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...
Outstanding Early Missionary to Liberia Ann Wilkins was a missionary to Liberia from 1837-1857. She was the first American Methodist female missionary sent out by the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church as a missionary herself and not as a missionary spouse. She founded the first Methodist girls’ school outside of the United States...
Hymn Writer, Urban Missionary While known today primarily as a prolific hymn writer, Fanny Crosby (aka Fanny Van Alstyne and Frances Jane Crosby) was also an influential figure in the “rescue mission” movement of the late 19th century, notably in New York City where she lived most of her adult life. Ecumenical in spirit, she...
Bishop with a Passion for Mission United Methodist Bishop James K. Mathews had a lifelong passion for mission and evangelism across his long life of 97 years. The son-in-law of noted evangelist E. Stanley Jones, Mathews traveled the world as a Methodist missionary. He made more than 60 trips to India, 28 to Africa, 16...
Founding Director of New York Female Missionary Society Mary Mason was among the leadership of such New York charitable organizations as the Female Assistance Society, the Asylum for Lying In-Women, and the Female Benevolent Society. She was a founder of the Sunday school movement in New York City, taught at the Five Points Mission, and...
Mission Bishop and Founder of Relief Agency Herbert Welch (1862-1969), the longest serving Methodist bishop, played multiple roles of lasting significance in the mission and social history of the church. His accomplishments included: Originator and first executive (1940 to 1948) of what is today the United Methodist Committee on Relief, the disaster response and development...
Oldest Methodist Hospital in the United States On January 27, 1881, the Methodist Episcopal newspaper, The Christian Advocate, printed a piece by its influential editor, James Monroe Buckley. Buckley had been a church pastor in Connecticut just before his election as editor. The editorial related the unhappy story of the organist at Buckley’s former charge....
Oldest Methodist Congregation in the United States The story of the John Street Church actually begins in Ireland, where Philip Embury, his wife, Barbara Ruckle Heck (Embury’s cousin), and her husband were converted to Methodism. Philip Embury became one of Wesley’s local preachers. In 1760, a number of Irish Methodists, including the Emburys and 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...
Founder of Norwegian Methodism and Co-Founder of Norwegian-American Methodism Methodism in Norway owes its introduction to a single founder, Ole Peter Petersen. As a young Norwegian sailor, Petersen had his first contact with the Methodists in Boston in 1843. The next three years brought much serious reflection and a strong feeling of spiritual need. In...
