First Priciple of Chicago Training School and “Archbishop of Deaconnesses” It is said of the first college in the United States to award degrees to women, Oberlin (1841), that it is peculiar in that which is good. A compliment equally applicable to an Oberlin graduate, Lucy Jane Rider. She became a physician when most medical...
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...
Classical Early 20th Century Mission Story James E. McEldowney represents the classical missionary story of the early twentieth century. At a student volunteer meeting in Detroit in 1927, he pledged to be a missionary. Stories of the needs of the people inspired him. He continued his education, thinking that he might be going to China...
Advocate of Integration in Methodism Born August 24, 1912, in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Golden received degrees from Clark College and Gammon Theological Seminary, both in Atlanta. He was ordained an elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) in 1938. He served several congregations in the South before becoming professor in the Department of Religion and...
Leader of Board of Foreign Missions Diffendorfer claimed that as a Sunday school student he was inspired with such a passion for mission by British missionary David Livingstone that it lasted his whole life. But his mother claimed that his personality had elements of P. T. Barnum as well. The passion and the leadership became...
Preacher of the first Spanish-language Methodist sermon in Argentina By 1866 the Argentine mission was prospering but the most important step had not yet taken place. This was such a constant preoccupation for Rev. Goodfellow, the Superintendent of the Conference, who in his report of April 1865, a kind of premonition abruptly erupted: We need...
First Methodist mission in Argentina Rev. William H. Norris arrived in October, 1839 to work in Montevideo as preacher and teacher. Upon his arrival in Montevideo Norris found a very unexpected state of affairs. Two opposing armies were within a few miles of the city. The city was full of refugees from Buenos Aires and...
Origins of the Methodist Mission in Argentina The first years of Methodism in the Rio de la Plata area were quite unstable with little recorded of the happenings. From 1828, to 1853, Buenos Aires was ruled by Juan Manuel de Rosas. His policy of restriction to a free market economy, soon brought some reprisal measures,...
First Executive of Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society Nathan Bangs, 1778 -1862, was the primary organizer and first administrator of the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society, founded in 1819. He was concurrently for almost a decade the head of the denomination’s Book Concern. Thus, Bangs had a major impact on the origins of two of the United...
Missionary and Father of American Methodism Francis Asbury, the father of American Methodism, was a missionary before he became a bishop in 1784 and was a missionary afterwards — until the day he died in in late March, 1816. Asbury was a missionary in the style of those sent by Jesus in the Gospel of...
