HERITAGE SUNDAY
May 23, 2010
“New Places for New People and Renewing Existing Congregations: Our Heritage”
Introduction by GCAH General Secretary, Robert J. Williams
In 2004, the General Conference, upon recommendation of the General Commission on Archives and History, changed the date of Heritage Sunday from that nearest April 23 to May 24 or the Sunday preceding. April 23 reminded the church of the merger of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church on April 23, 1968. But May 24 reminded the church of John Wesley’s “heart warming experience” at a Moravian prayer meeting on Aldersgate Street in 1738. This seemed to capture a rich legacy of renewal, revival, conversion, and the beginnings of a movement that included the Otterbein, Albright, and Boehm legacy as well. Organizational merger seemed less important to the General Commission than the power of faith in the lives of persons leading to transformation of society.
The theme for Heritage Sunday, 2010, as set by the General Commission, is “New Places for New People and Renewing Existing Congregations: Our Heritage.” This theme will call for reflection about how Methodism and other evangelical movements spread across the world and what our heritage can teach us and inspire us to do today. Our theme will undergird the denominational emphasis on Four Areas of Foci affirmed by the General Conference arising out of work done by the General Secretaries of all the agencies, the Council of Bishops, and the Connectional Table. The themes for the coming years of the quadrennium are:
2011: Ministry with the Poor: Our Heritage
2012: Health Ministries: Our Heritage.
Each of these areas of focus are legitimate heirs of Wesley, Otterbein and Albright. Heritage Sunday will be a time that congregations can remember the vital ministries that have marked our church and its predecessor churches and find inspiration and insight for engaging in these ministries today for the sake of the future.
Planning Your Celebration
The planning for Heritage Sunday will certainly include the pastor but it may also include the church historian, the Commission on Worship, the Commission on Education, and the lay leader. This year’s theme on spreading the gospel into new places and renewing churches certainly involves all the dimensions of time: past, present, and future. Any sense of our heritage of reaching persons wherever they may be and revitalizing faith communities will get us to tell the story of circuit riders going to the frontier, of starting mission conferences among various racial/ethnic groups, of deaconesses serving in urban and rural settings, of camp meetings, and building new churches.
You may want to use the Sunday School time to highlight missionaries you have supported in far away places or learn about how your annual conference formed new churches. When was your church founded and why was it located where it was?
Below you will find the following resources:
Worship resources:
Collects
Prayers
Hymns
Sermon Notes
Suggested Scripture Texts
Bibliography
Chilcote, Paul Wesley. The Wesleyan Tradition: A Paradigm for Renewal.
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002.
Yrigoyen, Charles, Jr. The Global Impact of the Wesleyan Traditions and Their
Related Movements. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002.
Powerpoint Presentation of Historical Materials:
Historic Images related to creating new places for new people, church extension hymns, statistics, and maps.
Church Extension Work in the late Nineteenth Century: Two Important Leaders:
Alfred J. Kynett - pioneer Church Extension executive, 1829-1899. In 1864 the church formed a church-wide Church Extension Society, to which in 1867 Kynett was called to become Corresponding Secretary. During his thirty-two years in this office more than 11,000 churches received financial aid amounting to more than $6 million.
C. C. McCabe - (1836-1906) In 1868 he came to Philadelphia as assistant to A. J. Kynett in the Methodist Extension Society, where he continued as secretary for sixteen years. His battle cry in promoting church extension, “we’re building two a day,” became famous throughout the church.
Board of Church Extension - In 1872 the society was organized into a Board of Church Extension. Funds collected and conferences were apportioned money to the church which needed it the most. A loan fund was also established. Much of the fund was used for small churches in the west and among small African American Churches in the South. MECS had a similar board. They united in 1939 and was the Board of Missions and Church Extension. In 1952 it became the Board of Missions.
More resources will be posted as they become available.
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