Merry Christmas, Wesley Bros Comics fans!  Today we reach the end of our month-long Christmas Conference series.  The primary business of the founding conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church was to ordain lay preachers for sacramental ministry in the United States.  On the first day of Christmas, Thomas Coke ordained Francis Asbury a deacon.  On the second day of Christmas, he ordained him an elder.  And on the third day of Christmas, he appointed him as superintendent, or bishop, with the authority to make appointments and ordain clergy.  Asbury’s Brethren friend, Philip William Otterbein was present to lay hands on him for the ordination.  12 other preachers were ordained, including Richard Allen, who would become the founder of the first black denomination in America (African Methodist Episcopal Church).

Other business to note was the abridgment of the 39 Articles of Religion of the Anglican Church down to 24, with an added article about civic duties in the U.S. This would be the founding of the Book of Discipline for the new denomination.  They also accepted a John Wesley-approved Prayer Book to align the worship experience across the church.  Also of importance, the Conference officially took a stance against slavery, saying, “We view it as contrary to the Golden Law of God.”  However, Richard Allen and Harry Hosier, the two black men present at the conference, did not have voting rights during the conference, so it wasn’t all roses.

One of the founding members, John Dickens from New York, proposed the name Methodist Episcopal Church, and it stuck.  The General Conference would then meet every four years after to establish the connexion and rules of the growing denomination.