Church History - Part 3
Our United Brethren Heritage
The period of the American Revolution and the decades which followed were chaotic culturally and morally. The violence of the French Revolution (and our own), and the emergent ideas almost destroyed all the religious foundations of society.
John Wesley sent Francis Asbury to America in 1771. Dr. Thomas Cooke, a presbyter of the Church of England followed, “sent to be superintendent and to preside over the flock of Christ in America”. Dr. Cooke ordained Asbury on December 24, 1784. At the close of the American Revolution, there were 15,000 Methodists and 80 preachers. These decades, fortunately for America, were blessed with a new brand of pious evangelical pioneers who rode horseback or walked to small hamlets and isolated farmsteads to bring the Gospel of Hope to a confused people. Francis Asbury was certainly one of these.
To the German settlers in Pennsylvania came Martin Boehm of Swiss Mennonite stock and Phillip William Otterbein, who had helped ordain Bishop Asbury and whose work would bring to birth in Baltimore more United Brethren in Christ in 1800. There came also Jacob Albright, a farmer and tile maker, and John Seybert - both to become Bishops of the Evangelical Church - and many others. These stalwart contemporaries shared together in many conferences, sessions of prayer, and enterprises on the frontier - using the same approach in preaching and church structure. They shared a common discipline which Asbury had printed in English and in German. They almost, but not quite constituted one church. The difficulty of communication and the language differences were handicaps. It was known that Bishop Asbury did not approve of services in German, perhaps feeling strongly the need for national unity.
“The Evangelical Association” was organized in the Eyre stone barn in Winfield on July 11-13, 1816. Bishop Albright was central to the developments. New Berlin, where work began in 1805, became the mother town of the new church. The first church building of the denomination was a log church built on Penn’s Creek in New Berlin in 1816, and dedicated by the Rev. John Dreisbach, son of Martin Dreisbach, founder of the Dreisbach church. For 37 years the town was to blossom with five newspapers, one in German, a seminary, and college. With the transfer of the printing business to Cleveland in 1854 and the removal of the County seat to Lewisburg the next year, the center lost drive, although the school did not merge with Albright at Myerstown until 1900.
The history of St. Paul’s in Lewisburg goes back to the establishment of a “Class” in May 1806 with Christian Wolf as leader. Along with some others of this area, he was soon to emigrate to Ontario, Canada, and to establish the Evangelicals there. St. Paul’s first church was built in 1861, with the present sanctuary dating from 1916. It is interesting to note that Central Oak Heights conference grounds were established in 1909; the Evangelical Home in 1916; and the Orphanage four years later. The hospital dates from 1926.
The United Brethren and the Evangelical churches, as German origin Methodist style groups, united in 1946. This made way for the final writing of these bodies into the United Methodist church in 1968.
The period of the American Revolution and the decades which followed were chaotic culturally and morally. The violence of the French Revolution (and our own), and the emergent ideas almost destroyed all the religious foundations of society.
John Wesley sent Francis Asbury to America in 1771. Dr. Thomas Cooke, a presbyter of the Church of England followed, “sent to be superintendent and to preside over the flock of Christ in America”. Dr. Cooke ordained Asbury on December 24, 1784. At the close of the American Revolution, there were 15,000 Methodists and 80 preachers. These decades, fortunately for America, were blessed with a new brand of pious evangelical pioneers who rode horseback or walked to small hamlets and isolated farmsteads to bring the Gospel of Hope to a confused people. Francis Asbury was certainly one of these.
To the German settlers in Pennsylvania came Martin Boehm of Swiss Mennonite stock and Phillip William Otterbein, who had helped ordain Bishop Asbury and whose work would bring to birth in Baltimore more United Brethren in Christ in 1800. There came also Jacob Albright, a farmer and tile maker, and John Seybert - both to become Bishops of the Evangelical Church - and many others. These stalwart contemporaries shared together in many conferences, sessions of prayer, and enterprises on the frontier - using the same approach in preaching and church structure. They shared a common discipline which Asbury had printed in English and in German. They almost, but not quite constituted one church. The difficulty of communication and the language differences were handicaps. It was known that Bishop Asbury did not approve of services in German, perhaps feeling strongly the need for national unity.
“The Evangelical Association” was organized in the Eyre stone barn in Winfield on July 11-13, 1816. Bishop Albright was central to the developments. New Berlin, where work began in 1805, became the mother town of the new church. The first church building of the denomination was a log church built on Penn’s Creek in New Berlin in 1816, and dedicated by the Rev. John Dreisbach, son of Martin Dreisbach, founder of the Dreisbach church. For 37 years the town was to blossom with five newspapers, one in German, a seminary, and college. With the transfer of the printing business to Cleveland in 1854 and the removal of the County seat to Lewisburg the next year, the center lost drive, although the school did not merge with Albright at Myerstown until 1900.
The history of St. Paul’s in Lewisburg goes back to the establishment of a “Class” in May 1806 with Christian Wolf as leader. Along with some others of this area, he was soon to emigrate to Ontario, Canada, and to establish the Evangelicals there. St. Paul’s first church was built in 1861, with the present sanctuary dating from 1916. It is interesting to note that Central Oak Heights conference grounds were established in 1909; the Evangelical Home in 1916; and the Orphanage four years later. The hospital dates from 1926.
The United Brethren and the Evangelical churches, as German origin Methodist style groups, united in 1946. This made way for the final writing of these bodies into the United Methodist church in 1968.