“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree,” wrote Michael Crichton. In this 250th year since the founding of our country, we are especially poised to examine and learn from our history – not only as a nation, but also as United Methodists. Our history is not just artifact; it is the soil in which we are planted. It needs tending, so that we might continue to grow. Grab your calendars; this May, you will have two incredible opportunities to do just that.
The first is a faith forum entitled “Striving to End the Sin of Racism in Church and State: Contemporary and Historical Methodist Perspectives.” The forum will be hosted on Tuesday, May 12 from 1:00-6:30pm at Pennington United Methodist Church, one of the earliest congregations started as a class meeting by Captain Webb, one of the first Methodist preachers in America.
The day will open with worship and a powerful word from our own Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi. Bishop Ernest S. Lyght (Retired) will share about the UMC’s history of racial segregation and integration in his presentation: “My Personal Memories of the Delaware Conference of the Central Jurisdiction: What the Black Church gained and lost during integration, and what gifts it gave to the wider Church.” Rupert A. Hall, Jr. JD and Founder of Hope for the City Foundation will then speak on, “Economic Justice in Faith and Society,” and consider obstacles and challenges to ending the sin of racism in our time.
For those interested in preserving their own church’s or conference’s history, Kevin Dusenberry will lead a workshop on archival best practices, including identifying resources for ethnic congregations.
On May 13, a historical tour, “Saving the Soul of Our Nation and State,” will focus on how the American Revolution played out in New Jersey and on Captain Webb’s ministry in the area. Buses will leave from the Courtyard by Marriott Ewing Princeton at 8:30am.
Stops at Washington’s Crossing State Park and Monmouth Battlefield Park will allow participants to explore and learn about sites of America’s revolutionary history, and they will even have a chance to view original documents by the nation’s founders at Princeton Theological Seminary’s Library and Archives.
The tour will also visit Turning Point UMC, a successor to another of Captain Webb’s class meetings, and the historic Tennent Church, a significant site in early American Presbyterianism and in Francis Asbury’s ministry.
That evening, Dr. Kevin Newburg of Drew Theological School will give a keynote address on Captain Webb’s preaching in central New Jersey and the growth of the Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the United Methodist Church’s forebears.
These events are open to all and form part of the Northeastern Jurisdictional Commission on Archives and History (NEJCAH) 2026 Annual Meeting and Program, which runs from May 12-14 and is hosted this year by the Greater New Jersey Commission on Archives and History and Pennington United Methodist Church. Get all the details here. Register online here or print out a paper registration form here. Need accommodations? Register for the conference hotel, Courtyard Marriott Ewing Princeton.
At a moment when we are asking hard questions about identity, justice, and faithfulness, history becomes more than memory—it becomes a guide. These gatherings invite us not simply to look back, but to listen: to the voices that shaped us, the struggles we faced, and the hope that still calls us forward. By tending the soil of our shared story, we make room for new growth rooted in truth, courage, and grace.