23 May On This Day in UB History: May 23 (New York City)

Owen Gordon (left) and Clarence Kopp.

Over the years, many United Brethren from Jamaica moved to New York City, and requests were made to start a Jamaican UB church in the Big Apple. In 1985, the Board of Missions agreed to explore the idea.

On May 23, 1987, Bishop Clarence Kopp and Owen Gordon met in New York City with about 50 United Brethren people from Jamaica, many of them from the Battersea UB church. They met in the Bronx, where most of them now lived. Others came from Queens, Brooklyn, Pelham, Mt. Vernon, and Long Island.

Gordon, who had pastored in Jamaica for 16 years, knew nearly everyone at that meeting and had baptized 15 of them. He reported that 46 people at the meeting committed themselves to help start a new church, and that they were quite enthusiastic about it.

It was decided to send Jamaican pastors on a rotating basis. First up: Owen and Francis Gordon, who arrived in April 1988 and stayed for three months. They were followed by Donald Dacres, who stayed through the rest of 1988. Basil Dunkley arrived at Christmas to replace Dacres.

The congregation remained small until 1992, when Simon White, another minister from Jamaica, became pastor. The church became firmly established under his ministry, which continued until 1998.

Linton Thomas, who held an annual conference license in Jamaica Conference, became the pastor in April 1998. The next year, First United Brethren Church in the Bronx was accepted into Mid-Atlantic Conference, and Thomas transferred his ministerial credentials from Jamaica Conference. Thomas remains pastor of this congregation, which averages about 100 people in attendance.

22 May On This Day in UB History: May 22 (Boehm and Newcomer)

May 22, 1799, seems to have been a disappointing day for Martin Boehm (left) and Christian Newcomer (right). They were holding a two-day meeting at the home of Andrew Zeller, who would go on to become a bishop, serving 1817-1821.

Newcomer frequently wrote about the “power” of Boehm’s preaching.

• “Father Boehm spoke with great zeal and power.”
• “The power of the Lord came down.”
• “…extraordinary power; every heart present was touched and tendered.”
• “Father Boehm preached this forenoon with great power and effect.”

Newcomer’s journal entry for May 22, 1799, says, “A great multitude of people had assembled; Brother Boehm spoke with uncommon power.” They then served communion to everyone.

But on this day, there was apparently power, but no “effect,” no hearts that were “touched and tendered” as was usually the case.

Instead, Newcomer wrote, “All did not seem to make any great impression on the hearts of the people. May God have mercy on them.”

Well, every evangelist occasionally faces audiences like that. Newcomer and Boehm just proceeded on to the next town.

20 May On This Day in UB History: May 20 (Daniel Shuck)

The 1869 General Conference convened on May 20, three weeks after the death of missionary Oliver Hadley. The previous General Conference met in Iowa, the farthest West they had ever gone. Now they swung clear back to the eastern side of the denomination, meeting in Lebanon, Pa.

Hadley’s death created quite a stir. We now had no missionaries in Sierra Leone.After over a decade of work, and at much cost, only a few people had been converted. People began suggesting that we pull out completely and spend the money elsewhere.

Daniel Flickinger, director of our mission organization, was sympathetic. He wrote that, under the circumstances, “I shall not oppose stoutly the abandonment of Africa.” The Board shared his feelings. One member was adamant that we continue, but others felt the money could be better spent on the numerous other opportunities.

The Mission board recommended that we, at least temporarily, entrust our work in Sierra Leone to the American Missionary Association or some other group. It sparked a spirited debate on the General Conference floor, with a lot of sentiment toward getting out.

Then Bishop Daniel Shuck (right) spoke at length. He mentioned how other denominations were “planting their standard on foreign soil.” He continued:

When we pass the resolution of the committee, Ichobod [the glory has departed] will be justly written upon our banner in the missionary cause, and the very lifeblood of our whole missionary operations will measurably cease to flow. I say, let this matter go with a way wide open to the Board. Let it say to the Church, “The Way is open,” and I believe the money and the men will come. It seems to me that the very death of that devoted missionary is the life of the foreign missionary enterprise in this Church. We have but too few who are willing to die in the cause.

Shuck’s speech carried the day. The delegates instructed the Mission board to “keep the door wide open.”

Joseph and Mary Gomer walked through that door, arriving in Sierra Leone in January 1871. The work almost immediately took off. Later that year, they were joined by Mrs. Mahala Hadley, who now experienced the spiritual harvest for which her husband had given his life.

Thank you, Bishop Shuck.

18 May On This Day in UB History: May 18 (June Brown)

June Brown through the years. Below:June with fellow missionary Eleanore Datema (right) at the 2009 US National Conference in Huron, Ohio.

During Commencement exercises on May 18, 1993, Huntington University recognized June Brown with the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. The citation began, “June L. Brown has built a life of excellence everywhere she has invested her talent and energy. In education, in service to country, and in missions, she has always held to the highest standards in her personal life and professional endeavors.”

June Brown grew up in Pennsylvania; her home church was King Street UB church in Chambersburg, Pa. She accepted Christ at age eight, and at age 15 sensed God calling her to the mission field. She enrolled at Huntington University in 1948, but left to spend four years in the Women’s Air Force. While stationed in San Antonio, Texas, she taught math and science classes, and played on the base softball and basketball teams, both of which won the Women’s Air Force World Championship.

June returned to Huntington University in 1954, graduated in 1956, and became a public schoolteacher in Rockford, Ill. But the call to missions remained. In 1957, she began 35 years as a United Brethren missionary in Sierra Leone.

June’s missionary service included six years as a teacher at Centennial Secondary School, followed by 29 years at Bumpe High School, where she taught math and Bible. She also served stints as boarding home manager, bookstore clerk and acting principal, and could ably step in when the school needed an electrician, plumber, or diesel mechanic. She was renowned for her skill as a hunter.

During her furlough in 1966, June returned to Huntington College to teaching physical education and coach basketball, volleyball, and tennis. Then it was back to Africa.

In 1985, June took on the role of Director of Missionary Affairs, in addition to her regular duties in education. She remained in Sierra Leone until 1992, when all missionaries were evacuated from the country because of a military coup. She took the opportunity to retire from missionary service.

Beginning around 1973, Edward Morlai, the Sierra Leone Conference director of Church Services, worked with June Brown in the Bumpe office. He was a big fan, but by no means the only fan. He testified, “She is not a stranger; she is one of us, and we like her. She is readily accepted, not only in our church, but in our culture. We bring many problems to her, and she helps us a lot. She knows what to do at what particular time. Anywhere you go, people know Miss Brown.”

When Mr. Morlai visited the United States in 1985, he told June Brown, “Now I know what you’re giving up to come to Sierra Leone.”

June didn’t view it that way. “When I come home on furlough, I almost feel guilty being here. Everything I touch and feel and eat, everything reminds me of what I don’t have over there, and what they don’t have—and probably won’t get for years to come, no matter how hard they strive for it….I’m not giving up anything. It’s a call, a desire to do the Lord’s work.”

Mr. Morlai smiled. “I don’t think she has convinced me. It took love to leave a church like King Street and go to Sierra Leone, and stay all those years. It is a big sacrifice for her. It takes a lot of love.”

June Brown now lives in her own house in Chambersburg, and is well cared for by friends, family, and the King Street congregation.

17 May On This Day in UB History: May 17 (Slavery and Alcohol)

Historian A. W. Drury wrote of the early United Brethren leaders, “They had not started out to reform the world, but to help to save it.” But by the time General Conference ended on May 17, 1821, we had waded deep into the waters of social action.

The delegates took strong stands against two evils in society: slavery, and alcohol. In both cases, they were ahead of their time.

Regarding slavery, there were people who would use the Bible to claim slavery was a divine institution. On the other side were abolitionists, who viewed slavery as evil and wanted to see it vanquished. The United Brethren church was firmly abolitionist, and never waivered from that.

The 1821 General Conference passed a lengthy resolution which began, “Resolved, That no slavery, in whatever form it may exist, and in no sense of the word, shall be permitted or tolerated in our Church.”

The resolution said any UB members who held slaves couldn’t continue as members, and laid out some conditions for freeing the slaves. In the years ahead, additional statements made out stand increasingly tough. We took a stand and pursued it relentlessly.

UB historian John Lawrence wrote, “On no subject have the United Brethren in Christ preserved a cleaner record than on the subject of slavery.” He said other church groups had moderated their anti-slavery stands during the first couple decades of the 1800s, probably because they had churches in both the North and South. But, he said, “The United Brethren in Christ have firmly, and almost alone, maintained theirs.”

A statement against slavery remained in our Discipline until 1945, when we replaced it with a statement on “Human Relations.” Our Constitution still has a statement against any kind of “involuntary servitude.”

Regarding alcohol: the 1821 General Conference prohibited UB members from operating a distillery, and instructed preachers to “labor against the evils of intemperance.” To that point, wrote John Lawrence, only one other ecclesiastical group had taken action against alcohol—a Unitarian group, in 1811, which had little influence beyond New England.

In 1826, five years after we took a stand, the American Temperance Society formed and other evangelical denominations entered the fray. We, wrote Lawrence with mixed metaphors, “were among the pioneers in the temperance movement, and have always fought in the advanced columns.”

The 1841 General Conference adopted a statement requiring that all UB members—both ministers and laypersons—totally abstain from drinking alcohol. That remained the Law of UB Land until 2005, when we said laypersons could drink alcohol.

16 May On This Day in UB History: May 16 (Sierra Leone)

On May 16, 1994, the Board of Missions unanimously passed a resolution calling for the withdrawal of all missionaries in Sierra Leone by the end of 1994. Wrote Missions director Kyle McQuillen, “This is not a temporary move. It is a final withdrawal of missionary personnel.”

Sierra Leone’s descent into anarchy had dominated the March board meeting. Rebel activity kept rising, and missionaries with other groups had been killed. Although 9 of the 14 board members had served in Sierra Leone, they raised serious questions about our long-term role there.

Two months later, the board gathered in Huntington, Ind., for an emergency session. They spent hours wrestling with their options before making the decision to pull out. Our churches and other ministries, including Mattru Hospital, would continue, but under national leadership.

During the next seven months, UB missionaries trickled out of the country–the Welch family and nurse Neita Dey in May, the Tom Datema family in August, Tom Hastie in October. Nadine Hoekman, a nurse at Mattru, chose to remain in Sierra Leone as an independent missionary; she signed documents releasing the United Brethren from responsibility for her welfare.

Bishop Ray Seilhamer and Kyle McQuillen traveled to Sierra Leone in December 1994 to attend Sierra Leone Conference. When they left on December 13, they took with them the last three UB missionaries: nurse Sara Banter, and Phil and Carol Fiedler.

And thus ended the era of United Brethren missionary involvement in Sierra Leone. But only for 13 years.