wfn.org | Historians take United Brethren bicentennial tour

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Sept. 28, 2000 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.     10-71B{440}

A UMNS Feature
By Robert Lear*
     
Splashing through a daylong rain, 90 people from across the nation traced
200 years of denominational heritage Sept. 25, traveling by chartered bus
more than 300 miles of Maryland and Pennsylvania once covered on horseback
by a German Reformed pastor and a minister in the Society of Mennonites.

It was on Sept. 25, l800, that 13 preachers came together at the call of
Philip William Otterbein and Martin Boehm at a farm on what now is the edge
of Frederick, Md. Otterbein and Boehm were elected superintendents, and the
foundation was laid for what has been called the first truly American
church. Other religious groups up to that time traced their roots to Europe.

By coincidence, that same year marked the first class meeting of what was to
become the Evangelical Association. The two denominations eventually were
united in l946 to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church. In 1968, that
denomination and the Methodist Church were united to form today's United
Methodist Church.

Featuring visits ranging from a barn near Lancaster, Pa., to a 215-year-old
church in the heart of Baltimore, the weekend United Brethren bicentennial
observance was the centerpiece for the annual meeting of the Historical
Society of the United Methodist Church. The celebration also included
lectures, a drama, and the planting of a commemorative tree on the grounds
of Old Otterbein Church that stands in the center of Baltimore's
professional baseball, football and convention facilities.

Otterbein, a native of Germany, and Boehm first met in the barn on what then
was the Isaac Long farm. Otterbein had come to a "great meeting" of upwards
of 1,000 worshipers, probably in 1767, to hear Boehm preach. Out of that
meeting came the famous phrase of Otterbein's as he embraced Boehm: "Wir
sind bruder!" (We are brothers!)

The Rev. K. James Stein, retired from the faculty of Garrett-Evangelical
Theological Seminary, Evanston, Ill., in the concluding address of the
weekend, said the "pivotal statement" of Otterbein "evangelically reaffirmed
the Gospel and it ecumenically offered reconciliation across denominational
barriers. No wonder some in the congregation praised God aloud and the 
greater part 'were bathed in tears.'"

The incident, "which eventually united into one spiritual family the
scholarly, polished Otterbein ... and the humble, self-taught Boehm who
emerged from the background of radical plainness, exemplifies the essence of
the denomination," Stein said.

Still in use on a working farm, the barn is a shrine visited regularly by
today's United Methodists.
    
The day had been scheduled to begin with a stop at the Kemp farm near
Frederick for rededication of a plaque placed in 1900 marking the centennial
of the church's formation. However, rain made it impossible to meet
outdoors, so the service was moved to nearby Trinity United Methodist
Church.

Meal stops on the tour were utilized for a series of vignettes, usually in
costume, tracing the United Brethren involvement in ecumenical concerns,
missions and splits in the church. The final stop of the day was Boehm's
Chapel near Lancaster, built in 1791. Boehm is buried beside the chapel.

In a major address during the weekend, the Rev. J. Steven O'Malley, a
specialist in United Brethren history at Asbury Theological Seminary in
Wilmore, Ky., traced the missions emphasis of the church, particularly in
Sierra Leone, Japan and the Philippines, as well as New Mexico and Florida
in the United States.

"Our field was the world, and we were serious about our field," O'Malley
said. "Much of the church's efforts have been on an ecumenical basis,
leaving denominational loyalties on our shores."

"Church historians care about their past because they care about the
future," Bishop James K. Mathews said in a closing devotional. "If we do not
remember our heritage, we are not worthy of it."
#  #  #
*Lear is the retired director of the Washington office of United Methodist
News Service.

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United Methodist News Service
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