Jan
24
2019
One of the largest was the formation of The Methodist Church when the Methodist Episcopal Church; the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and the Methodist Protestant Church joined in 1939. This was the culmination of some 50 years of negotiations and failed attempts, all while the three churches were engaged in a number of joint ventures including a hymnal. The general conference would continue to be the legislative power, meeting every four years, though it was now composed of equal numbers of lay and clergy elected from every Annual Conference. Six Jurisdictional Conferences were formed to elect bishops and to help Annual Conferences work on joint projects. It was understood that this Central conference would eventually be phased out. The council of bishops consisted of all the bishops from every jurisdiction, and to check their power a Judicial Council was formed to rule on whether actions of the bishops or annual conference were allowed by the Constitution, and to act as a court of appeal for decisions by the bishops. The Church had a very large mission program, both overseas and in the US. As World War II was in full swing, in 1940 the Methodist Committee on Relief was formed, first focusing on relief efforts in war ravaged Europe, but expanding to relief efforts for those suffering all around the world. Some of the ME South churches decided not to join the Methodist Church and formed their own Southern Methodist Church. The new Church had a membership of about 7.4 million people.
In 1946 the historically German speaking Evangelical Church and United Brethren came together to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB). Both denominations had practically eliminated German worship services, and their structures were similar (along the basic Methodist model of having Conferences and bishops, though in the new church Bishops were elected for specific terms, not for life as in the Methodist Church) so the merger went smoothly. Membership of this new church was 705,000. The church had an extensive overseas mission program, and two home missions: Red Bird in Kentucky and McCurdy School in Santa Cruz, New Mexico near Espanola.
In 1947, though no mergers were involved, the Wesleyan Methodist Connection changed its name to the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Similarly in 1954 the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church changed its name to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1956 The Methodist Church authorized the ordination of women. Previously a few had been “grandmothered” in from the Methodist Protestant Church. Also in 1956 the EUB’s and the Methodists began talks on a merger. The Methodists were also talking with the Episcopal Church about a union, while the EUB’s were also talking with the Church of the Brethren, the Church of God in North America and the United Presbyterian Church.
In 1966 the EUB’s and the Methodists both dropped talks with other denominations, and their General Conferences were held in the same building at the same time. One of the main concerns was that the 800,000 members EUB’s would disappear among the 10,000,000 Methodists. But differences were ironed out and the resolution of merger was passed and sent to the Annual Conferences.
In 1968 the Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Pilgrim Holiness Church united to form the Wesleyan Church.
In April 1968 a General Conference made up of representatives from the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church saw the inauguration of the United Methodist Church. (Note that the “United” in the name came from the Evangelic United Brethren). It was in memory of that event that I started this series on the history of our denomination.
