an important part of the Christian story; and John Wesley hated slavery.
At its 1844 General Conference, The Methodist Episcopal Church said that Bishop James O. Andrew—who acquired slaves through marriage—must free his slaves or no longer serve as bishop. Delegates from slave-owning states in the South reacted by splitting from the church and forming The Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Civil War ended the slavery question, but the two denominations would remain separate for many more years.
Picture: Chart showing when and why The Methodist Protestant Church and Methodist Episcopal Church, South, split from The Methodist Episcopal Church
- Slide 8: Meanwhile, other Methodists felt that the church was not taking a strong enough stand against slavery. In 1843 these Methodists formed the Wesleyan Methodist Church (now the Wesleyan Church).
Nearly two decades later, in 1860, other Methodists who were upset about the church’s weak stance on slavery and about “pew fees”—payments that would buy better seats in the sanctuary—left the church and became The Free Methodist Church.
Pew fees seemed like a small issue to some, but The Free Methodists felt that these payments went against a fundamental Christian truth: We are all equally children of God and brothers and sisters in Christ. Other Methodists learned from The Free Methodists, and now the very idea of pew fees seems ridiculous.
Picture: Chart showing when and why the Wesleyan Methodist and Free Methodist Churches split from the Methodist Episcopal Church
- Slide 9: Many African-American members of The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, were not comfortable with the new denomination.
During the Civil War, many of these people joined the northern branch of the church, the AME Church, or the AMEZ Church. The remaining black members of The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, asked the church’s permission to form their own denomination.
In 1870 The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, agreed to help their African-American members form a new church, called The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. The denomination would later change its name to The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME).
Picture: Chart showing The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church’s split from The Methodist Episcopal Church, South
- Slide 10: The Methodists weren’t alone in dealing with splits in the church. By the General Conference of 1887, tension had developed in the Evangelical Association around several issues, such as whether to use English or German and how much authority bishops should have. In 1891 the church formally split. The majority of the congregations, located mainly in the Midwest, continued as the Evangelical Association.
Other congregations, mainly on the East Coast, became The United Evangelical Church; The United Evangelical Church limited the authority of bishops and gave more power to laypeople. These two denominations agreed on the essential truths of Christianity but couldn’t see eye to eye on how the church should be organized.
In 1889 a group of United Brethren bishops and pastors, upset by changes to the United Brethren Constitution, left to form the church of the United Brethren in Christ (Old Constitution), a denomination that still exists today (although they have dropped the “Old Constitution” from their name).
Pictures: Charts showing splits in the Evangelical Association and United Brethren Church
- Slide 11: If the 1800s were about splitting up, the 1900s were about getting back together.
After spending some time apart, The United Evangelical Church and the Evangelical Association realized that what they held in common was far more important than what they disagreed on. So in 1922, The United Evangelical Church rejoined the Evangelical Association.
Likewise, a century after splitting up, The Methodist Episcopal Church; The Methodist Protestant Church; and The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, who were united in their essential beliefs, decided to set aside past differences. And, in 1939, the three churches came together and formed The Methodist Church.
For decades, the Evangelical Association and The United Brethren Church had noticed that they had a lot in common. In 1946 the two denominations decided that their ministries would be more effective if they joined together. So they became The Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB).
Pictures: Charts showing the mergers that formed The Methodist Church and The Evangelical United Brethren Church
- Slide 12: After nearly two hundred years of close relations and similar policies and beliefs, The Methodist Church and The Evangelical United Brethren Church worked out a merger in 1968. The new denomination is known as The United Methodist Church.
The new denomination adopted as its symbol the “cross and flame.” The cross represents Christ, while the flame represents the Holy Spirit. The flame also refers to John Wesley’s experience at Aldersgate Street, where he felt his heart “strangely warmed.” Finally, the two tongues of the flame represent The Methodist Church and The Evangelical United Brethren Church—the two denominations that came together to form The United Methodist Church.
Pictures: Chart showing the merger that formed The United Methodist Church; the symbol of The United Methodist Church
- Slide 13: Today The United Methodist Church works alongside other Methodist denominations, such as the AME, AMEZ, and CME churches, through organizations such as the World Methodist Council and Pan Methodist Association. And we continue to bring new churches into the United Methodist family. At the 2004 General Conference, for example, The Protestant Methodist Church of Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in western Africa officially joined The United Methodist Church.
Picture: Africa, with Cote D’Ivoire highlighted
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