Alabama Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South
The Alabama Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South was the state-wide Methodist unit formed in 1845 when most Southern churches in the Methodist Episcopal Church withdrew from the national body over its policy against bishops owning slaves and formed the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Birmingham-area churches that were part of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, such as Walker Memorial and Bethlehem were part of the Alabama Conference. In 1864 the conference was divided into the Mobile and Montgomery conferences. In 1870, Alabama Southern Methodists were re-divided with Birmingham-area churches placed in the newly-formed North Alabama Conference. They have continued to be in this conference through successive denominational mergers.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Protestant Church reunited in 1939 and thus the name of the conference changed to the Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church. In 1956 the name changed again to the Alabama-West Florida Conference, this name continued after another denominational merger formed the United Methodist Church in 1968.
External site
References
- Godhold, Albert and John H. Ness Jr. (2021) Table of United Methodist Annual Conferences, 1796-2021 Madison, NJ: General Conference on Archives and History The United Methodist Church