Conservative Methodists?

[andrewstx]

Is that “Asbury”, as in Bishop Francis Asbury?

I feel very fortunate in growing up in what was a conservative evangelical Methodist church. The denomination I grew up in is called the Evangelical Congregational Church; originally it was called the Evangelical Association. It was organized by Jacob Albright/Jakob Albrecht in the late 1700’s-early 1800’s primarily for the German-speaking settlers of Pennsylvania.

Bishop Francis Asbury, the story goes, gave Albright his informal blessing while they were crossing the Susquehanna river together, IIRC. However, initially Albright was discouraged from the Methodist ordination he desired because he wanted to preach in his native German tongue. Still, even without Methodist ordination, the Evangelical Association was strongly Methodist in its teaching. Albright’s group underwent a merger with the United Brethren, but then a later split. The larger portion among the Albright/UB evangelicals merged with the Methodist church to become today’s United Methodist Church. The smaller portion stayed out of that merger to become the Evangelical Congregational Church I grew up in—conservative Methodist in all but name, while the larger group, with the Methodist name, became more theologically liberal in a way that I doubt the Wesleys, Asbury, or Albright would have recognized as what they intended the church to be.

Today, some ECC churches are generically Evangelical, but when I was younger, the services were more distinctly Methodist in theology and semi-liturgical. (Some ECC churches are returning now to more use of liturgy.)

Thanks for getting the spelling correct

There are a lot of what is called German Methodist churches here in Texas as well.
I think that when the Methodist church merged with the United Brethren they merged their names as well, becoming the UNITED Methodist church.

 

[AbideWithMe]

There are a lot of what is called German Methodist churches here in Texas as well.

That’s interesting.

I got some history out of chronological order last night when I wrote my above post about the Evangelical Association, the United Brethren in Christ, and the United Methodist Church. If anyone’s interested, the EA had a nasty, unnecessary split within itself in 1894, then partially reunited before formally merging with the United Brethren which formed the Evangelical United Brethren, the body that merged with the Methodist Church to form today’s United Methodist Church.

The Evangelical Congregational Church that I grew up in did not reunite with the rest of the EA, however. Normally I’d think of that refusal to reunite as a negative thing, and no doubt it was not ideal. But, as it happened, the ECC stayed theologically conservative in its Methodist teaching, while the merged churches did not, to a considerable extent.

Today, I’d love to see the Evangelical Congregational Church and the United Brethren in Christ, Old Constitution (two conservative bodies that stayed out of the Evangelical United Brethren + Methodist Church merger) work towards even greater involvement and influence with our UMC siblings, as well as greater acceptance of the charismatic gifts that were experienced by the early American Methodists. I think we need each other.