This Week in Texas Methodist History May 7
1866 General Conference Meets in New Orleans. Important Changes for Texas
May 1866
Few Methodist General Conferences have
been as consequential as the one that met in New Orleans during the first weeks of
1866. There had been no 1862 General
Conference of the MECS so there was much work to do.
Delegates dropped participation in a
class meeting as a requirement for church membership and voted to allow lay
delegates to conference. Delegates
doubled the number of active bishops from four to eight. (Bishops Soule and Andrew were still alive
but no longer traveled to hold annual conferences.) One of those newly elected bishops was Enoch
Marvin, the first bishop who had served a church in Texas.
The General Conference divided the both
the Texas Conference and the East Texas Conference into northern and southern
portions, and created the North West Conference from the northern counties of
the Texas Conference and the Trinity (later North Texas) Conference from the
East Texas Conference. It also changed
the Rio Grande Mission Conference, making it the West Texas Conference (later
South West Texas and later Rio Texas).
German speaking Methodists in Texas asked for help
from the General Conference, but it could offer little more than kind words. Many of the German preachers then turned to
the MEC which had greater resources than the MECS and had a vigorous German
language publishing enterprise already in place for its German churches in Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri.
The editor of Houston’s Tri-Weekly Telegram in May, 1866
was the Rev. Clayton C. Gillespie, who had served as a colonel for the
Confederacy. Naturally he gave the
General Conference extensive coverage.
He reported on the “ordination” service
for the newly elected bishops (Marvin, Wightman, Doggett, and McTyeire). He should have known better. In Methodist practice, we consecrate
bishops. They are not ordained.
The honor of preaching the “ordination”
sermon went to one of the oldest preachers there---the Rev. Lovick Pierce
(1785-1879), father of Bishop George Pierce, and one of the most beloved
Methodist preachers ever. Pierce had
been ordained in 1804 so as he stood in the pulpit at the Candorolet Street
Methodist Church,
he was in his 62nd year of preaching and was attending his 12th
General Conference. His text was 2 Cor.
11:28, . . .I am under daily pressure
because of my anxiety for all the churches.”
Lovick Pierce had a right to be
anxious. The Civil War had weakened many
MECS churches and all of their institutions, including publishing and
missionary efforts. African Americans
were in the process of leaving the MECS for other denominations including the
AME, AMEZ, and the MEC.
Lovick Pierce lived another 13 years
after his “ordination” sermon. Although
he was past 80 years old, he had one more major task to perform for his
church. Some MECS leaders assume that
since the cause of separation of the northern and southern branches was
slavery, and that slavery was abolished, the two branches might re-unite. Lovick Pierce was chosen as an emissary from
the MECS to the MEC to explore reunion.
He was chosen because of his “irenic” disposition and his sterling reputation.
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