Number 164 150th Anniversary of the Washington Conference to be Celebrated in Baltimore The 150th anniversary of the founding of the Washington Conference will be marked with events in Baltimore on October 18 and 19. The event is entitled, “Remember, Rejoice, Renew and Celebrate the Washington Conference.” The Washington Conference, a segregated, African-American annual conference, was established on October 31, 1864 at Sharp Street Church in Baltimore. It merged with the Baltimore Conference in 1965 to form the Baltimore-Washington Conference. A luncheon celebration will be held on Saturday, October 18 from 1 to 5 p.m. at Martin’s West, 6817 Dogwood Road, Windsor Mill, Md. The cost is $50 per person and reservations are required. To register, please contact Joyce King at bishopmatthewsoffice@ bwc.org or 410-290-7300. More information on the event is available at www.bwcumc.org/events/ remember_rejoice_renew. Bishop Warner Brown, Jr., presiding bishop of the California-Nevada Conference and a Baltimore native, will be the keynote speaker. He currently serves as president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops. The Saturday event will also feature exhibits, special music, and a history-related presentation. The weekend commemoration will continue on Sunday, October 19, with a worship service at Sharp Street UMC, located at the corner of Dolphin and Etting Streets in Baltimore. For more information, please contact the church office at [email protected] or by phone at 410-523-7200. October 2014 College was affiliated with the Washington Conference, and helped found what is now the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, in the former Delaware Conference. Morgan College became a Maryland state college (now Morgan State University) in the late 1930s, and the Morgan Christian Center opened adjacent to the campus in 1941. Sharp Street Memorial Church traces its origins to 1795. The congregation hosted the first meeting of the Washington Annual Conference in 1864 (see front page story on the Washington Conference Sesquicentennial celebrations), and founded the N. M. Carroll Home for the Aged and Mt. Auburn Cemetery. Church members played significant roles in the Civil Rights Movement. The new Washington, D.C. Historic Sites are the Georgetown Cluster and Asbury UMC. The Georgetown Cluster includes five historic locations: Dumbarton UMC, Mount Zion UMC, the Old Congress Street MPC, the Old Methodist Burying Grounds (aka Mount Zion Cemetery), and Lorenzo Dow’s grave. Dumbarton UMC traces its origins to the introduction of Methodism into what is now the District of Columbia, in 1772. Mount Zion and Congress Street, which are also recognized in the Georgetown Cluster, came out of Dumbarton. Mount Zion UMC is the oldest African American congregation of any denomination in D.C., founded in 1813. Some of its earliest members were enslaved and some were free. Congress Street Methodist Protestant Church was Baltimore-Washington Conference Registers Historic Sites The Baltimore-Washington Conference has designated six new United Methodist Historic Sites, two in Baltimore, two in Washington, D.C., one in Carroll County, Md., and one in Baltimore County, Md. The Baltimore sites are Morgan College and Christian Center, and Sharp Street Memorial Church. Morgan College and Christian Center is located on the second site of Morgan College, the successor to the Centenary Bible Institute (founded in 1866). Morgan Sanctuary of the old Congress Street Methodist Protestant Church. The building is little changed since its construction in 1829-1830. Courtesy of Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist, Washington, D. C. (Photo by Jane Donovan) cont. on page 2 The Northeastern United Methodist Historical Bulletin Published 4 times a year by the Northeastern Jurisdictional Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church Editor: Jane Donovan 3710 Swallowtail Drive Morgantown, WV 26508-8821 304-594-3914 (home) 304-594-3915 (fax) [email protected] All items for publication should be sent to the Editor. Subscriptions Office: Subscription requests or address changes should be sent to: J. Leonard Bachelder 37 School Street Merrimac MA 01860-1907 978-346-8410 [email protected] Subscribers requesting change of address should give both old and new addresses with zip code. If possible, please return your old address label with your request. DEADLINE FOR THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE BULLETIN: December 1, 2014 Letter from the President Dear History and Archive Friends, I hope that you all are doing well and have had a good summer. We had a good summer but it seemed like it went by too fast. My kids certainly feel like the summer went too fast and they are not ready to go back to school. The end of the summer and the beginning of fall is a good time to get back in the routine. I know that you all are working hard in your various conferences in the work of Archives and History. The work that we have is a very important work within the church. Psalm 149 begins with these words, “Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.” This psalm reminds us of the importance of gathering as the people of God in regular worship services. The importance of our work as historians is remembering the times and the celebrations that we have had as the people of God. Without our important work of recording history, these gatherings could be forgotten, so I want to encourage all of you in your work as historians. Remember that we are recording and remembering the gatherings of the people of God for those who follow us. May God bless all of you, Matthew Loyer cont. from page 1 established in 1830. Several members of Congress Street played significant roles in founding the Methodist Protestant denomination. The building now houses a Christian Science congregation. The Old Methodist Burying Grounds were purchased by the Northeastern Jurisdictional Georgetown Methodists in 1808 Commission on Archives and History for the burial of its members, Officers for the 2009-2012 both black and white. After Oak Quadrennium Executive Committee: Hill Cemetery opened next door, President: Matthew Loyer in 1849, white burials ceased, Vice President: Gary Dickson a number of white graves were Secretary: Joseph DiPaolo moved to Oak Hill, and the Treasurer: Philip Lawton property was leased to Mount Archivist: Jessie Smith Bulletin Editor: Jane Donovan Zion UMC for its exclusive use. A Immediate Past President: Janice Ulmer crypt in the cemetery is thought At-Large Members: to have been used as a hiding Leslie Reynman place for persons escaping from slavery. Eccentric Methodist evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777-1834) died at the home of Congress Street MPC member George Haller on February 2, 1834 and was buried at Holmead’s Cemetery. When Holmead’s was abandoned, philanthropist William W. Corcoran paid to have Dow’s remains disinterred and moved to Oak Hill Cemetery. Asbury UMC has occupied the same site at 11th and K Streets NW in downtown Washington since 1836. It was established by African American members who left Foundry UMC. It hosted the second The Old Methodist Burying Ground (Mt. Zion Washington Conference, in 1866, and is the home congregation of Bishop Cemetery) – Photo by Jane Donovan Matthew Wesley Clair. The new site in Carroll County, Maryland is the Robert Strawbridge Cluster. The Strawbridge Shrine was long ago recognized as a United Methodist Heritage Landmark, but the new Historic Site designation includes the log cont. on page 3 From the General Secretary Greetings, NEJ CAH! I’m delighted to be sending this first posting to the NEJ CAH Bulletin as the newly-elected General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History. It’s an honor and a privilege to be in this office. I’m grateful to Bob Williams whose mentoring is helping get my feet on the ground and the rest of the GCAH staff who are making sure said feet are daily headed in the right direction. In thinking about the work we do as archivists and historians, I’ve brought some of what I experienced as pastor and librarian at Historic St. George’s UM Church in Philadelphia with me—especially the Ben Franklin Bridge. No, not the bridge itself, it wouldn’t fit well here in the Drew University forest. I’m thinking of when the bridge was constructed and all the change and uncertainty that stirred in the life of St. George’s Church. Church membership had diminished from the thousands to less than 100. The Delaware River Bridge Commission didn’t wince at all at the thought of demolishing St. George’s in the name of progress in the mid-1920s. Who’d miss it? Many thought its best days were in the distant past and we’re building for the future, right? Thank heavens for a small group of church folk and Bishop Thomas Neely who took up the cause of historic preservation. Together they fought a battle through the courts and eventually saved the oldest Methodist church building in the U.S. from the wrecking ball. The bridge builders were ordered to revise the path of the bridge. Since that time, St. George’s, among all its other historical notoriety, is known as “the church that moved the bridge.” Nice story. But not in the way you might think. In considering our work as General, Jurisdictional and Annual Conference Commissions on Archives and History, in giving leadership to the tasks of caring for and promoting the historical interests The United Methodist Church (Para. 1703.1), it strikes me that the reverse of St. George’s storied bridge tale is also true. Our work isn’t simply marshalling the means to be the church that moves the bridge, but it is also about serving as the bridge that moves the Church! Our work is being the bridge that connects us to our rich Wesleyan birthright and heritage. Our work spans the challenges of the times in which we live with the core of our “the people called Methodist” identity, grounded in the prevenient grace of God and the lived-experience of such love as the driving force in our lives. Our work must not be mired in nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake but as the basis for crossing-over to the places where God always seems to be calling us, with what has been bequeathed to us in tow. And, the Lord help us , the Spirit stirring us, this “ministry of memory” as Bob Williams so wonderfully called it, may cause us to change a course or two. How fortunate and blessed I feel to be working with you on this next leg of the journey. – Fred Day cont. from page 2 meetinghouse site, which features an 1982-constructed replica and statues of Robert and Elizabeth Strawbridge; Bethel Church (now New Hope UMC) at Sam’s Creek, built in 1821; the Andrew Poulson House, where the second Methodist class established by Robert Strawbridge met, and the site of the “Strawbridge Oak,” under which the itinerant frequently preached; the Henry Willis House, where the 1801 Baltimore Conference convened; the John Evans House, home to the first Methodist convert in America, who accepted Christ under the ministrations of Elizabeth Strawbridge while her husband was away on a preaching trip. Strawbridge’s first Methodist class met at the Evans House, which, in 1978, was moved to the grounds of the Strawbridge Shrine in order to preserve it from developers. The sixth member of the Strawbridge Cluster is Stone Chapel on Pipe Creek, which dates to 1783. Members of Stone Chapel founded the Hephzibah Society, a forerunner of the Methodist Protestant Church. The Baltimore County site is Perry Hall Mansion, the home of Harry Dorsey Gough and his wife, Prudence Carnan Ridgely. It was at Perry Hall that Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury met, in December 1784, to plan the Christmas Conference. The Goughs were important benefactors for early American Methodism. o The Strawbridge Shrine Association Annual Meeting will be Saturday, October 4, from 10 a.m. until noon at New Hope Bethel UMC, 3001 Hooper Road, New Windsor, Md. The guest speaker will be Bishop Marcus Matthews. Lunch is available following the meeting, by reservation only, at $15 per person. For more information, please contact Jim Talley at 410-675-8998 or Lou Piel at [email protected] o The Strawbridge Shrine Association also invites you to their annual candlelight worship service, which will be held in the replica of the historic log meeting house. The event will be Sunday, December 14 at 4:30 p.m. at the Strawbridge Shrine, 2650 Strawbridge Shrine Lane, off Wakefield Valley Road, off Route 31, New Windsor, Md. For more information, please contact Lou Piel at [email protected] o The Boehm’s Chapel 29th annual Apple Fest will be held Saturday, October 11, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., rain or shine, on the grounds of Boehm’s United Methodist Church, 13 West Boehms Road, Willow Street, PA. Admission and Parking are free. Tents offering homemade apple butter, baked goods, homemade ice cream, vendors crafts, kids’ games and luncheon fare will be scattered throughout the campus. Charleston WV 25328 P. O. 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