This Week in Texas Methodist History November 14 Texas Conference of the MEC Meets in Navasota, Celebrates End of World War I, November 20, 1918 Bishop Charles B. Mitchell was he presiding officer as the Texas Conference of the MEC met at Lee Tabernacle in Navasota on November 20, 1918. As the reader learned last week, the African American Texas Conference had a European American as its bishop—as it had for the 52 previous sessions. Bishop Mitchell was from St. Paul, Minnesota. The mood was one of joy and optimism and hope. The Great War (now known as World War I) had ended less than two weeks earlier. The Versailles Conference had not occurred. Much of the hope of “making the world safe for democracy” was still in the air. Family members looked forward to happy homecomings with returning soldiers. Military experience had been transformative for many African American soldiers. Although their service was in racially segregated service units, the experience of being in France presented alternatives to the vicious Jim Crow world they knew back home in East Texas. As the District Superintendents of the of the four districts (George Belcher—Beaumont, J.E. Bryant—Houston, A. Wade Carr—Marshall, Tooley M. Jackson—Navasota) the progress of the church was evident. As agricultural lands in France and Belgium were taken out of production, and nations struggled with feeding and clothing their armies, agricultural prices spiked. Texas also increased its industrialization thereby providing employment. The District Superintendents reported increased giving to the churches and especially church construction projects that had been made possible by the increased prosperity of the church members. On the other hand, there were disruptions. Trinity Houston, the oldest church in the Conference lost its pastor Willis King (later Bishop) as he accepted a teaching position at Gammon Seminary. D. A. Runnels, appointed to the Liberty Circuit, half way through the year took at job at the Southern Pacific yards in Houston and moved his sick wife from Liberty to Houston so she could receive better care. He continued to serve his circuit on weekends. The big disruption was the influenza pandemic. The pandemic hit the hardest in Texas just two months before conference, and much to the financial good news among the churches stopped. For example E. F. Jackson of the Montgomery Circuit caught the disease and was unable to preach for two months. The epidemic struck just as churches were gearing up for the Centenary Campaign and threw a monkey wrench in those plans.