Tag: Annual Conference

Time Changes Some (But Not All) Things: Annual Conferences 1856 and 2019

Perspective of Time

Time does change things.  But not all things.

For example, take a look at the front page of these minutes:

Not the West Virginia Conference………the Western Virginia Conference

Not the United Methodist Church…..The Methodist Episcopal Church

Buckhannon (established January 15, 1816) is still Buckhannon

Upshur County (very newly established on March 26, 1851) is still Upshur County

Virginia

Although this was 165 years ago, we can recognize both the gracious welcome offered by the people who lived in this town and the appreciation of the group of Methodist Episcopal Church leaders. The minutes include their thanks:

First Time — But Not The Last

The next time that the Methodist Episcopal Conference met in Buckhannon, it was October 1, 1884. By this time they were meeting in Buckhannon, West Virginia.

In those days, the meeting place moved around a good bit to places like Wheeling, Clarksburg, Parkersburg, Charleston, Huntington, Weston, and Fairmont.

  • The Methodist Episcopal Conference met again in Buckhannon in 1884, 1895, 1913, 1926, and 1935.
  • The year 1939 The Methodist Episcopal Church, The Methodist Protestant Church, and The Methodist Episcopal Church South  reunited to become The Methodist Church.
  • In 1953 the newly reunited Methodist church met in Buckhannon. From 1955 until today the Annual Conference has met at West Virginia Wesleyan College
  • In 1968 The Methodist Church united with The Evangelical United Brethren Church to become The United Methodist Church.

Dreamers and Giants

Many of these meetings throughout the 1800s included the work of creating a new school — which we now know as West Virginia Wesleyan College.

In fact, these were the original Dreamers.

It was their dream of having a school in the area where both boys and girls could receive a quality education, and where the values of  their faith would be part of the fabric of that school.

Giants were among them. People who worked tirelessly to make that dream a reality. It would take decades of that hard work before the doors would open in 1890.

The school has been supported by the prayers and the hard work of giants in the West(ern) Virginia Conference ever since. And new giants have been formed there as well. Many leaders of the Conference were educated and inspired at the college, and many have gone on to leadership positions throughout the church and the world.

From 1955-1967, the Conference met in Atkinson Chapel, and thereafter in Wesley Chapel. They are the direct descendents of those who met so long ago, but have certainly kept up with the times.

Meeting At WVWC In 2019

The people of Buckhannon once again welcomed the conference June 13-16, 2019. The campus was transformed into meeting spaces, the dining center provided many meals. There were salad luncheons and barbecue dinners offered at the Upshur Parish House. There was a baked steak dinner at Chapel Hill United Methodist, which also gave the conference attendees the opportunity to support the Buckhannon Choral Society.

Mayor David McCauley wrote a letter of welcome, and rolled out the red carpet.

There was worship and fellowship. There were business sessions and reports. There were big screens all around the sanctary so that everyone would be able to see. During the business meetings, the voting was done with electronic voting machines for the first time. Some who could not be present “attended” by way of live streaming online, skyped in to receive an award, and communicated throughout through text messaging. Those original conference-goers would have been amazed.

Much was different — a lot was the same.

Family Reunion – Conference Style

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.