This Week in Texas Methodist History August 28 President Charles C. Selecman Gives Valedictory Address to His Last Graduating Class at SMU, August 1938 In August 1938 President Charles C. Selecman presided over his last graduation ceremony as President of SMU. The ceremony was shorter than usual since it conferred degrees on those graduastes who had finished their degrees in the summer term rather than one of the long terms. President Selecman used the occasion to deliver a valedictory address. He had resigned as President of SMU and was in the process of moving to Oklahoma City. He had been eleced bishop at the MECS General Conference of 1938 and was moving north to assume new responsibilities. Selecman was from Missouri, having been born in a small town in 1874. He attended Central College in Fayette, Missouri, (now Central Methodist Universtiy) but dropped out before receiving his degree. He was a star quarterback on the college football team and also a track star. He served Missouri churches and went as a missionary to Louisiana and took an extended trip to Europe in 1907. In1913 he moved to Los Angles as pastor of the new Trinity Methodist Church, housed in a non-traditional 9 story building that also housed concert halls and other venues. During World War I, he did YMCA work in Europe. In 1920 he accepted the call to First Methodist Dallas, and preached his first sermon there in June of that year. On a personal note, my grandfather, W. W. Hardt was attended the course of study at SMU that month. One Sunday he intended to go to the German Methodist church in Dallas, but on a last second impulse went to First Methodist instead. He commented favorably on Selecman’s preaching, noting in a letter to his future bride, Ida Wilson that Selemn “Has a bright future.” He did not stay at First Methodist very long. In March 1923 he was hired as the third president of SMU, replacing Hiram Boaz who had been elected bishop in 1922. His appointment was somewhat controversial since he became a university president even though he did not hold an undergraduate degree. He had received two honorary doctrates so calleding him “Dr.” was acceptable. He used his valedictory speech to reflect upon his 15+ years at the head of SMU. His tenure had been marked by huge expansion. In 1923, there were three buildings. He had overseen the construction of 8 buildings including the iconic McFarlin Auditorium and Ownby Stadium. His tenure also dealt with significan controversies including a football scandal and a raging fundamentalist-modernist controvery. He also stood firm againt student dancing and had to call in the police when students staged a “protest dance” . The faculty also rebelled in the 1930-31 academic year. Selecman had been forced to cut faculty salaries, but his own was raised. Naturally the professors resented that action. Selecman returned to Dallas in 1944 as Bihop of the North Texas Confernce. He retired in 1948 and lived our his life across the street from SMU. His funeral service was conducted at First Methodist Church in March 1958. He was interred at Hillcrest Mausoleum.

Dayton Methodists Honor 91 year old preacher, E. W. Solomon, August 1942 E. W. Solomon, a retired preacher living in Dayton was honored on his 91st birthday in August 1942 with a huge party. In addition to celebrating his birthday, he also celebrated the 70th anniversary of his entering the ministry. He was born in Alabama and had memories of the Civil War. He attended Auburn College (today Auburn University) and was a member of the Alabama Confernce for 16 years. He transferred to the Texas Confernce in 1888 and was appointed to Shearn in Houston (today First Methodist). He also served Austin, Texarakana, Corsicana, Lufkin, Huntsville, Bryan, and Marshall. Bishop Frank Smith remembered hearing him preach as a boy in Corsicana. He baptized Senator Morris Sheppard when the future senator was student at the University of Texas. He was also the presiding elder of 4 districts in his long career. Tributes and visitors poured in from all over the Texas Conference. Mrs Solomon was still livng and other family members were there as well as clergy and laity. His text for the sermon was “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed. . “ The Texas Conference Archives holds the guest book for this grand occaision, billed as honoring the oldest Methodist preacher in Texas (can’t verify that he really was). This event has a special personal resonance. That same summer, Dayton held a revial. As I have noted before, there were lots of gimmicks used to increase attendance. This revial’s gimmick was that the preaching would be done by a 91 year old and a 19 year old. The 91 year of old was Rev. Solomon. The 19 year old was my father, John Wesley Hardt. He was home for the summer from Lon Morris College and looking forward to entering SMU in the fall. His father was the preacher in Anahuac which was conveniently located to Dayton. A 91 year old and 19 year old sharing preaching for a revival---it probably won’t happen again.

This Week in Texas Methodist History, August 15 Three Texans Sail for Japan as Missionaries, August 1948 The Board of Missions tried something new after World War II. Most Methodist missionaries were considered “lifers”. That is after preparing for a foreign mission field, they were expected to spend the rest of their careers in foreign missions. Of course there were frequent furloughs in which missinaries would come back to the United States to visit familes, receive medical attention, give birth to their children, and tour churches intrpeting their missionary work to U. S. Christians. Methodist missions in Asia were in shambles after World War II. Churhcs, hospitals, schools, etc. in the occupied portion of China were especially hard hit, but so too were missions in Japan, Korea, and Malaysia. Missionaries in all these places had been evacuated or interned by the Japanese. Many missionaies who had served in East Asia were eager to get back to work, but everyone knew that more laborers in the vineyard were needed. One solution was to institute a program of short term missionary service. Applicants were required to already have their college degrees, and rather than another degree at Scaritt or another such missionary-training institution, they would receive 2 months of intensive training in New York City, home of the Board of Missions. They promised to serve three years and solicit support from their home churches. At the end of those three years, there was no expectation that the missionary would stay in foreign missions. Three Texans were accepted into the program and sailed for Japan in August 1948. They were W. B. Swim of Baird, Irene Nix of Amarillo, and Rev. Lawrence Zellers of Weatherford. The 3 year missionary commitment was designed as an experiment. In the case of Lawrence Zellers, it was a much longer tenure. His name along with Mrs. Zellers is listed in the 2000 Texas Conference Journal as missionaries to Korea.

Walteer Vernon Explains New Disciplinary Provisions After Unification August 1939 Walter Vernon is well known as the most prolific Texas Methodist historian of the middle decades of the 20th century. In addition to his histories of the North Texas Conference, the Arkansas Conference,and leading the team that wrote the Methodist Excitement in Texas, he also contributed many articles to the Southwestern Christian Advocate and at times served as one of the Associate Editors of that newspaper. The Unification of the MEC, MECS, and MP denominations into the Methodist Church was accomplished in late spring 1939. A few months later Vernon informed readers of the Advocate of changes impacing the new annual confernces enacted at the Uniting Conference. Some of them were radical, others barely significant and almost completely forgotten. For example. The new Discipline allowed annual confernces to demand a physical exam for candiates for the ministry. Today such a provision would violate medical privacy rights and flies in modern consciousness about disability rights. Basically Annual Conferences did not wish to admit feeble or impaired candidates who might soon be put on disability leave and drive up pension and insurance costs. Another new provision was making the District Conference optional. The District Conference was once an important feature of the Methodist calendar. In the 1880s for example, I have found many records of district conferences lasting a whole week. The few district conferences I have attended usually lasted one hour and dealt with property issues about the District Superintendent’s residence. The new Discipline also expanded the number of lay delegates to Annual Conference by determing that each charge, rather than each district would have a lay delegate. In a provision I have never seen, Annual Confernces were given the option of electing lay delegates each year or quadrennially. Another radical provision showed the continuing devolution of examination of preachers and their character. A major part of annual conference in the early years of the denomination was the examination of each preacher’s character. That’s right—every preacher had to stand before the conference and be examined about his character during the preceeding year. By the early 20th century that process had been modified. At Annual Conference each District Superintendent stood before the conference and attested to good character of the ministers in his district. In 1939 that public declaration was eliminated and charges of poor character were resolved in committee meetings prior to Annual Confernce. One can imagine that some preachers felt a sigh of relief over this latter provision.