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.

15 May On This Day in UB History: May 15 (Freemasonry)

On May 15, 1829, General Conference began in Fairfield County, Ohio. Before adjourning on May 19, they had taken a strong stand against Freemasonry–a somewhat signature stand for our denomination.

William Morgan, who claimed to have been a Master Mason, wrote an expose book about the Freemasons. That violated his pledge, as a Freemason, to not reveal the inner workings of the society. Before the book was published, Morgan disappeared. The predominant view is that he was abducted and thrown overboard into the Niagara River.

That happened in 1826. The resulting outrage sparked an anti-Mason movement across the country. John Quincy Adams and Millard Fillmore were among those who supported the Anti-Mason Party. (Nevertheless, Andrew Jackson, a Mason, was elected in 1829.)

You could say that the 1829 General Conference was just climbing aboard society’s anti-masonry bandwagon. But it started earlier with us. In 1826, the Miami Conference (Ohio) urged members to discontinue their lodge membership. In 1827, the Eastern Conference (Pennsylvania mostly) decreed that any members who became Masons “thereby lock themselves out of the conference and the church.”

The 1829 General Conference entered the fray by passing this resolution: “In no way or manner nor in any sense of the word shall Freemasonry be approved or tolerated in our church; and that should any of our church members, who may now be a Freemason, continue to attend their lodges, or as a Freemason attend and take part in their processions; or if he joins the Freemasons, such member, by such an act, excludes himself from membership in our church.”

That was shortened in 1833, and shortened again when this statement made the Constitution in 1841: “There shall be no connection with secret combinations.” That extended the prohibition beyond Freemasonry to other secret orders, like the Oddfellows. And it remains in our Constitution to this day.

Bottom line: if you are a Mason, you can’t also be a United Brethren member. The Masonic lodge promises salvation apart from Jesus Christ, and that’s not something we can make room for.

14 May On This Day in UB History: May 14 (Buddy Labor)

On May 14, 1988, John Buddy Labor graduated from Huntington College with a degree in Business. He was from Bumpe, Sierra Leone. His father, John Labor, was principal of Bumpe High school and a longtime leader in Sierra Leone Conference.

Buddy was born in Huntington on January 30, 1964, when his father was a student at Huntington College. The next day, in the same hospital, Tom Datema was born. They would be friends in Sierra Leone, and teammates at Huntington College.

Buddy Labor was, few people would dispute, HC’s best-ever soccer player. His number 10 jersey was retired on February 23, 1988, even before he graduated. A four-time all-American from 1984-87, Buddy held many HC soccer records: most goals scored in a game (4), most goals scored in a season (28), most goals scored in a career (100), most assists in a career (32), most points in a career (232), and most points in a game (10). He was the team MVP all four years.

The various collegiate athletic organizations recognized him.

• NAIA. All-district team all four years, honorable mention All-America 1984-85, second-team All-America 1986, and first-team All-America 1987.
• NCCAA. All-America from 1984-87, during which he ranked among the top ten goal scorers all four years.
• NCAA District III. All-District 1984-87. The 1986 team placed fourth nationally in the NCCAA.

Buddy Labor was inducted into the Huntington University Hall of Fame on December 1, 2001. He now lives in Atlanta and is a sales account manager for NexTraq.

13 May On This Day in UB History: May 13 (1889 Division)

On May 13, 1889–Day Four of General Conference–Bishop Milton Wright (right) and 14 other delegates walked out. They’d had enough. Time to start a new denomination.

General Conference was being held in York, Pa., and everyone figured there would be fireworks. For years, the “Liberals” and “Radicals” (us) had been fighting over the future of the church, and the Liberals had the votes. They were using the 1889 General Conference to make some huge changes:

• Adopt a new Confession of Faith.
• Allow laypersons to be delegates to General Conference (until then, ministers were running the show).
• Soften the stand against Freemasonry.
• Adopt a new Constitution.

The Constitution couldn’t be changed unless two-thirds of all United Brethren members–not just those voting–approved the change. That made it practically impossible to change the Constitution. And the Constitution said–no changing the Confession of Faith, no lay delegates, and no connection with secret societies (read: Freemasonry).

The Liberals, since they had the votes, basically decided to just ignore the Constitution. They made the changes they wanted to make, and the conference ended with a new Constitution and new Confession of Faith.

But before these votes were taken, Bishop Milton Wright and his supporters left in protest. We don’t know if they stormed out, or just quietly existed. Whatever the case, their departure was noticed and mourned, but it made no difference.

Wright & Co. gathered at the Park Opera House in York, where they reconvened as the “true” United Brethren in Christ Church. They argued that the Liberals had withdrawn and formed a brand new denomination with a new Constitution and bylaws. The Liberals had 250,000 members and the Radicals had about 15,000 members, so it’s a stretch to say THEY withdrew from us. But that was Milton Wright’s story, and he stuck to it.

There in the Park Opera House, the delegates re-elected Wright as bishop and elected three rookie bishops.

The whole thing was messy and sad. But today’s United Brethren church–which this year is celebrating its 250th anniversary–is descended from that small group of protesters. Otherwise, like the descendents of those other 250,000, we’d all be United Methodists.

11 May On This Day in UB History: May 11 (Civil War)

The entire Civil War occurred between the General Conferences of 1861 and 1865.

Almost all UB members in Virginia opposed slavery, but were basically cut off from the rest of the denomination. When the war started, some UBs suggested going independent and forming a southern United Brethren church.

However, Bishop Jacob John Glossbrenner (right) decided to stay in Virginia throughout the war, and he was the glue. The Maryland and Virginia churches, part of the same conference, held separate annual conferences for the duration. Glossbrenner was allowed to pass through the battle lines to hold conference for the Maryland churches and then return to Virginia.

The 1865 General Conference met May 11, 1865, in Iowa. By that time, the war had been over for a month. However, on May 10, Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, was finally captured in Georgia. When this news reached the conference, there was much rejoicing and they broke out in the “Doxology.”

Bishop Glossbrenner was there. Some ministers initially treated him coldly, suspicious of his decision to spend the war in Confederate territory. But after hearing Glossbrenner’s story, delegates passed a resolution commending his heroic leadership of the Virginia churches during the war.

The Civil War, which United Brethren people generally viewed as a just war to end a great evil, prompted us to reconsider our 1849 statement which emphasized pacifism. The 1865 General Conference, while still opposing aggressive warfare, added, “We believe it to be entirely consistent with the spirit of Christianity to bear arms when called upon to do so by the properly constituted authorities of our government for its preservation and defense.”

By 1865, Glossbrenner had already served 20 years as bishop. He continued another 20 years. His 40 years as bishop is longer than any other bishop, ever. He died two years after leaving office, possibly of stomach cancer.

10 May On This Day in UB History: May 10, 1767 – The Actual Day We Began

This year, 2017, the United Brethren Church celebrates its 250th anniversary. But May 10 is the exact day. On that day in 1767, our founders, Martin Boehm and William Otterbein, met in a barn in Lancaster, Pa. It was Pentecost Sunday.

“Great Meetings” dated back to the 1720s. They were usually independent religious gatherings, not connected to any particular group, and they were typically held at farms over a period of two or three days. Word would go out about an upcoming meeting—time, place, etc. People would pack up enough clothes and food to last a few days, travel however many miles they needed to travel, and bunk in homes, barns, tents, or crude shelters built just for the event. The host would stockpile food and maybe slaughter a few hogs, sheep, or even a cow. And let’s not forget the horses, who needed grain.

Various preachers would show up, gather a crowd, and let loose to everyone in hearing range. Several might be preaching at the same time on different parts of the farm—one in the barn, one under the big oak tree, one from the farmhouse porch. People from rural areas who maybe didn’t have regular access to a minister were able to sit under meaty preaching, and the fellowship was good. Probably the eating, too. Whole communities would find the Holy Spirit descending in power and changing everything.

Isaac Long, along with his brothers John and Benjamin, were among Martin Boehm’s converts among the Mennonites. All three were successful farmers. Isaac often accompanied Boehm to Great Meetings. In 1767, Isaac offered to host a Great Meeting at the barn his family had built 13 years before six miles northeast of Lancaster. How about May 10?

William Otterbein was then pastoring in York, Pa. He traveled the 30 miles to Lancaster. A minister from Virginia was preaching to an overflow crowd in the orchard. But Otterbein decided to go into the barn to hear Martin Boehm preach.

Boehm told about his conversion experience. As he plowed his fields, he knelt at the end of each row to pray, and the word “Lost! Lost!” continually hovered over him. Finally, halfway through a row, he broke. Falling to his knees, Boehm cried out, “Lord save, I am lost!” The words of Luke 19:10 immediately came to him, “I am come to seek and save that which is lost.” Joy poured through him. He ran to the house and told his wife what had happened.

The story clearly paralleled a life-changing experience Otterbein had had 22 years before when pastoring a church right there in Lancaster. He realized, “This man and I believe and have experienced the same things!”

Otterbein couldn’t contain himself. When Boehm finished preaching, Otterbein embraced him and exclaimed, “Wir sind Bruder!” We are brethren!

And thus began a lifelong friendship, and a new movement. A movement that became the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.