The United Methodist Church as
we know it today is the result of several mergers.
First, in 1939, the Methodist
Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, which you will remember
split over the issue of slavery, and the Methodist Protestant Church, which had
split off in 1828 over issues of congregational autonomy and the authority of
bishops, merged to form, simply, the Methodist Church.
Second, in 1946, the Church of
the United Brethren in Christ and the Evangelical Church merged to form the
Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) Church.
(It is important to remember that “Brethren” and “Evangelical” are used
in the names of many different churches.)
Finally, in 1968, the
Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged to form the
United Methodist Church. On April 23,
1968, at the uniting General Conference in Dallas, Texas, Bishop Reuben H.
Mueller from Evangelical United Brethren Church and Bishop Lloyd Christ Wicke
from The Methodist Church joined hands and
prayed, "Lord of the Church, we are united in Thee, in Thy Church and now
in The United Methodist Church."
As we look to the future the
greatest challenges that face us are our continued debate about human
sexuality, the continued decline of the Church in America, and our exponential
growth in Africa. However, we have
Christ’s promise that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the church. (Matthew
16:18)
