Page 56 - Pictorial History of EUB Church by Glovier
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56 HISTORY OF THE VA CONFERENCE, E.U.B. CHURCH—D.F. GLOVIER
In 1774 Otterbein went to Baltimore to become pastor of a church that had
withdrawn from the Reformed Church to become an independent organization.
Otterbein served this church until his death, almost forty years later. Also in
1774 a series of meetings or conferences began of ministers who associated the
same beliefs and ideas as Otterbein. They called themselves the “United
Ministers”. As these ministers became more uncomfortable in their own
denominations, they had a desire to form a new fellowship of their own. In
1800 near Frederick, Maryland, a conference was held with fourteen
ministers present. They adopted the name, “THE UNITED BRETHREN IN
CHRIST”, and elected Otterbein and Boehm bishops. The General
Conference was in 1815 which adopted a Confession of Faith and a
Discipline. Other great leaders in the founding of our Church worthy of
mention are George A. Geeting, Christian Newcomer and Peter Kemp.
The church grew and the missionary zeal and vision were carried into
Virginia, across the Allegheny Mountains into Western Pennsylvania and
Ohio and wherever German people migrated. This group used the German
language altogether, and this was the only thing that kept the United
Brethren and Methodists from uniting on many occasions. As the English
language became the popular one, the Methodist outgrew our church. Many of
our preachers’ sons and other young men who entered the ministry, went with
the Methodists because they preferred the use of the English language. Some
of our churches used German until 1916 when national conditions forced out
the use of the German language.
At the last General Conference of the United Brethren Church in 1945,
the denomination had grown to 455,000 members, with five bishops, 28
conferences, one theological seminary, five colleges, two orphanages and three
homes for the aged. Its foreign mission fields included work in Africa,
Philippines, China, Puerto Rico, Santa Domingo and Japan. The home mission
work included New Mexico and Barnett’s Creek, Kentucky.
The Evangelical Church’s founder was Jacob Albright. He settled on a
farm in Pennsylvania after the Revolutionary War. But he was not satisfied with
his spiritual condition and about the way people lived in sin around him.
July 31, 1791, he attended a prayer meeting in the home of Adam Riegel, a
lay follower of the United Brethren movement. Here he saw the light and his
life overflowed with the grace of God. Soon after this he united with the
Methodist Church and in 1796 became a licensed lay exhorter. He began
missionary preaching among the German people. He would go on preaching
tours and be gone for such lengths of time that the Methodist Church dropped
him from its rolls.
Albright drew little classes of fellowship; until in the year 1800
In 1774 Otterbein went to Baltimore to become pastor of a church that had
withdrawn from the Reformed Church to become an independent organization.
Otterbein served this church until his death, almost forty years later. Also in
1774 a series of meetings or conferences began of ministers who associated the
same beliefs and ideas as Otterbein. They called themselves the “United
Ministers”. As these ministers became more uncomfortable in their own
denominations, they had a desire to form a new fellowship of their own. In
1800 near Frederick, Maryland, a conference was held with fourteen
ministers present. They adopted the name, “THE UNITED BRETHREN IN
CHRIST”, and elected Otterbein and Boehm bishops. The General
Conference was in 1815 which adopted a Confession of Faith and a
Discipline. Other great leaders in the founding of our Church worthy of
mention are George A. Geeting, Christian Newcomer and Peter Kemp.
The church grew and the missionary zeal and vision were carried into
Virginia, across the Allegheny Mountains into Western Pennsylvania and
Ohio and wherever German people migrated. This group used the German
language altogether, and this was the only thing that kept the United
Brethren and Methodists from uniting on many occasions. As the English
language became the popular one, the Methodist outgrew our church. Many of
our preachers’ sons and other young men who entered the ministry, went with
the Methodists because they preferred the use of the English language. Some
of our churches used German until 1916 when national conditions forced out
the use of the German language.
At the last General Conference of the United Brethren Church in 1945,
the denomination had grown to 455,000 members, with five bishops, 28
conferences, one theological seminary, five colleges, two orphanages and three
homes for the aged. Its foreign mission fields included work in Africa,
Philippines, China, Puerto Rico, Santa Domingo and Japan. The home mission
work included New Mexico and Barnett’s Creek, Kentucky.
The Evangelical Church’s founder was Jacob Albright. He settled on a
farm in Pennsylvania after the Revolutionary War. But he was not satisfied with
his spiritual condition and about the way people lived in sin around him.
July 31, 1791, he attended a prayer meeting in the home of Adam Riegel, a
lay follower of the United Brethren movement. Here he saw the light and his
life overflowed with the grace of God. Soon after this he united with the
Methodist Church and in 1796 became a licensed lay exhorter. He began
missionary preaching among the German people. He would go on preaching
tours and be gone for such lengths of time that the Methodist Church dropped
him from its rolls.
Albright drew little classes of fellowship; until in the year 1800
