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 General Conference has been the supreme governing body throughout the history of the United Methodist tradition. It has generally met once every four years. The General Conferences' origins lie in John Wesley's conferences with his assistants held in England.
The Methodist Tradition. The General Conference traces its origins back to the Christmas Conference of 1784, when the Methodist Episcopal Church was formed. The growth and development of the General Conference in the Methodist tradition may be outlined through three successive periods. The first was from 1792 to 1808, at which time a delegated General Conference came into being. During this first period, every minister was a member of the Conference. The second period was from 1808 until 1940. Even though separate Methodist denominations came into existence, all used delegated General Conferences. These meetings made legislation for the denomination, elected denominational presidents or bishops and acted as a judicial review body.
After 1940, the powers of the General Conference regarding election and judicial review were delegated to new bodies, but it still retained the legislative function for the denomination. The General Conference is still the only organization which can 'speak' for the entire denomination.
The Evangelical United Brethren Tradition. In 1946, the Church of the United Brethren in Christ merged with the Evangelical Church to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church.
The Church of the United Brethren in Christ began with the preaching of Philip William Otterbein and Martin Boehm in the 1760s.
On September 25, 1800 at a meeting of Otterbein, Martin Boehm, and other lay ministers at the home of Peter Kemp in Maryland , the church was formally organized under the name, "Church of the United Brethren in Christ." In 1815, the first General Conference was held near Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. . A second General Conference was held June 2, 1817 which arranged for quadrennial sessions of the General Conference.
The Evangelical Association of North America was founded by Jacob Albright. Jacob Albright whose itinerant preaching resulted, in 1803, in the organization of a group called "Albright's People" (Die Albrecht's Leute).
In 1807, the first conference was held at Kleinfeltersville, Pennsylvania but it was not until 1816 that the first General Conference was held which, among other activities changed the Church's name to "The Evangelical Association" (Evangelische Gemeinschaft).