This Week in Texas Methodist History June 26 Wallace Crutchfield Explains Unification Changes to Texas Methoists, June 1939 As Texas Methodists leanred about how their church would change after the Uniting Conference of 1939, Wallace Crutchfield, Associate Editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate, felt it necessary to summarize changes as they entered the new denomination, the Methodist Church. Perhaps the greatest change was the creation of five geographic jurisdictions and one jurisdiction based on race. Election of bishops moved from the General Conference to the Jurisdictional Conference. Not only were bishops elected by the Jurisdiciton, they were also assigned to that jurisdiction and a jurisdictional committee would assign the bishops to the annual conferences in that jurisdiction. Previously bishops served the entire denomination and, for most of the denomination’s history, the bishops had divided the annual conferences among themselves. Another change was the creation of the Judicial Council---a Supreme Court of the denomination, containing 9 members who were specifically barred from the ranks of the General Confernce delegates. The MECS had already created a Judicial Council, but the MEC had not. After 1939 it was applied to the whole denomination. You might ask how polity decisions were decided before 1939. Almost all the cases involving polity questions arose when a bishop ruled on a point of law in an annual conference. The losing party had a right to appeal that decision to the General Conference. That meant that General Conferences before 1939 inlcluded both electing bishops and listening to debates about episcopal rulings. After 1939 both of those activities did not occur in General Conference. One area in which the MECS adopted MEC nomenclature was the adoption of the term District Superintendent, replacing Presiding Elder. The office of District Superintendent or Presiding Elder could be described as middle management. The main duty of the office was presidng over a regional grouping of churches and conducting quarterly conferences at every charge (appointment) in the district. The P.E. or D. S. had the power to liscense local preachers who had authority to serve a particular charge. Ordination was beyong the power of the D. S. or P.E. That power was reserved for bishops. D. S.s also presided over both District Conferences and Church Conference. Those conferences were made optional. The General Confernce designated six General Boards to extend through the entire denomination. In addition to overseeing the denominational work, each jurisdiction, annual conference, district, and local church was expected to have a formal structure to work in those areas: Mission and Church Extention; Temperance and Public Morals; Lay Activities; Hospitals and Homes; Confernce Claimants (pensions); and Education. The Geneeral Confernce also added to the ritual—making it more “high church” than most members of the MECS were used to. Another area new to Southern Methodists was a difference Social Creed. The Social Creed of the MEC had been adopted during the Progressive Era and had been hugely influenced by the Social Gospel movement. It called Methodists to work for social justice for industrial workers, immigrants, children in poverty, etc. The Southern church’s involvement in social issues was focused almost entirely on the prohibition of alcohol. The changes listed above created the church of my youth, and probably yours.