Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The roots of the General Board of Church and Society go back to 1912 and the creation of the General Board of Temperance by the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1960 the Methodist Church merged three agencies, the Board of Temperance, the Commission on World Peace and the Board of Social and Economic Relations into the Board of Christian Social Concerns. This agency was merged, in 1968, with the Commission on Christian Social Action of the Evangelical United Brethren, to form the Board of Christian Social Concerns of the United Methodist Church. The agency's name was changed in 1972 to the Board of Church and Society.
Until 1980 the organization of the Board revealed a direct continuity with the three predecessor boards of the Methodist Church. There was a division of General Welfare and Alchohol Problems, a division on World Peace and a division on Human Relations and Economic Issues. In 1980 the Board began working with new structures which were not formalized until 1991 into new divisions; the Ministry of God's Creation, the Ministry of God's Human Community, Resourcing Congregational Ministry and United Nation's Ministry. However, these divisions did not appear in practice until 1991. Between 1980 and 1990 the United Methodist Directory shows no divisions in Church and Society, only departments. In all cases the departments continue department names in existence under the previous administrative organization of the Board. For a more complete description see the Church and Society agency history.