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.
Clifton Park is a suburban town in Saratoga County, New York, United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, the 2010 population was 36,705. The name is derived from an early land patent. The town is in the south part of the county, about 12 miles (19 km) north of Albany, 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Schenectady, and 10 miles (16 km) south of Saratoga Springs.
The Church of the United Brethren in Christ is an evangelical Christian denomination with churches in 17 countries. It is Protestant, with an episcopal structure and Arminian theology, with roots in the Mennonite and German Reformed communities of 18th-century Pennsylvania, as well as close ties to Methodism. It was organized in 1800 by Martin Boehm and Philip William Otterbein and is the first American denomination that was not transplanted from Europe. It emerged from United Brethren churches that were at first unorganized, and not all of which joined this church when it was formally organized in 1800, following a 1789 conference at the Otterbein Church.
The Shenendehowa Central School District, often shortened to Shen, is a public school district located in New York's Capital District. The district's 232-acre (0.94 km2) main campus is located off NY 146 in Clifton Park, and is home to eight of the district's 12 schools, in five buildings. The remaining four schools are called "neighborhood elementary schools" and are located throughout the district in three buildings. The district serves approximately 9,800 students in grades K-12 from throughout its 86-square-mile (220 km2) territory which includes the towns of Clifton Park, Halfmoon, Ballston Lake, Round Lake, Malta and parts of Waterford, Rexford, Mechanicville and Stillwater. Shenendehowa is the largest School District in Saratoga County, and the largest in student population in the Suburban Council, an interscholastic athletic consortium of 11 area school with a districts.
Roy Clyde Clark was an American bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1980.
United Theological Seminary is a United Methodist seminary in Trotwood, Ohio. Founded in 1871 by Milton Wright, it was originally sponsored by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. In 1946, members of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ merged with the Evangelical Church to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church, with which the seminary then became affiliated. When that denomination merged with The Methodist Church in 1968, United Theological Seminary became one of the thirteen seminaries affiliated with the new United Methodist Church.
Leo A. Soriano is a Bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 2000 in the Philippines.
Kathleen Baskin-Ball was an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. She was ordained as deacon and probationary member of the North Texas Conference in 1983 and as elder and full member of the North Texas Conference in 1988. She received national recognition for her preaching, especially to youth. She was a keynote speaker at Youth2007, the international youth conference of the UMC. She was also recognized regionally as the first female minister in North Texas to demonstrate high membership and worship attendance growth while serving as senior pastor of a large church. She had a notable career record of growth in membership, worship attendance, and people joining by profession of faith. Baskin-Ball died on December 2, 2008, after two years' illness with cancer.
Methodist viewpoints concerning homosexuality are diverse because there is no one denomination which represents all Methodists. The World Methodist Council, which represents most Methodist denominations, has no official statements regarding sexuality. British Methodism holds a variety of views, and permits ministers to bless same-gender marriages. United Methodism, which covers the United States, the Philippines, parts of Africa, and parts of Europe, concentrates on the position that the same-sex relations are incompatible with "Christian teaching", but extends ministry to persons of a homosexual orientation, holding that all individuals are of sacred worth.
The Metropolitan United Methodist Church is a church located at 8000 Woodward Avenue in the New Center area of Detroit, Michigan. It was completed in 1926, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1986. This church should not be confused with Metropolitan United Methodist Church in Washington, DC, which is often regarded as a National Church within the United States as it was specifically established by the General Conference to be a "representative presence of Methodism in the nation's capital".
James W. Moore (1938–2019) was a bestselling author of over 40 books, Abingdon Press' top selling author. He was a preacher and pastor, an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. He served as Senior Pastor of St. Luke's United Methodist Church –Houston from 1984 to 2006. In 2006, after 50 years of active ministry, he retired from full-time ministry in the Texas Conference of the UMC and moved to the Dallas area. At the time of his death, he was serving as Minister in Residence at Highland Park United Methodist Church.
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.
Manchester United Methodist Church is a United Methodist church in Manchester, Missouri. It was the first church to be established in the western part of St. Louis County and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The church is among the largest United Methodist congregations in Missouri, with over 2,700 members. In 2019, Manchester UMC reported a weekly attendance of 1,069
First United Methodist Church is a historic congregation of the United Methodist Church in downtown London, Ohio, United States. Founded in London's earliest years, the congregation worships in a historic church building that was built in the 1890s.
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.
The Church of St. Charles Borromeo was a Black Catholic parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 211 West 141st Street in Manhattan, New York City. It was part of the Harlem Vicariate. The parish was established in 1888.
Union Theological Seminary is the oldest Protestant seminary in the Philippines. It was created when the Ellinwood Bible Training School and the Florence B. Nicholson Bible Seminary merged into one theological institution in 1907. The fusion of these two institutions was a significant event for The Comity Agreement, which intended to unify various mainline Protestant denominations established by American missionaries during American Colonial Era of the Philippines. Though the United Church of Christ in the Philippines and the United Methodist Church in the Philippines collectively support it, the seminary is independent of both in structure and curricular formation.
Groveport United Methodist Church is a historic church in the village of Groveport, Ohio, United States. Established in the 1830s, this congregation of the United Methodist Church worships in an early twentieth-century building that has been named a historic site.
Karen Oliveto is an American bishop. She is the first openly lesbian bishop to be elected in the United Methodist Church. She was elected bishop on July 15, 2016, at the Western Jurisdictional conference. Her four-year term of service began September 1, 2016 and she currently serves as the bishop of both the UMC's Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Conferences; she was officially installed on September 24. At the time of her election, she was the senior pastor of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. Oliveto is married to Robin Ridenour, who is a deaconess in the United Methodist Church's California-Nevada Conference.
David W. Graves is a United Methodist bishop of the Alabama-West Florida Conference. He was elected July 13, 2016 to the episcopacy at the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference quadrennial meeting at Lake Junaluska, N.C. He has been assigned for the next four years to the Alabama West-Florida Conference.
