This Week in Texas Methodist History  April 25,

 

Uniting Conference Convenes in Kansas City, Texas Methodists on Program, April 25, 1939

 

The Methodist Church was created by the unification of the Methodist Episcopal Church, The Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Protestant Church in 1939.  The formalities of uniting were held in Kansas City, Missouri, from April 25 to May14, 1939.  The unification of the three denominations that had been caused by 19^th century divisions had been discussed for decades and was to create a denomination that lasted until the creation of the United Methodist Church in 1968.  There was little doctrinal difference to be considered.  The main obstacle to unification was the Southern Church’s insistence on imposing Jim Crow segregation of the races on the new denomination.  That issue was settled in favor or the Southern church by moving the election of bishops from the General Conference to newly-created Jurisdictional Conferences.  Five of the jurisdictions would be geographic, one would be racial.  The creations of the so-called Central Jurisdiction meant that Methodists of European descent would never have an African American bishop.  Jim Crow won.

 

Three Texas Methodists played “headline” roles in the Uniting Conference.  In addition, a former pastor of Travis Park Methodist in San Antonio who had later been elected bishop also made the list of named speakers. 

 

The days were consumed with business sessions.  Committees met to hammer out provisions of the new denomination’s organization.  For example, should the new church use the Southern “Presiding Elder” or the Northern “District Superintendent” to describe the office of a minister in charge of one of the regional subdivisions of the annual conferences?  More substantive issues were also determined in committee and then by plenary sessions.  One of those was the location of church Boards and Agencies, and publishing houses since unification would reduce the total number required.  Several of those decisions were so difficult that delegates could not reach a compromise, and consolidation of services was postponed.

 

Days were filled with business sessions, but at 8:00 p..m. each night the delegates participated in worship, and each night had a theme.  Of the four “headliners” the first appeared on Friday night, April 28.  The theme was Foreign Missions the main speaker was Bishop Arthur Moore former pastor of Travis Park in San Antonio.  On Sunday, April 30, worship service was held and the preacher was John N. R. Score, pastor of First Methodist Fort Worth, later of St. Paul’s Houston, and then President of Southwestern University.  On Thursday May 4 the theme was Home Missions, and the preacher was Bishop A. Frank Smith of Houston.  When Moore was at Travis Park, Smith was at Laurel Heights San Antonio, and the two became best friends.  They were both elected bishop at an early age and became two of the most prominent MECS bishops as the unification rolled out, mainly through force of personality.  Both achieved even greater prominence in the new denomination, and coincidentally, I knew both of them. 

 

Wednesday May 10 was Education Night, and one of the speakers was Umphrey Lee, President of SMU.   Since SMU was MECS, Lee’s appearance had to be balanced with a MEC academic.  The one chosen was Lynn Hough, Dean of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.  A similar shared platform had occurred on Laity Night with Governor Alf Landon (Kansas, MEC) and Governor Clyde Hoey (North Carolina, MECS).   

 

Although over one half of the membership of all three uniting congregations was female, only one woman was invited as the principal speaker at one of the 8:00 p.m. sessions.  That was Georgia Harkness.  The well-know educator, theologian, and philosopher was ending a stint at Mt. Holyoke, and was on her way to Garret Biblical Institute. 

 

The service of Union occurred on Friday, May 12 at 8:00 p.m  The Methodist Church came into being.

 

I mentioned earlier how the price of unification was the institutionalization of racial segregation.  The African American delegates to the Uniting Conference all voted against union on those terms.  They had to endure a final racist insult.  The “Negro Night” was held on Saturday May 13, after union, when many of the delegates would have left Kansas City so they could be back in their home pulpits by Sunday May 14.  One speaker was Matthew Davage, former editor of the edition of the Advocate intended for African American Methodists and president of 6 denominations colleges.  To further compound the insult, the other speaker on Negro Night was not African American.  He was a firm segregationist, President Henry Snyder, President of Wofford College from 1902-1942.  Snyder had served on the Unification Committee and had been one of the most outspoken members of the Committee in demanding racial segregation. 

 

My one small consolation in this sad story of racism at the Unifying Conference is that President Davage lived long enough to see the rejection of the racist creation of the Central Jurisdiction.  He died in New Orleans in 1976 at the age of 97.