Church History

The Rev. Christopher P. Momany. Photo by Kristen Schell.

For every righteous ‘no,’ there must be a holy ‘yes’

Methodism’s Wesleyan-Holiness heritage holds principles that can be applied to today’s struggles around human dignity.

The Methodist Church’s 1956 General Conference meets from April 25 to May 7 in the municipal auditorium in Minneapolis. On May 4, the first Friday of the legislative assembly, the delegates voted to make women eligible for full clergy rights. “Now it is up to us to prove in clear and deep witness to the whole church our consecration and our loyal devotion to the work of the Kingdom of God,” said Margaret Henrichsen, a General Conference visitor, after the vote. In 1967, she became the first U.S. woman appointed district superintendent. Photo courtesy of Archives and History.

Why the 1956 women-clergy vote matters

Seventy years ago, the Methodist Church supported full conference membership for women clergy — a decision that would have a resounding impact when The United Methodist Church formed in 1968 and even today.

Church History

A protester holds a sign seeking an end to racial segregation in the Methodist Church during the 1968 General Conference in Dallas. The conference merged the denomination with the Evangelical United Brethren Church, creating The United Methodist Church, and did away with the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction. A new book by the Rev. Bonnie McCubbin details the long road for Black Methodists to get full equality in the denomination. Photo courtesy of United Methodist Commission on Archives and History.

Mapping the Black United Methodist pilgrimage

The Rev. Bonnie McCubbin, a historian, details the long road — with some setbacks and detours — for Black Methodists to get full equality in the denomination.

Human Rights

In troubling times, look to ‘higher law’

Gilbert Haven, a Methodist pastor, taught that opening ourselves to God and seeing things from a divine point of view enables us to act from cleaner motives — and we must act.

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