The Evangelical United Brethren Church is one of the predecessor denominations of The United Methodist Church. This collection is made up of the administrative material from the Women's Society of World Service. It also includes the records from the Local Branches, Quadrennial Conventions, World Evangel, Literature Department and the Society's area's of emphasis Christian Social Relations. Missionary Education, Missionary Education for children and Youth, and Spiritual Life. The collection is made up of nine series.
Evangelical United Brethren Church. Women's Society of World ServiceThe records of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW) encompass its beginnings as a general agency and continues up to the early twenty-first century. Its primary role is advocacy for women both within and beyond United Methodism. Over time advocacy would be expanded beyond just women roles and acceptance as leaders. Responsibilities in their defined mission include workplace and sexual harassment, equitable leadership roles and benefits in relation to gender and race, legislation to General Conference such as changing language usage in the Book of Discipline to codify improvements for women and social issues relating thereof. These are but a few examples of its advocacy work for the denomination.
In order to support, empower and educate the denomination on all levels within COSROW’s defined responsibilities can be found in the Advocacy, Audio-Visuals, Connectional Ministries and Printed Matter series. Here the researcher will find a plethora of avenues by which COSROW fulfills its mission through multimedia, mailings, newsletters such as the Yellow Ribbon and The Flyer, correspondence, creation and submission of petitions to General Conference along with organizing and informing delegates, worship resources reflecting various women’s concerns and expressions, pamphlets, workshops and monitoring seminaries and all the boards and agencies throughout the connectional structures within the larger church.
COSROW is highly organized in the sense of resourcing and utilizing its membership both on the general church and annual conference levels. The creation of a talent bank in which to draw upon not only for its own qualitative work but also to network skilled individuals is but one of the creative ways COSROW optimizes its impact on the church despite its small staff. The records illustrate how the role of monitoring became a defining part of its work. Social justice issues related to women and children are amply documented in the files. The genesis of using non-gender specific language issue to promote inclusiveness within United Methodism can be traced here as well.
The Financial and Administration series reflects how COSROW ran its organization and implemented its mission on a daily basis. Minutes of the various committees, reports on the work and funding of the commission, along with membership records and the General Secretary’s office files make up the primary documents in this series. A researcher will notice multiple files on the same topics. The reason for this duplication rests upon the original organizational structure the commission utilized for an egalitarian General Secretariat rather than a typical top-down corporate management structure found in other United Methodist agencies. Later COSROW adapted the latter structure out of necessity. On another note it should be noted that COSROW often recorded their meetings in various media platforms which became the official record.
United Methodist Church (U.S.). General Commission on the Status and Role of WomenThe collection holds petitions and committee minutes from the various General Conferences for the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Uniting Conference of the Methodist Church (1939), and the United Methodist Church. The Methodist Episcopal series begins in 1800, with hand- written minutes and concludes with 1938. The United Methodist Church series begins with 1972. The material deals with all matters which came before the committees of the General Conference. Actions of the committees where passed onto the floor of the General Conference and if passed where incorporated into the Discipline. The minutes of the committee work usually does not include a transcript of their discussions, only their actions on the various petitions before them. The distinction between the petition original and copy is that the original was kept by the General Conference's administrative office, while the copy went to the committee. Late petitions arrived at the administrative offices after the filing deadline. To see actual floor debates or the reports of agencies or special commissions to the General Conference see the Journal of the General Conference and/or the Daily Christian Advocate.
The Evangelical United Brethren records begin with 1946 and end with 1966 The Church of the United Brethren in Christ records begin with 1901 and end at 1945. There is also a folder with some records for the 19th century. There are no records for the Evangelical Association.
United Methodist Church (U.S.). General ConferenceThis collection is comprised of administrative material from The United Methodist Church, The Evangelical United Brethren Church and the Evangelical Church. It also contains resource material, racial and ethnic church membership statistics, and administrative files of the Infant Formula Task Force.
United Methodist Church (U.S.). General Council on MinistriesThe records of the Judicial Council cover both the Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church from 1940 to 2002. The collection is comprised of printed and published decisions, meeting minutes and other administrative material and case files related to various decisions. Case decisions 727 to 734 are not missing, but were originally referred back to another session of the Judicial Council and then renumbered as 736, 737, 738, 740, 741, 742, 750, and 751.
United Methodist Church (U.S.). Judicial CouncilThe records contain the transcripts of public addresses given by Methodist bishops, ministers and missionaries as well as U.S. public officials from the armed forces and the office of the President. Additional voices included representatives from the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the National Woman’s Party and the Young Women’s Christian Association. Prominent speakers include I. Garland Penn, James Cannon, William Oldham, Charles A. Tindley, Anna Gordon, Clarence True Wilson, Robert E. Jones, Lena L. Fisher, and John R. Mott. Additional voices included William Howard Taft, Alice Paul, William Jennings Bryan, William B. McAdoo, Alvin York and Josephus Daniels.
The Official Reports and Records bound volume traces the history of the Centenary Exposition from its conception, planning and implementation. Here we see not only reports but also the various schedules for each day with its focused emphasis. Images document the many programs, grounds maps, specific representative groups and theatrical productions such as the Wayfarer pageant. Each descriptive entry is authored by different individuals.
The Centenary Surveys was published by the Joint Centenary Committee through the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1918. There is extensive statistical information related to the various work by the board. Topics include mission work to various ethnicity groups and geographic areas along with associated maps, financial data and various other important numeric tabulations.
Methodist Episcopal Church. Centenary CommitteeThis collection contains records of the Ministry Study Committee. Record types include: minutes, correspondence, working papers, reports, notes, and printed matter. The records cover the entire life of the committee, from 1980 through 1984.
United Methodist Church (U.S.). Ministry Study CommitteeRecords contain the correspondence between Consultation members in the early years of the organization.
National Consultation on Equitable SalariesAdministration holds a variety of committee meeting minutes. Campus ministry documents the National Division's campus ministry program. Conference contacts holds regular correspondence between the Division and their counterparts at the conference or jurisdictional level; the material is organized by conference, jurisdiction or by state. Crusade scholars holds records of applications and correspondence with successful scholars. Department of Architecture documents several building programs and building plans used by the Division. The Division's participation in the denomination-wide ethnic minority local church emphasis is documented in this series. Issues remaining after the merger of the Evangelical United Brethren Church and the Methodists are held in the EUB series. Various special programs of the Division which focus on several urban issues are documented in the Institutional Ministries, Metropolitan Urban Service Training, Office of Urban Ministries and Parish Ministries series. Legal files deal with financial issues, bequests and gifts to the Division. Reports holds various statements and reports issued by the Division, while Research and Surveys most hold research conducted for local churches or annual conferences and relate to church growth issues. Town and country ministries are documented in this series. The Division's work with schools and children's homes are documented in the Youth Serving Ministries. The Subject files contain regular correspondence and reports about the various programs of the Division.
United Methodist Church (U.S.). General Board of Global Ministries. National DivisionThe Commission's minutes, reports and study documents are in the collection. There are reports from the various boards and agencies, study documents concerning restructuring, minutes of the meetings of the Commission, Commission correspondence, responses from the boards and agencies to various drafts of the Commission's report and the final report of the Study Commission.
United Methodist Church (U.S.). Structure Study Commission