Leader among Central Conference Bishops Born in Tagudin, Ilocos Sur Province, in 1898, Valencia grew up as a Roman Catholic, although he became acquainted with Protestants through the United Brethren mission near his home. He came from a family involved in the Filipino struggle for independence. His uncle was a guerrilla in the conflict with...
First African Bishop in The Methodist Church Born in Mozambique in 1914, Zunguze became a Christian through his wife, Thelma, who was a graduate of the Hartzell’s Girl School in Chicuque. He was educated at a Methodist Episcopal Church school in Inhambane province, at the Cambine mission, and Old Umtali in then-Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe),...
Bishop and Ecumenist of the Methodist Church of Mexico Guerra was born in Reynosa, Mexico, and studied in the U.S. He ordination in the U.S. was in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He became a district superintendent of the Methodist Church of Mexico and was elected the third bishop of the church in 1938. Although...
Missionary, Mission Board Staff, and Mission Advocate From her early years of growing up in a parsonage to her years as a professional person, and later a lay woman active in church affairs, Kathryne Bieri Sears was devoted to mission. At age twenty-four, she was the first single woman appointed by the Methodist Episcopal Board...
Leader of Uruguayan Methodism Oscar Bolioli presided over the Methodist Church in Uruguay three times: from 1975-1979, 2002-2008 and 2012-2016. Bolioli acquired his theological training at the Evangelical Higher Institute of Theological Studies, an ecumenical institution in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was later ordained as an elder in the Methodist Church of Uruguay. He had...
First United Methodist Bishop in Russia When Bishop Rüdiger (Ruediger) R. Minor became the first United Methodist bishop to reside in Moscow, he was uniquely qualified to head a mission to oversee the denomination’s fledgling congregations there and in other parts of the former Soviet Union. As a child, one of his earliest memories was...
Mission Bishop, Ecumenical Leader, and Father of the Wesley Foundation Movement Bishop James Chamberlain Baker, 1879 – 1969, was a prominent mission bishop and ecumenical mission leader who is likely best remembered as “Father of the Wesley Foundation movement”—student ministries on the campuses of publicly funded colleges and universities. He served as a bishop in...
May Peace Abound: The Legacy of Georgia Harkness “May truth and freedom come to every nation; may peace abound where strife has raged so long; that each may seek to love and build together, a world united, righting every wrong; a world united in its love for freedom, proclaiming peace together in one song.” The...
Missionary newspaper publisher in China Born in Somerville, New Jersey. Baldwin arrived in Fukien, Foochow, in 1858 and returned to America three years later because of the poor health of his wife, who died on the voyage home. In 1862 Baldwin returned to Foochow and was one of the first missionaries who proposed that Chinese...
First resident MEC bishop in China Born in Fayette, Wisconsin, Bashford studied at the University of Wisconsin and Boston University School of Theology. After serving first as a pastor, then for 15 years as president of Ohio Wesleyan University, he was elected a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles and in 1904...
