This Week in Texas Methodist History  April 1

Bishop Joyce Delivers Missionary Speech In Episcopal Church in Marshall  1900

Although Methodism grew out of Anglicanism, there was considerable friction between the Episcopal Church and Methodists in Texas.   In 1853 the Methodist preacher at Bastrop, J. W. Whipple, invited the Episcopal Missionary Bishop George Washington Freeman to preach in his church.  Whipple and his colleague J. H. Addison attended the service and found it so lacking in spirituality that they kept the congregation after Freemen's departure so they could preacher "enthusiastic" sermons.  

The use of robes instead of plain clothing was major distinction between the two denominations.  Methodists derided Episcopalians as too ritualistic instead of "experimental".  We would use the work "experiential" instead of "experimental."

In 1900 Bishop Isaac Joyce of the MEC was in Marshall on a missionary tour.  Bishop Joyce had been MEC bishop of Japan, Korea, and China until 1898 and he toured afterwards telling stories about the work of the Asian missions.  Marshall was an appropriate setting since it was the location of Wiley College, founded by the MEC to serve African Americans.  It was named for Bishop Isaac Wiley of the MEC who had been a medical missionary to China from 1850 to 1854 and had died in China in 1884.  

The Episcopal Rector in Marshal, the Rev. T. W. Jones, invited Bishop Joyce to preach from his pulpit during Joyce's stay in Marshall.   The editor of the Advocate, a MECS organ, was astounded by the invitation.  He was also in Marshall at the time and decided to attend the service because "this was something new under the sun in Texas."   The report of the service was careful to note that Jones was robed and Joyce was in plain cloth.  

The "venerable" bishop (he was 66 at the time) spoke for an hour telling stories of missionary work in Asia then thanked Jones for the invitation and delivered a benediction.    The Advocate editor was most complimentary of the Episcopalian Rector for his courtesy and hoped such amity would spread.  He noted that Bishop Galloway (MECS) had been invited to address an Episcopal church in Brazil, and that Episcopalians in Virginia were known for their friendships with preachers from other denominations.  In  the end though, he couldn't resist.  He concluded his report "Not until Episcopalians abate some of their exclusiveness and arrogant airs can they hope that their pleas for 'church unity' will excite anything but ridicule. "  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History  March 24

Mt. Zion MEC Cornerstone Laid in Brenham  1879

The church is closed now, but the building still stands on the west side of Brenham near Blinn College.  

The cornerstone for the building was laid November 28, 1879, under the direction of its pastor, Spencer Hardwell.  Hardwell was one of the most prominent members of the conference having served Wesley in Austin and would leave Brenham for his next appointment, Mt. Vernon in Houston.  Also in attendance was Benjamin Watrous, a delegate to the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1869 and one of five African American signers of that constitution.  He was also a former Presiding Elder of the district in which the church was located.  Hardwell had also been at the constitutional convention, but as a teller rather than a delegate.  

The proposed building was to be 56 feet by 34 feet on a lot that measured 75 feet by 65 feet.  The estimated cost of the building was to be $125.   A collection of $23.50 was taken on the day of the cornerstone laying.   Hardwell described the lot as the prettiest on the west side of Brenham.  

Within a few months construction crews for the Gulf Coast Santa Fe Railroad would lay tracks two blocks east of the church lot.  The coming of the railroad meant increased prosperity, jobs, and population.  Mt. Zion thrived as a result.  

Hardwell's next appointment was to Mt. Vernon and then to Richmond.  He attended the 1883 Annual Conference in Paris but became ill there.  He made it home to Richmond where he died Dec. 6, 1883. His grave is not in a cemetery but behind a private residence in Richmon,  

 This Week in Texas Methodist History  March 17

Orceneth Fisher Calls for Doubling the Number of Bishops, 1854

Orecenth Fisher (1803-1880) was one of the most prominent Methodist preachers of 19th century Texas.  He was an author, pastor, presiding elder, editor, delegate to General Conference.   His membership in the Missouri Conference, Texas Conference, East Texas Conference, and Pacific Conference gave him an above average ability to view the Methodist church as a whole.  As the General Conference of the MECS of 1854 approached, Fisher called for delegates to double the number of bishops from four to eight.   

The reasons for the increase lay in the westward expansion of the United States.  The territorial acquisition as a result of the war with Mexico, the California Gold Rush, the westward expansion of the agricultural frontier, improved transportation, and increased immigration from Europe meant that the US was growing---and so was the Methodist Church.  

As one could tell from the name "Methodist Episcopal", the denomination needed bishops (Episcopal means bishop.  The bishops presided over annual conferences.  In the absence of a bishop the conference could elect a presiding officer, but that officer could not ordain new preachers.  Ordination was vital to supplying the ministers who were organizing the new churches on the frontier.  

The problem was that none of the four effective bishops in the MECS in 1854 lived west of the Mississippi River.  Bishops were elected at the quadrennial General Conference, and most of the voting delegates at those conferences lived in the older states east of the Mississippi River.  Naturally they voted for people they knew best.   The bishops met and decided which bishop would preside over the annual conferences for the next four years.  Often the distant conferences of the West would be assigned to the youngest bishop who was presumably the most able to withstand the rigors of travel. 

In his letter to the New Orleans Christiann Advocate.  Fisher predicted that the two conferences in Texas would soon more than double.  He predicted a San Antonio Conference, a Rio Grande Conference, and an El Paso Conference.  (The 1854 General Conference did not create any of these, but the 1858 General Conference did create the Rio Grande Mission Conference which eventually became the West Texas then Southwest Texas and then Rio Texas Conference.)  

Fisher did not stop with Texas--he predicted that Methodist Conferences would then be created though Mexico and Central America and China.  

He said, "our brothers in the East do not realize the vastness of our territory in the West and how rapidly it is filling up."   The 1854 General Conference needed to double the number of bishops because "Methodism is God's instrument for converting the world."

The MECS did elect 3 bishops in 1854.  (Early, Pierce, and Kavanaugh)

Pierce was only 43 years old and, true to form, was sent to California.   His travel memoir is a treasure.  Kavanaugh was 52 and robust enough to travel.  Early was already 68 when he was elected but lived another 19 years.