The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelicalism. The present denomination was founded in 1968 in Dallas, Texas, by union of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley in England, as well as the Great Awakening in the United States. As such, the church's theological orientation is decidedly Wesleyan. It embraces liturgical worship, holiness, and evangelical elements.
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In 1939, the MEC reunited with two breakaway Methodist denominations to form the Methodist Church. In 1968, the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the United Methodist Church.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church or AME, is a predominantly African-American Methodist denomination. It is the first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by black people. It was founded by the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the mid-Atlantic area that wanted independence from white Methodists. It was among the first denominations in the United States to be founded on racial rather than theological distinctions and has persistently advocated for the civil and human rights of African Americans through social improvement, religious autonomy, and political engagement. Allen, a deacon in Methodist Episcopal Church, was consecrated its first bishop in 1816 by a conference of five churches from Philadelphia to Baltimore. The denomination then expanded west and south, particularly after the Civil War. By 1906, the AME had a membership of about 500,000, more than the combined total of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, making it the largest major African-American Methodist denomination.
Joseph Crane Hartzell was an American Missionary Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church who served in the United States and in Africa.
Woodie Walter White is an American Bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1984.
Gregory Vaughn Palmer is an American Bishop of The United Methodist Church, elected in 2000. He was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Herbert Palmer, is also a United Methodist pastor.
David Jerald Lawson was an American who gained notability as a pastor and university campus minister in the Methodist and United Methodist churches, as a district superintendent, annual conference official, and as a bishop of the United Methodist Church (UMC), elected in 1984. He also played a key role establishing and developing Africa University, which is the only UMC university on the continent.
Larry Martin Goodpaster is a Bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 2000.
Richard Carl Looney is a retired American Bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1988.
Scott Jameson Jones is an American bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 2004. He was born in Nashville, Tennessee and raised in Illinois, Indiana and Colorado.
Leroy Charles Hodapp distinguished himself as a Methodist Pastor, District Superintendent, Annual Conference Official, and Bishop of the United Methodist Church (U.M.C.) who was elected in 1976.
An annual conference in Methodism is a regional body that governs much of the life of the "connectional church". Annual conferences are composed primarily of the clergy members and a lay member or members from each charge. Each conference is a geographical division. In general, the smaller states in the United States hold one conference each, while larger states often include two or more conferences. Several annual conferences are held in other nations as well.
Daniel Wandabula is a bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 2006. At the time of his election he was forty-one years old, one of the youngest bishops of his denomination.
The Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church is the regional body of congregations and ministries in East Texas, from Texarkana west to approximately Cedar Creek Lake in the north, Thorndale in the west, and Bay City in the southwest and down to the Gulf Coast and back east to the Louisiana border. It is headquartered in Houston, Texas with Bishop Scott J. Jones currently serving as the presiding Bishop. The Texas Annual Conference is also unofficially referred to as "the Houston Area of The United Methodist Church". The Texas Annual Conference is the largest Annual Conference in the Church's South Central Jurisdiction and the third largest in the United Methodist denomination.
The North Texas Conference is an Annual Conference. This conference encompasses a triangle-shaped northern portion of the state of Texas that spans from Dallas to Wichita Falls to Paris. The conference includes a small geographic area relative to most annual conferences. The North Texas Conference comprises 301 churches, 141,827 members, 4 districts and 20 counties.
The Philippines Central Conference of the United Methodist Church is a collection of annual conferences of the United Methodist Church in the Philippines that are organised much like juridictonal conferences in the United States. The Philippines Central Conference is considered a member church of the World Methodist Council, and a "Central Conference" of the world-wide United Methodist Church. It is also a member of the Christian Conference of Asia and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines as The United Methodist Church in the Philippines, representing the denomination as its Philippine counterpart.
The organisation of the Methodist Church of Great Britain is based on the principle of connexionalism. This means that British Methodism, from its inception under John Wesley (1703–1791), has always laid strong emphasis on mutual support, in terms of ministry, mission and finance, of one local congregation for another. No singular church community has never been seen in isolation either from its immediately neighbouring church communities or from the centralised national organisation. Wesley himself journeyed around the country, preaching and establishing local worshipping communities, called "societies", often under lay leadership. Soon these local communities of worshipping Christians formalised their relationships with neighbouring Methodist communities to create "circuits", and the circuits and societies contained within them, were from the very beginning 'connected' to the centre and Methodism's governing body, the annual Conference. Today, societies are better known as local churches, although the concept of a community of worshipping Christians tied to a particular location, and subdivided into smaller cell groups called "classes", remains essentially based on Wesley's societies.
The New England Annual Conference is an Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. This conference serves the congregations in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut, and all of Vermont. The conference's administrative offices and the office of the bishop are located in Lawrence, Massachusetts. It is part of the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference. The bishop is the Reverend Sudarshana Devadhar.
B. Michael Watson is a bishop of The United Methodist Church, elected in 2000. He served as resident bishop of the North Georgia Annual Conference, which comprises 1,000 churches, more than 1,500 clergy members, and more than 320,000 lay members. He retired in 2016 and currently serves as ecumenical officer of the Council of Bishops.
Rev. Dr. Sally Dyck is an active bishop in the United Methodist Church, the second largest Protestant denomination in the United States. In 2021, she will begin serving as the Ecumenical Officer of the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church.
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