This week, the campus will be busy. The Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church will be arriving — around 1,200 pastors and lay people. They will gather in Wesley Chapel and have worship services and business meetings.
They will set up displays in the gym to show all about projects and ministries they are doing all year.
The organ will play at full blast and, if tradition repeats itself once again, there will be more than 1,000 voices singing “O, for A Thousand Tongues to Sing”.
They will eat barbecue, ice cream, and have music out on campus.
They will have a homecoming. It is a like a huge family reunion!
This will be the 63rd consecutive year that they have done this. It seems like it has always been this way. For many of us it HAS always been this way in our lifetime, but before 1955 it had only happened 8 times! (1856, 1884, 1895, 1898, 1911, 1913, 1926, 1953). From 1955 to present, they have been here every year.
Since they actually founded the college in 1890, this makes a lot of sense. It took a lot of hard work and meetings, and planning, and fundraising for that to happen.
It is funny, though, that the college students who live here the rest of the year can hardly imagine this happening on “their” campus. They are never here during this event. Likewise, the conference people rarely see the students trudging through the snow on the way to class, or studying in the library. It is like two separate groups, yet their stories are closely intertwined.
That 1953 year must have been an interesting exception. That year, the Pharos tells us that Commencement, Alumni Activities, Dedication of the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Library, and Conference all happened in the same week!!!!
In his speech that week on May 27th, at the dedication of the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Library, Bishop Fred Pierce Corson said, “First we build our buildings, and then they build us.” This has proven very true in the case of the conference and the college.
The conference built buildings, then the buildings (and the people who taught in them) built leaders. Many of those leaders throughout the years have also been active in building the conference.
