The Council of Bishops in Historical Perspective: Celebrating 75 Years of the Life and Leadership of the Council of Bishops

By William B. Oden

Behind the scenes with the Council of Bishops

Two authors who have served as a United Methodist bishop (William B. Oden) and as General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History (Robert J. Williams) collaborate on a history of the Council. They set the context for the development of what became the Council of Bishops in 1939 and recount the evolution of that body in recognition of its 75th anniversary. Includes photographs, a complete listing of all bishops of The United Methodist Church and predecessor bodies, the names of Council officers and bishops who delivered the Episcopal Address at General Conference, and an index.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Nov 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781501801013

William B. Oden

William B. Oden (B.A. Oklahoma State; M.Div., Harvard Divinity School; Th.D., Boston University School of Theology) has served the church in parish ministry, as a delegate to Jurisdictional and General conferences, and as bishop. He has been president of the Council of Bishops, a member of the executive committee of the World Methodist Council, and co-chair of the International Methodist/Anglican dialogue. He is the author of several books and co-edited Vision and Supervision with the late Bishop James K. Mathews.

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Halftitle

THE COUNCIL OF BISHOPS

IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Title page

THE COUNCIL OF BISHOPS

IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Celebrating 75 Years of the Life and Leadership of the Council of Bishops

of The United Methodist Church

William B. Oden

Robert J. Williams

Abingdon Press

Nashville

Copyright

the council of bishops in historical perspective

Copyright © 2014 by Abingdon Press

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Permission requests should be addressed to Abingdon Press, P.O. Box 17890, 2022 Rosa Parks Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37208, or e-mailed to [e-mail].

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Requested

ISBN 978-1-501-80101-3

Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the or Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.

Photos, unless otherwise noted, are courtesy of the General Commission on Archives and History.

Photo on page 221 courtesy of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.

Photo on page 222 courtesy of United Methodist Communications. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Used by permission.

Photo on page 228 courtesy of United Methodist Communications. A UMNS photo by Stephen Drachler. Used by permission.

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Contents

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 Beginnings

Chapter 2 Pre-Council Collegiality of Bishops and the Division of Methodism

Chapter 3 The Road to Union and the Birth of the Council

Chapter 4 The Formation of the Council

Chapter 5 Council Life: 1940–48

Chapter 6 Council Life in the 1950s

Chapter 7 Council Life: 1960–64

Chapter 8 Council Life: 1965–69

Chapter 9 Council Life in the 1970s

Chapter 10 Council Life in the 1980s

Chapter 11 Council Life: 1990–95

Chapter 12 Council Life: 1996–99

Chapter 13 Council Life in the New Millennium, 2000–2004

Chapter 14 Council Life: 2004–08

Chapter 15 Council Life: 2008–14

Chapter 16 Ecumenical Leadership of the Council of Bishops

Chapter 17 Potpourri

Chapter 18 Stories of the Council

Chapter 19 Pending

Appendix I

Appendix II

Alphabetical List of Bishops

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to express appreciation to the Council of Bishops for authorizing this study and The United Methodist Publishing House for its willingness to publish this book.

We also wish to express appreciation to the Support/Advisory Team for enriching this study. The Support/Advisory team is composed of longtime bishops whose experiences and memories of Council life have given both guidance and gentle direction to the authors.

Two members of the team have died during the study, both of whom greatly added to this history. They are Bishop Wayne Clymer, who died November 25, 2013, and whose experience as an Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) scholar added a dimension it would not otherwise have had. Bishop Jack Tuell, who died January 10, 2014, was a carrier of Council life and leadership. Both were elected to the Episcopacy in 1972, and both died less than two months apart, thus each serving on the Council for more than forty-two years. Other members of the Support/Advisory team include:

Bishop Judith Craig

Bishop Emilio J. M. de Carvalho

Bishop William Boyd Grove

Bishop John Wesley Hardt

Bishop Neil L. Irons

Bishop Sharon Zimmerman Rader

Bishop Melvin G. Talbert

Bishop Woodie W. White

Bishop Joseph H. Yeakel

We also express appreciation to the staff of the General Commission on Archives and History for assisting with the research, including Dale Patterson, Mark Shenise, and Frances Lyons-Bristol.

We appreciate Bishop Rüdiger Minor for his invaluable help with the narrative on the Russia Initiative. We appreciate Dr. James Kirby and Dr. Russell Richey, Methodist historians, for their invaluable knowledge of early Methodist history; and Dr. James Stein, EUB historian, and Timothy Binkley, Perkins School of Theology archivist, who were both vital resource persons and consultants as they drew on their considerable knowledge of Evangelical United Brethren history. It goes without saying that while these historians were very helpful, all inaccuracies in the chapters on early Methodist and EUB history are the total responsibility of the authors.

Appreciation also goes to Marji (Mrs. Jack) Tuell and Bishop Neil Irons for their research of the Bishops’ Hymn. Also we wish to acknowledge the help of Jo Ann McClain, administrative assistant to the Council of Bishops, who was constantly available and instrumental in locating much needed information.

It is the hope of the authors that this study will help the church better understand the leadership role of the Council of Bishops in the history of United Methodism and its antecedent denominations as well as the history of the Council’s leadership.

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

This book does not begin with the constitutional birth of the Council of Bishops at Union in 1939.

It is not a history of the 597 persons elected to the episcopacy (including United Brethren, Evangelical, and since 1946, Evangelical United Brethren bishops).

It is a history of the Council of Bishops in historical perspective beginning much earlier.

English Wesleyans began to flow into the American colonies in the 1760s. Class meetings and societies were formed. Lay preachers and lay leaders served their needs, except for Holy Communion. Leaders rose up among them, especially young Francis Asbury, an English Wesleyan sent to the colonies as a missionary by Wesley.

Methodism grew, still related to the Church of England. Then came the Revolutionary War. Anglican clergy who had also served the American Wesleyans scurried back to England leaving only a few behind to serve the Anglicans and Wesleyans.

The pressure built on John Wesley to provide leadership for America, and he ordained a general superintendent and others to lead the American church. They arrived with Wesley’s instructions. The Rev. Dr. Thomas Coke as a general superintendent was to ordain Asbury as deacon, elder, and joint superintendent. Wesley also included instructions for worship, and Articles of Religion.

Asbury refused to accept Wesley’s authority on its own merit but insisted on being elected a general superintendent by the American Methodist pastors in conference. The newly elected bishop invited his friend Philip Otterbein to share by the laying on of hands. The EUB strand was present from the beginning.

With Asbury’s ordinations in three successive days at the 1784 Christmas Conference, not only was a new denomination born in America but also a new type of episcopacy, similar to, yet different from, all other forms of the episcopacy to that point in history.

This episcopacy had elements of apostolic history through the Church of England, a church in which Wesley was a priest and remained so until his death.

This episcopacy was not endowed or appointed by kings or cardinals nor consecrated by the laying on of hands by bishops understood to be in the apostolic succession. It was not defined as a priest or prelate.

This episcopacy was elected by the clergy in conference by ballot in a democratic nation. Thus the American Methodist episcopacy had its roots in both English episcopal tradition and American democracy.

This episcopacy was personal, collegial, and conciliar from the start.

It was personal as each person (beginning with Asbury) itinerated throughout the connection presiding over conferences at every level.

It was collegial. As more bishops were elected, it was determined that there was not a hierarchy of bishops. They were all equal. No junior bishops.

It was conciliar, beginning with Coke and Asbury. While Coke did not itinerate, he and Asbury shared presiding at conferences and represented American Methodism together in state visits. As more bishops were elected to lead a growing church, they would meet together to determine itineration routes as they shared the responsibilities of leadership.

The few bishops conferring became a formal Board of Bishops. Then in 1844, with the division of the church, the College of Bishops in the South came into being. With union in 1939, the Council of Bishops was born.

Parallel to this progression was the Wesleyan German-speaking churches, the United Brethren in Christ, and the Evangelical Association. Then with union in 1946 came the Evangelical United Brethren Church, and in 1968 with further union with The Methodist Church, and The United Methodist Church was created.

The EUB episcopacies were similar to the Methodist bishops and are included in the list of bishops of The United Methodist Church found in the front of the Book of Discipline.

While the episcopacy changes with the needs of the church, the third restrictive rule in the Constitution is clear:

The General Conference shall not change or alter any part or rule of our government so as to do away with episcopacy or destroy the plan of our itinerant general superintendency. (Par. 19 Article III)

The Constitution is also clear that:

There shall be a Council of Bishops composed of all bishops of The United Methodist Church. The council shall meet at least once a year and plan for the general oversight and promotion of the temporal and spiritual interests of the entire Church and for carrying into effect the rules, regulations, and responsibilities prescribed and enjoined by the General Conference and in accord with the provisions set forth in this Plan of Union. (Par. 47 Article III)

All accounts of the meetings of the Council of Bishops included in this volume are from the minutes of the Council. These minutes are housed at the Methodist Archives Center and Library at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, under the administration and care of the General Commission on Archives and History.

An unofficial record of Council minutes are also kept in the Council of Bishops office. While incomplete, they were sent for the authors’ use. Following completion of this history, they will be returned to the Council office. The gaps were filled in by Dr. Robert J. Williams and the staff of Archives and History. At the spring 2010 Council meeting, minutes became electronic. The bylaws call for paper minutes to be placed in the archives at the end of each quadrennium.

In the process of researching the minutes, a number of very significant papers were discovered, written by Council leaders on the role of the Council growing out of the constitutional mandate. The Council self-study was precipitated by the 1960–64 General Conference Study on Episcopacy. When the Council received an advanced copy of the study in 1963, it created concerns that led to the Harmon paper, written by Bishop Nolan Harmon in 1963, and this began an eight-year time of intense study by the Council on its role and responsibility in leading the Church.

The Council of Bishops soon developed a consistent rhythm for their meetings. Some bishops would come in a day early for committee meetings, the Executive Committee usually met Sunday morning, and the memorial service (memorializing bishops and spouses who had died since the last Council meeting) and a family (community) dinner with family of those who were memorialized being special guests of the Council. Monday morning began with worship—as did every morning—followed by the opening plenary, which usually included the president’s address and a report on the agenda by either the secretary or the Executive Committee. In the late 1990s, daily covenant groups were established in order to help an ever-growing Council deepen collegiality. Business meetings varied with executive sessions often held as order of the day. Usually the area hosting the meeting provided one evening of entertainment, and there was also a midweek free evening without business. Council meetings generally ended with the Finance Committee report and the president giving a closing message. The meetings typically ended by noon on Friday. Early in the 2000 decade, the Council decided that every morning worship service should be a celebration of the Eucharist, a tradition that continues to this day.

On Minutes and Memory

There were well over one hundred Council meetings during the seventy-five years of Council life. The Council also met on call at the General Conference. The minutes of a Council meeting usually cover ten to fifteen pages in summary form of agenda items. However, all the various papers, standing committee reports, other committee and task force reports, the Colleges of Bishops reports, and additional materials often bring the total minutes of a Council meeting to four hundred to six hundred pages. Over the four years of doing research for this history, much has been learned about Council operations from the minutes as the primary source for this history. It has been impossible to cover all the materials compiled in the one hundred fifty-plus Council meetings. No doubt other writers would cover different agenda items. Internal Council reports were considered to be less important than reports affecting the entire Church. Because the minutes were the primary source of information, there was no need for general endnotes related to Council minutes.

It is important to note that while the primary source of Council life and leadership for seventy-five years has been the Council minutes, memories of long-time Council members, especially those serving on the Support Advisory Team, have been very important. While sometimes memories may differ on major events, they provide the human elements of Council life, giving it flesh and blood.

Major themes ran through Council life for three quarters of a century. These include racism, the continued need to restructure a growing Council trying to serve a broad and diverse church, the nature of collegiality with continual attempts to address this need through retreats and covenant groups, allowing more time for personal interaction. Beginning in the 1970s, continual tension between the Council and boards and agencies, the issue of human sexuality after 1972, the need to provide continuity in Council leadership through continued movement toward a four-year president, and finally a sense of frustration by General Conference wanting strong leadership from the Council while at the same time being fearful of its power. The Council also continued to search for ways to become more global in its leadership and more culturally inclusive by providing translators for Central Conference bishops.

The Council and Retired Bishops

From the beginning of the Council, the issue of retired bishops has been at the forefront. The Southern College of Bishops allowed retired bishops to vote, the Northern Board did not. This was the first issue addressed by the Council in 1940. As the Northern bishops were more numerous than the Southern, the non-vote prevailed. Bishop Bromley Oxnam was instrumental in this vote. In 1944, after considerable discussion, the Council wanted to reconsider its action. Strong Northern bishops, including Edwin H. Hughes, supported the change to allow retired bishops to vote. However, Bishop Oxnam went to the 1944 General Conference with the intention of getting legislation placed in the Discipline that said retired bishops were full members of the Council but without vote; the legislation passed. In 1945, the Judicial Council upheld that General Conference action. In 1945, a group of bishops went to the Judicial Council asking for reconsideration. They included Bishops Hughes, John M. Moore, and Frank Smith. They argued that General Conference did not have the authority to determine the internal structure of the COB. Their appeal failed. While the issue would periodically be on the Council table, it was not until the growth of the Council reached the point where retired bishops greatly outnumbered active bishops that many active bishops felt the retired ones overwhelmed the Council in plenary discussion and debate of the issues.

In the fall of 2012, because of the growth of the Council and the continued question about the role of retired bishops, the Council of Bishops after extensive and emotional debate voted to go to one Council meeting a year and one gathering of active bishops to discuss area concerns.

It is clear that from the beginning the Council has been a constantly changing organism, with a third to a fourth of the Council changing every four years with new bishops arriving and newly retired bishops moving to a new status.

Chapter 1 Beginnings

CHAPTER 1

BEGINNINGS

The Great Awakening (1730–60) created a new religious fervor—a fertile soil for the planting of new religious bodies, several of which had origins in European pietism with distinctive American characteristics. Among these fledgling bodies were the Methodists and two German-speaking groups: the Church of the United Brethren in Christ and the Evangelical Association.

All three movements intersected with similar spiritual disciplines and were led by elected bishops. All three were like streams that sometimes touched, other times ran parallel, partly came together, and then became one mighty river in 1968: The United Methodist Church, a denomination of more than 12 million global members.

This book is not a history of the several church unions. That has been done many times by competent historians. Nor is it a book on the history of and reflections upon the episcopacy. That too has been dealt with in books by historians James Kirby,¹ Russell Richey, and Thomas Frank.² Reflections on the episcopacy have also been the subject of significant books by Bishop James K. Mathews ³ and Bishop Roy Short.⁴ Neither is it a biography of the bishops. This too has been written by Bishop Roy Short and also Bishop Paul W. Milhouse.⁵

Rather, it is a history of the bishops in council, bishops leading the Church as a body and consulting with one another, bishops who moved from informal shared planning to formal boards and colleges, then to a constitutionally mandated Council of Bishops of The Methodist Church created by the union of three branches of Methodism in 1939 and strengthened and enlarged by the union of The Methodist Church and The Evangelical United Brethren Church in 1968.

Methodist Beginnings in America

Methodist historian John H. Wigger looks back on the beginnings of American Methodism with the following summary:

Methodists achieved a virtual miracle of growth, rising from fewer than 1,000 members to more than 250,000. In 1775 fewer than one out of every 800 Americans was a Methodist; by 1812 Methodists numbered one out of every 36 Americans. By 1830 membership stood at nearly half a million. While other denominations [also] expanded . . . the Methodists gained an ever larger share of the religious market. In 1775 Methodists constituted only 2 percent of the total church membership in America. By 1850 their share had increased to more than 34 percent. This growth stunned the older denominations. At mid-century, American Methodism was nearly half again as large as any other Protestant body, and almost ten times the size of the Congregationalists, America’s largest denomination in 1776.⁶

It may seem a bit strange to begin our story of the Council of Bishops with the beginnings of the early Wesleyan bodies in America. But to understand the structure and role of the Council of Bishops, one must look at the soil that gave the Council roots.

Snapshots of Early American Methodism

1760–1768: Methodists from England and Ireland made their way to the colonies. Well-known historical names sprang up across the Eastern seaboard. Methodist class meetings and societies arose spontaneously among laypeople. The names Strawbridge, Embury, Heck, and Webb were prominent in the accounts.⁷

October 27, 1771: Francis Asbury answered Wesley’s call to go to America as a Methodist missionary. He landed in Philadelphia with Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey, and he never left America. He did not return to England during the Revolutionary War, as he began itinerating immediately among the preachers and circuits.

October 10, 1772: Asbury states in his journal: I received a letter from Mr. Wesley, in which he required a strict attendance to discipline; and appointed me to act as assistant.⁸

July 14-16, 1773: First American Methodist conference; held at St. George’s Church, Philadelphia. Major issues and problems discussed were Wesley’s authority over the American church, the problem of lay pastors administering baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and concern about lack of discipline in class meetings and societies. Conferences were held annually in American Methodism beginning in 1773.

1773–76: Circuits were set up with traveling preachers appointed by Wesley’s assistants: Thomas Rankin and Francis Asbury.

In 1775, the backwoodsman Daniel Boone blazed a trail through the Cumberland Gap of the Allegheny Mountains. Adventurers poured through it heading into the western frontier. Methodist preachers came with them, stopping at every settlement to create classes and societies. They also helped create a new religious institution, the camp meeting, which became more prominent following the 1801 gathering at Cane Ridge.

With the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Thomas Rankin and others sided with Wesley’s Tory politics. Asbury aligned himself with American revolutionaries but went into hiding in Delaware for part of the duration of the war. American Methodism had six circuits.

As the war of American independence raged until the Yorktown surrender (October 14, 1781), most Anglican clergy in America went back to England. Few ordained clergy and no Methodist pastors were left to administer the sacraments. American Methodism, led by Francis Asbury, urged Wesley to bring order and discipline to the fledgling body of Methodists in America.

In April 1784, Wesley met with Thomas Coke who volunteered to carry Wesley’s orders to America. Based on the practice of the ancient church of Alexandria, Wesley had decided that he had the authority of a scriptural Episcopas to ordain, and further that bishops and elders were of the same order.

On September 1 and 2, 1784, Wesley ordained Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey as deacon, then elder, and Thomas Coke as joint general superintendent for America. He also ordered the American Methodist preachers to meet together and hear his letter to the American Brethren. Wesley had written instructions naming Francis Asbury as joint superintendent with Coke.

The newly ordained clergy from England set sail for America on September 18, 1784, arriving November 3. They carried Wesley’s instructions to our brethren in North America, confirming Coke and Asbury as joint superintendents of the American church. They also carried:

• a new book of common prayer that Wesley called The Sunday Service for Methodists,

• a collection of psalms and hymns,

• Wesley’s revision of the Articles of Religion, reducing them from 39 to 24,

and certificates of ordination.

Wesley’s directive called preachers together in conference to hear his instructions and act upon them. Coke and Asbury met at Barratt’s Chapel in Delaware on November 14 and laid the plans that resulted in the Christmas Conference later that year. While they sought to follow Wesley’s instructions, Asbury insisted on the conference so that he and Coke could be elected as joint superintendents. John Dickens moved that the name be the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a new American church was born. A school named Cokesbury was founded, based on Wesley’s Kingswood Academy.

Asbury summarized the conference in his journal entry for December 24, 1784:

We then rode to Baltimore where we met a few preachers. It was agreed to form ourselves into an Episcopal Church, and to have superintendents, elders, and deacons. When the conference was seated, Dr. Coke and myself were unanimously elected to the superintendency of the church, and my ordination followed, after being previously ordained deacon and elder.⁹

It should also be noted that Asbury asked his friend Phillip Otterbein to share in the ordinations.

The Leadership of Bishops in Early Methodism

The seeds of the Council of Bishops were planted in early Wesleyan bodies, especially in the manner in which bishops related to each other. Thomas Coke rarely presided over annual conferences, did not make appointments, or itinerate through the connection. Francis Asbury was the only American bishop who traveled the entire connection from 1784 until his death in 1816. Richard Whatcoat was elected a bishop in 1800, but Asbury referred to him as the Junior Bishop. They did consult about the division of itinerating through the connection and presiding at various conferences. According to Whatcoat’s memoirs for 1801: We began our conference at Lynn July 17 and closed on 19, I ordained 2 Deacons and 2 Elders; we had great peace and harmony, . . . we met Bishop Asbury and were together a few days.¹⁰

With Whatcoat’s health diminishing, the General Conference of 1808 elected William Curtis McKendree as bishop. Interesting circumstances surround the election of this wilderness presiding elder who had a booming voice. As he finished a powerful sermon at General Conference, Asbury was heard to say to a pastor nearby that sermon will make him a bishop, to which Jesse Lee replied, No, that comment by father Asbury will make him a bishop! Asbury and McKendree did have a close relationship even though McKendree refused to accept Asbury’s title for him as Junior Bishop.

There were only fourteen bishops elected by the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) from 1784 to 1844, the year the Church divided into the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. After McKendree was elected bishop in 1808, and following Asbury’s death in March of 1816, Enoch George and Robert R. Roberts were elected at General Conference one month later. They both refused to fashion a plan or to schedule their itinerancy and some historians believe the general superintendency ended with them.¹¹ In 1820, Joshua Soule was elected but refused consecration because of disagreeing with the General Conference decision to have annual conferences elect presiding elders. Soule believed this diminished the authority of the episcopacy. In 1824, he was again elected and was consecrated after General Conference rescinded its earlier action. Elijah Hedding was also elected. John Emory and James Andrew were elected in 1832, and Beverly Waugh and Thomas Asbury Morris in 1836. The last two bishops elected before the split were Leonidus Hamline and Edmund S. Janes at the General Conference of 1844.

The limited number of bishops meant that they were rarely together except at General Conference. While they would see each other as they traveled, the meetings were brief and basically personal rather than substantive about ways to lead the Church.

The General Conference of 1824 passed a resolution that:

It is highly expedient for the general superintendents, at every session of general conference, and as far as to them may appear practicable, in the intervals of the sessions, annually, to meet in council to form their plan of traveling through their charge, whether in a circuit after each or by dividing the connexion into several episcopal departments, with one bishop or more in each department, as to them may appear proper and most conducive to the general good, and the better to enable them fully to perform the great work of their administration in the general superintendency, and to exchange and unite their views upon all affairs connected with the general interest of the Church.

The General Conference did not know that the bishops probably had already been doing what the conference asked. The bishops met two years after the passage of the resolution, which was the beginning of the Board of Bishops. Results of the meeting were not entirely satisfactory as we shall see.¹²

The Formation of African American Methodism

In 1816, a significant breach in the MEC occurred over race. The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church was organized by Richard Allen and colleagues. Allen was one of two blacks at the Christmas Conference; the other was Harry Hoosier. The AME Church was organized at Bethel Church in Philadelphia after Allen led blacks out of worship at Old St. George’s because they were told to sit in the back. William Stillwell and others formed the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church in New York City in 1819–20.

Early Beginnings of the United Brethren in Christ and The Evangelical Association

The two religious developments among the German-speaking population in the eighteenth century were outgrowths of the work of Philip William Otterbein and Martin Boehm, as well as the work of Jacob Albright. These efforts culminated in distinct denominations of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (UBC) in 1800 and The Evangelical Association (EA) in 1803.¹³

The United Brethren in Christ

The German Reformed Church in the early eighteenth century was steeped in the pietism that swept through Europe and greatly influenced John Wesley.

The United Brethren in Christ had its origins in the evangelistic work of Philip Otterbein and Martin Boehm. Otterbein came to America in 1752 as a German Reformed missionary. He settled near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Like Wesley, he sought a deeper religious experience. During a meeting, he experienced an awakening of God’s grace in his life. This did not please his Calvinistic colleagues, but he continued his German Reformed preaching. In 1774, he became pastor of the Second German Reformed Church in Baltimore, which he served until his death nearly forty years later. From this