Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1949 (Creation)
- 1845 (Creation)
Extent
1-10000
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Wesleyan Methodist Church of America emerged in response to the Methodist Episcopal Church's support of slavery and its centralized, authoritarian governance. In November 1842, leaders O. Scott, J. Horton, and L. R. Sunderland withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church and launched The True Wesleyan, a weekly publication explaining their reasons for separation. In December, Luther Lee and L. C. Matlack also withdrew, marking the formal beginning of the Wesleyan movement. Although earlier separations had occurred—particularly in Michigan, where a conference was established—these events laid the foundation for the official organization. The first church of the new denomination was founded in Providence, Rhode Island. In February 1843, a preliminary convention was held in Andover, Massachusetts, which led to a General Convention in Utica, New York, on May 31, 1843. There, the Wesleyan Methodist Church was officially organized and adopted a governing Discipline. The first General Conference convened in October 1844 to revise this Discipline, followed by a second in October 1848, which produced a more comprehensive and clearly organized version.
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Scope and content
This series comprises records from the Illinois conference. They capture the district’s role as a vital regional hub within the wider church. The materials include minutes from district conferences, correspondence between local pastors and district leaders, reports from area churches, pastoral appointments, membership and financial statistics, and policy documents specific to the region.
These records reveal how the district guided and supported local congregations and clergy, implemented denominational policies on a regional level, and fostered church growth and ministry within the community.
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Notes element
General note
The earliest journal in our files is from 1908, which specifies it was the sixty-fourth session. Five churches reported at this session. No later journals for Illinois exist in our files until 1949, when it was reestablished as the Illinois Mission Conference. The Illinois Conference was listed as a separate entity in the 1923 Discipline. But in 1927, the Discipline specified that northern Illinois churches belonged to Iowa and southern Illinois churches belonged to Kentucky. In 1931, the Discipline specified southern Illinois churches as part of the Indiana Conference, and northern Illinois churches as part of the Iowa Conference. At the 1949 session of the Iowa Conference, churches in Illinois were legally separated and formed into the Illinois Mission Conference of the WMC. Thus, the two dates for the beginning of the Illinois conference. The new Illinois Conference continued until the 1968 merger.