The Methodist Union Conference, uniting fifty bishops and 900 delegates, was held in Kansas City in April and May of 1939. This was the largest organic union of Protestant Churches in the U.S., during this time. This ecumenical effort unified Methodists of different denominations, creating a single church. On May 10th, five formal unifying declarations were read, pledging that “the Methodists are one people.” This significant act wiped out nearly a century of division between the churches surrounding the issue of slavery.[1]*

References

* This report on the Methodist Union Conference is meant to be illustrative, due to limited information available.

[1] Rouse, Ruth and Stephen Charles Neill. A History of the Ecumenical Movement: 1517-1948. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1954.