LANCASTER, PA – The Annual Meeting of the Northeast Jurisdiction Commission of Archives and History met May 8 to 10 at Lancaster to share and learn from each other as well as the history of the hosting Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, Pennsylvania.
Attending were Reverend John Callanan, chair of GNJ Commission on Archives and History, Reverend William Wilson, chair of the GNJ Historical Society, and Reverend Donald DeGroat, vice-chair of the GNJ Commission on Archives and History.
Presentations were made by Dr. Dale Paterson on Digital Archiving, Dr. Mark Draper, “Awakenings: The Revolutionary First Great Awakening,” and Dr. Charles Yrigoyen, “Methodism’s Second Great Awakening”. Also included was a presentation on Henry and Ella Appenzeller, first Methodist missionaries to Korea. Bishop Peggy Johnson preached a great concluding sermon, “Waking Up in the Sunset.”
A one-day field trip to local historical sites visited many sites in the Lancaster area. Among them were Martin Boehm’s Chapel, the Ephrata Cloister, and Albright’s Chapel. An exceptional, immersive presentation on slavery and the road to freedom by the Bethel AME Cultural Center highlighted he day’s travel.
Meeting a portrayer of the “Reverend Henry Boehm” at Martin Boehm’s Chapel brought New Jersey history closer to home. Rev. Henry Boehm rode with Bishop Francis Asbury from 1805 to 1813. He was ordained by the East Pennsylvania Methodist Episcopal Conference. He became a member of the New Jersey Conference when it was spun-off from Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and concluded his ministry in the Newark Annual Conference. He lived to reach a hundred and died December 28, 1875, on Staten Island, after 75 years of ministry.