Methodist / United Methodist History

A total of 1,031 recordings in this collection came from United Methodist sources, providing a varied and deep insight. Included are these special recordings:

• The 1939 merger that created The Methodist Church
• The 1968 merger of the E.U.B. and The Methodist Church
• Earl Kent Brown’s 10-part series on American Methodism, and 5-part series on John Wesley’s Methodism
• Albert Outler’s 4-part series on Evangelism in the Methodist Tradition

To find programs on Methodism, go to our Audio Programs page and use the search system drop-downs:

Subject: look for History: Methodist, Central Jurisdiction, U.M General Conference, and Wesley, John – or any other subject you wish.

Selected Speakers: find such speakers as Earl Kent Brown, Fred Corson, Van Bogard Dunn, Judith Craig, Alvin Deer, William Boyd Grove, Charlene Kammerer, Leontine Kelly, Harry Lambdin, Joseph Lowery, Frederick Maser, Albert Outler, William Quick, Ellen Johnson Sirlief, Forrest Stith, Prince Albert Taylor, James Thomas, C. Dale White, and Woodie White.

Randomly-chosen Program from a United Methodist institution:

Remembrances of the Central Jurisdiction

Speaker(s): Leontine T. C. Kelly

Description: Bishop Leontine T. C. Kelly (1920-2012) talks about her personal experience in the Central Jurisdiction of the Methodist Church. This recording is from a series of interviews conducted by Pamela Crosby at a 2004 reunion of persons who were part of the Central Jurisdiction. Kelly was the first African-American woman elected to the episcopacy in the United Methodist Church. She finds meaning in the Central Jurisdiction by recalling it as a time when her family's home in Cincinnati hosted many Methodist leaders of historic significance. In the Central Jurisdiction, blacks received training and skills in church leadership that they would not have received anywhere else in society, she says. - UMNS photo by Mike DuBose

Length: 9:42

Recording Date: 8/28/2004

Recorded at: College Park, Georgia