wfn.org | EUB 50th anniversary

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3298 notes).

Note 3298 by UMNS on Nov. 21, 1996 at 15:55 Eastern (4953 characters).

SEARCH:  EUB, anniversary, Johnstown, Dayton
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Ralph Baker                         584(10-21-71BP){3298}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470        Nov. 21, 1996

NOTE: A photo is available with this story.

Golden anniversary of founding of
Evangelical United Brethren church marked

by Edwin H. Maynard and Robert Lear*

                 by United Methodist News Service

     Celebration, "family reunion," scholarly papers  and re-
enactments of a handshake that became a symbol of a denomination
marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Evangelical
United Brethren Church November 14-17.

     In Johnstown, Pa., and Dayton, Ohio, bishops, clergy and
laity gathered to recall Nov. 16, 1946, when Evangelical Bishop
John S. Stamm and United Brethren Bishop Arthur R. Clippinger
joined hands in what then was First United Brethren Church in
Johnstown.  The moment sealed the union of two denominations
formed at the beginning of the 19th century.

     More than 1500 people overflowed the Romanesque brownstone
church along Stony Creek in the heart of Johnstown that Saturday
afternoon to witness the historic handshake.  The EUB church
ministered for 22 years before uniting in l968 with the Methodist
Church to form today's United Methodist Church.

     An estimated 550 persons participated in the anniversary
events in Johnstown and Dayton,  about 50 of them proudly wearing
buttons proclaiming "I was there" in l946.  A few were delegates
then, others were choir members or helped in other ways.

     Both celebrations used portions of the l946 liturgy,
including the opening hymn, "The Church's One Foundation."  The
Johnstown service began with a simulated radio broadcast giving
news of the founding of the new church.

     At Dayton, two retired bishops with roots in the Evangelical
and United Brethren traditions, Wayne K. Clymer, Wayzata, Minn.,
and Paul W. Milhouse, Franklin, Ind., re-enacted the handshake
between Stamm and Clippinger.  At Johnstown, two retired clergy
did the same--Don Joiner, Lake Junaluska, N.C., and Dan Shearer,
Lancaster, Pa.

     Speakers at Johnstown included Bishop George W. Bashore,
Pittsburgh, and retired Bishop Hermann L. Sticher, Nuertingen,
Germany, both of whom served in the EUB church.  At Dayton, Clymer
and Milhouse were among the speakers.

     Greetings from many individuals across the country were
received in both Johnstown and Dayton, including a message from
President Bill Clinton read in Dayton.  The president and his
family regularly attend Foundry United Methodist Church in
Washington. 

     In his sermon Clymer noted that anniversaries are observed so
we will remember, but he also put in a word for forgetting:  "What
we choose to remember and what we choose to forget largely
determines the kind of persons we become."  A similar thought was
voiced by the Rev. Gene Sease, Indianapolis, in a banquet address
in Johnstown.

     Sticher recalled how formation of the EUB church brought new
life and vigor to the evangelical movement in Germany.  While  "we
cannot copy the ways of our fathers and mothers," he said, "we can
catch their spirit."

     Bashore called on his hearers to "re-emphasize here and now"
the belief that there is "assurance of salvation in Jesus Christ."
He urged a recapturing of "evangelistic fervor and missionary
zeal."

     The substance of the Dayton observance came in eight
scholarly papers on aspects of EUB heritage, planned to be
published as a book.  Collectively they identified distinctive EUB
contributions to the United Methodist Church and to the wider
Christian community such as Wesleyan awareness of God's grace,
strong lay participation, piety, hymnody and an ecumenical spirit.

      Johnstown festivities included a banquet at Beulah United
Methodist Church where the final session of the Evangelical
General Conference was held in l946, and another banquet at
Arbutus Park Manor, a retirement community on the site of a former
EUB campground.  In Dayton there was a tour of historic sites,
including the former headquarters building of the EUB church.

     In Johnstown, a plaque was unveiled marking First United
Methodist Church as a heritage landmark.

     The Rev. James D. Nelson, professor of church history at
United Theological Seminary in Dayton and director of the Center
for Evangelical United Brethren Heritage, chaired the Dayton
event, co-sponsored with the Historical Society of the United
Methodist Church.  The Rev. Robert Callihan, Johnstown retired
pastor, chaired the planning committee there.
                              #  #  #

     *Maynard covered the Dayton event; Lear covered the Johnstown
event.  Both men are retired staff members of United Methodist
Communications.

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