{"id":17568,"date":"2018-03-28T09:13:37","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T16:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=17568"},"modified":"2018-03-28T09:13:37","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T16:13:37","slug":"the-united-methodist-church-celebrates-50th-anniversary-of-historic-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/the-united-methodist-church-celebrates-50th-anniversary-of-historic-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"The United Methodist Church Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Historic Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nashville, Tennessee \u2013 Congregations across the connection are invited to celebrate the 50th anniversary commemorating the\u00a0event<\/a>\u00a0on April 23, 1968, when leaders of the Evangelical United Brethren Church and The Methodist Church declared the creation of a new denomination, The United Methodist Church.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
zSign for the 1968 Uniting Conference, image courtesy of General Commission on Archives and History.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the words \u201cLord of the Church, we are united in Thee, in Thy Church and now in The United Methodist Church,\u201d the new denomination was birthed at the constituting General Conference being held that year in Dallas. The words, said in unison over joined hands, by Bishop Reuben H. Mueller of the Evangelical United Brethren Church and Bishop Lloyd C. Wicke of The Methodist Church, signified the formation of one of the largest denominations in the world, representing 53 countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are celebrating 50 years since a historic coming together among likeminded Christians of different regions, languages, cultures and customs because of their common grounding in Wesleyan spirituality and practice,\u201d said the Rev. Fred Day, general secretary of the General Commission of Archives and History. \u201cThe historical event also marks the formation of a church free from the institutionalized segregation of the former Central Jurisdiction. Now white and African-American United Methodists lived into a Church sharing annual conferences, same bishops and same appointment systems as never before.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo observe the anniversary, the General Commission of Archives and History<\/a> and the General Commission on Religion and Race<\/a>, born with the merger to insure the inclusivity intended with the 1968 union, are collaborating on producing shared 50th anniversary resources,\u201d Day said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Evangelical United Brethren Church Bishop Reuben H. Mueller (left) and Methodist Bishop Lloyd C. Wicke join hands on April 23, 1968.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Commemorative events are set to occur at the conference, district and local church levels beginning April 22, the Sunday before the April 23 anniversary, through May 20, Heritage Sunday<\/a>. This year, the Heritage Sunday theme is \u201cJubilee: The 50th Anniversary of The United Methodist Church,\u201d giving congregations an opportunity to reflect on the importance of history while also vision casting about the future.<\/p>\n

Numerous resources<\/a> have been developed and made available specifically for the 50th anniversary of the uniting conference, including liturgical materials, the original uniting conference video<\/a>, and a reference guide<\/a> to the church\u2019s history. UMC.org, the official website of The United Methodist Church, is featuring anniversary content at UMC.org\/umc50<\/a>. A hashtag — #UMC50 \u2013 is being used for all anniversary-themed content across social media channels and the denomination\u2019s official Facebook page<\/a> is featuring Throwback Thursday (#TBT) content from the momentous event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope United Methodists across the connection will use the teaching and worship resources provided in this jubilee year,\u201d Day said.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

About the General Commission on Archives and History
\nThe\u00a0General Commission on Archives and History\u00a0(GCAH) gathers, preserves, and disseminates materials on the history of The United Methodist Church and its antecedents. It maintains archives and a library in which the historical records are kept.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

CONTACT:
\nCrystal Caviness
\nUnited Methodist Communications
\nccaviness@umcom.org<\/a>
\n615-742-5138<\/p>\n

Jay Rollins
\nGeneral Commission on Archives and History
\njrollins@gcah.org<\/a>
\n973-408-3189<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nashville, Tennessee \u2013 Congregations across the connection are invited to celebrate the 50th anniversary commemorating the\u00a0event\u00a0on April 23, 1968, when leaders of the Evangelical United Brethren Church and The Methodist Church declared the creation of a new denomination, The United Methodist Church. With the words \u201cLord of the Church, we are united in Thee, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":17569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,438],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-press-release"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/umc50_1210x680_preview-690x387.jpeg?fit=690%2C387&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-4zm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17568"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17573,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17568\/revisions\/17573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}