First Ordained African-American Methodist Woman and Missionary to Appalachia Sallie Crenshaw was twice a ground-breaker in African-American women’s ordination in the Methodist tradition. In 1936, she was one of the two first African-American woman ordained as a local elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the East Tennessee Conference. Then in 1956 she was one...
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...
Church and Community Worker Serving as Parish Nurse My journey into Church and Community ministry began (without my knowledge), when I was a young teen. I enjoyed going to the local school on Sunday after church to help register community residents for oral Polio vaccinations. I thought it was an honor to be asked by...
Holistic Rural Ministry The Bennettsville-Cheraw Area Cooperative Ministry (BCACM), established in 1966, is a specialized ministry with rural residents of South Carolina’s Marlboro and Chesterfield counties. With four pastors and a combined church membership below 2500, the cooperative includes one station church (Trinity UMC), two parishes (Cheraw and Bennettsville), and one circuit (Bennettsville Circuit). All...
Interfaith Efforts for Economic Justice As a Church and Community Worker commissioned as a missionary by the General Board of Global Ministries, I work with Interfaith Arkansas and the Interfaith Arkansas Alliance. I am also an ordained elder of the Arkansas Conference of The United Methodist Church. The original predecessor of Interfaith Arkansas, the Arkansas...
Leader in Settlement Work When the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS), began its foray into settlement work at the turn of the twentieth century, it asked Sara Estelle Haskin to take up the post in Dallas. With no equipment and no real pattern to follow, she plunged into the work and began a very successful...
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...
Social Arm of the UMC in the Philippines In 1984, Bishop Emerito P. Nacpil of the Manila Episcopal Area invited Dr. and Mrs. Philip del Rosario and Rev. and Mrs. George Holcombe to launch a UMC-backed experimental self-help community project in the episcopal area. It was not until January 1988 that the Del Rosarios and...
Pioneering MECS Home Missioner and Educational Missionary to China Born in Watkinsville, Georgia, Laura Haygood moved to Atlanta at age seven, received her early education from her mother, enrolled at Wesleyan Female College, Macon, Georgia at age sixteen, and graduated in two years (1864). She established a private school for girls in 1966. In 1872,...
Peace Award-Winning Missionaries to Algeria Pastor Hugh Johnson and his wife Shirliann (“Fritzi”) received the 2014 World Methodist Peace Award. Hugh and Shirliann dedicated their lives to the United Methodist Church for more than 40 years – 1963 up to 2005 – working in Algeria. The couple operated under a simple slogan: The church must be where...
