William McKendree

William McKendree ( July 6, 1757 , King William County , Virginia , United States ; † March 5, 1835 , Sumner County (Tennessee) , Tennessee ) was the fourth bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the first Methodist bishop to reside in the United States was born. He was elected in 1808.

Life

youth

Mc Kendree was born in King William County , Virginia , to John and Mary McKendree of Scottish descent . As a young man, McKendree served in the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War . He achieved the rank of aide in the Commissary Department. He took part in the battle of Yorktown and witnessed the surrender of Lord Cornwallis . After the war he withdrew into private life.

He had a conversion experience in 1787. Soon after, he began discussing the Christian faith with his friends and included them in his fervent prayers. Then he began to take part in public Christian events and his speeches made a great impression.

service

In 1788 he was accepted into the service of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Brunswick County on a probationary basis. What was unusual was that it was recorded without first obtaining a License to Preach and without the recommendation of others. Bishop Francis Asbury appointed him Junior Preacher in Mecklenburg and he also served in neighboring districts for several years.

As Rev. McKendree, he continued his ministry as an itinerant minister until November 1792, when he was severely disappointed by the General Conference of the Church. Mr. O'Kelly had influenced him to initiate various reforms in the Church. In the General Conference , however, these failed. O'Kelly left church and McKendree, who sympathized with him, submitted his parting. However, the Conference allowed him to continue preaching in Methodist Societies .

McKendree was soon given the opportunity to visit the wards with Bishop Francis Asbury to see if his impressions were correct. Realizing that he had been seduced, he then studied very carefully the rules established by John Wesley and convinced himself that the Church, as run by the General Conference in the United States, was in complete accordance with the old one Church and that it is very well adjusted to the current situation.

In 1793 he was posted to South Carolina , but returned the following year. For the next three years he oversaw the district, which stretched from Chesapeake Bay to the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Allegheny Mountains . In 1796 he became Presiding Elder . In 1798 he was sent to the Baltimore Conference and in 1800 he went with Bishop Asbury and Bishop Richard Whatcoat to the Western Conference , in Bethel, Kentucky .

He was then called to serve as Presiding Elder of the Kentucky-Holston District (1800–01). In 1801, the Conference sent him to attend Church projects in southeast Ohio , Kentucky , Tennessee, and western Virginia and Illinois . He subsequently became a Presiding Elder in the Cumberland District. Here too, in addition to his organizational duties, he served as a preacher and became a respected representative of the Church. Among other things, he was one of the co-founders of the Great Revival in the West.

As a bishop

William McKendree became known for his talent as a preacher and the pious mindfulness with which he carried out all his duties. In 1808 at the General Conference in Baltimore he was elected bishop. After a sermon, Bishop Asbury is reported to have said, “That sermon will make McKendree bishop.” (This sermon will make McKendree a bishop.)

From then on he traveled, with Asbury or alone, through all the districts of the church. His first episcopal tour of 1,500 miles (2,400 km) was through Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, and Illinois. After 1816 he was Senior Bishop for 19 years . In 1830 he supported the Lebanon Seminary in Lebanon (Illinois) . The school then changed its name to McKendree College (later University).

McKendree remained unmarried. His family had moved to Sumner County, Tennessee , in about 1810 . When he wasn't out, this was home to him. He died on March 5, 1835 in the house of his brother, Dr. James McKendree, in Sumner County near Nashville . One of his last words was “All is well.” (Everything is good).

legacy

Bishop Matthew Simpson wrote of McKendree:

He was a man of great energy and genius, and was deeply pious and modest almost to timidity. His mind was clear and logical, his knowledge varied and extensive, his imagination lively but well regulated, and his eloquence was unusually powerful. He was careful in the administration of discipline, and intruded system into all the operations of the church.
he was a man of great energy and genius, and was profoundly pious and humble almost to the point of timidity. His mind was clear and logical, his knowledge varied and rich, his imagination vivid but appropriately regulated, and his eloquence unusually powerful. He was careful in the application of punishments and systematically introduced all the works of the Church.

McKendree's influence was welcome everywhere, but especially valued in the West. He had spent years of hard work establishing the Methodist Church in the border regions of the west. Therefore, he always felt a deep interest in the photo gallery of the work there. This also gave him the nickname Father of Western Methodism and to this day he is considered one of the greatest bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Some people were named after him, for example William McKendree Springer , William McKendree Robbins , William McKendree Gwin .

literature

• Frederick DeLand Leete : Methodist Bishops. The Methodist Publishing House, Nashville 1948.
• Robert Paine: Life and Times of William McKendree: Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 2 volumes. Nashville 1874. ( google book search )
• Roy Hunter Short: Chosen to be Consecrated: The Bishops of The Methodist Church, 1784-1968. General Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church, Lake Junaluska, NC 1976.
• Matthew Simpson (ed.): Cyclopaedia of Methodism. Revised edition. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1880. [3]
• Sketches of Holston Preachers

Web links

• Ohio History Central web site (Ohio Historical Society).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Robert Paine: Life and Times of William McKendree. 1874. p. 44
2. ^ Matthew Simpson (Ed.): Cyclopaedia of Methodism. Revised edition. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1880. [1] p. 40.
3. ^ Matthew Simpson (ed.): Cyclopaedia of Methodism. Revised edition. Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1880. [2] p. 39.