North Alabama United Methodist Conference
The North Alabama Conference is the connection of the approximately 698 United Methodist churches within the geographical area from the middle of Alabama north to the Tennessee state line. The United Methodist Center is located at 898 Arkadelphia Road on the campus of Birmingham-Southern College.
An Annual Conference is the basic organizational body in The United Methodist Church. A Bishop presides over an Annual Conference. The Annual Conference is organized in smaller groups of churches called Districts. The North Alabama Conference is made up of eight Districts.
United Methodist pastors are itinerate within an Annual Conference area, which means they are either reappointed to the same church or to a different church every year. As a result they move from church to church during their ministry career.
History
The North Alabama Conference was created in 1870 when the congregations of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS) in Alabama were reorganized into two annual conferences: Alabama and North Alabama.
When three Methodist denominations reunited to form the Methodist Church in 1939, the North Alabama Conference continued. Any White congregations of the former Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Protestant Church joined the MECS congregations in it. African American congregations were placed in the Central Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church. St Paul Methodist Church in Birmingham was one such African American congregation.
When the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church united to form the United Methodist Church in 1968, the segregation of African Americans into central conferences ended. These African American congregations in Birmingham became part of the North Alabama Conference.
External References
- North Alabama Conference website
- 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