Historical Resources

Biographical - this section will lead you to information on bishops, ministers and lay people associated with the denomination. 

Conferences - the Church of the United Brethren in Christ was previously divided into various regional administrative units called conferences. Each year these conferences met to discuss various issues within the conference as well as conduct the business of the conference. This was called the "Annual Conference." The Annual Conference had the power to license and ordain ministers as well as to establish congregations. This section of the website contains resources on conferences, circuits, churches and ministers.

As well as holding Annual Conferences every year, the United Brethren denomination also held a General Conference every four years. The General Conference was made up of delegates from the various Annual Conferences and was the ultimate governing board of the denomination. This section also contains the minutes of some of the General Conferences 

The current structure of the denomination has disbanded the Annual Conferences and created one National Conference for the United States that meets semi-annually. The National Conference is part of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ that holds a General Conference every four years. 

Miscellaneous - this portion of the website is devoted to those publications that do not seem to fit anywhere else. Included in this area are publications from United Brethren splinter groups such as the Republican United Brethren. 

Publications - the United Brethren Publishing House was established in 1834 primarily for the purpose of publishing a denominational periodical. Eventually the publishing house produced other publications such as hymnals and books. This section of the website contains indexes and electronic transcriptions of some of the publications. Two major sub-areas website are indexes and transcriptions of the Religious Telescope, which is the first United Brethren Periodical to reach a church wide audience, and the Christian Conservator, a periodical which began publication in 1885 and eventually became the primary periodical of the Old Constitution United Brethren in Christ. 

See our Research Guides for a current listing of digitized historical resources