Chapter 2

Our Worldwide Ministries

The United Brethren church has organized national conferences in seven countries, all of which are entitled to representation at General Conference. They are, in the order in which they were founded: the United States, Canada, Sierra Leone, Jamaica, Honduras, Hong Kong, and Nicaragua. These seven national conferences, in 2001, established the Church of the United Brethren in Christ International. Each national conference chooses its own leaders and is totally in charge of its own work.

Several mission districts also operate under the supervision of an established national conference. The United States oversees work in India, Mexico, and Haiti. Hong Kong provides oversight of the work in Thailand and Myanmar. Honduras oversees new churches in El Salvador and Guatemala, and Nicaragua supervises the churches in Costa Rica. When mission districts qualify as national conferences and organize with their own governing documents and meet other requirements, they can be accepted as national conferences by the General Conference of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ International.

Prior to 2001, nearly all United Brethren work worldwide was considered to be under the authority of the General Conference, with all ministry outside of North America under the supervision of the Department of Missions. The headquarters in Huntington, Ind., was named the International Headquarters. But this was largely a colonial pattern, with the United States, in effect, supervising the rest of the world. This pattern ended in 2001 with the establishment of a truly international structure. Now, all national conferences are on the same administrative level. And whereas before the bishop was considered the superior of the leaders of other national conferences, the United States bishop is now the peer of--on the same level as--the leaders of all other national conferences. The US bishop and the US Global Ministries director have no administrative authority in other national conferences.

The international structure created an international executive committee which includes the highest leader of each national conference, along with the US Global Ministries director. They will meet annually. Each national conference will also choose delegates to the 2005 General Conference; the number of delegates is based on the worship attendance in the national conference.

Venturing Beyond North America

United Brethren mission work began in 1855 with the establishment of mission work in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Over the years, the church has branched into many other countries--sometimes pioneering brand new work, other times adopting congregations in countries which wanted to affiliate with us.

Until 1965, there were two United Brethren missionary groups, each sponsoring its own work: the Women's Missionary Association (renamed Women's Missionary Fellowship in 1989), and the Parent Board of Missions (called the Domestic, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society until 1957). In 1961, a Joint Board of Missions account was established, and the two mission groups began working more closely together. Those two groups merged in 1965 into the Department of Missions. General Conference elected about half of the department's board members, and the WMF appointed the other half. Any US-sponsored missions work is now the responsibility of the Global Ministries Leadership Team.

Here is an overview of some of our worldwide work and how it developed.

Sierra Leone

Through the years, Sierra Leone was our largest and most prominent mission field. Missionaries were first sent in 1855, and the first two churches were organized in 1876. Following the division of 1889, we retained ownership of some work in Sierra Leone and continued ministering there. The WMF and the Parent Board jointly supported the work in Sierra Leone. It grew to include a hospital, dozens of schools, and over 50 churches. The conference also co-sponsored, with several other denominations, the Sierra Leone Bible College, where many of our pastors were trained.

In 1985, under the leadership of Field Director Kyle McQuillen, the work in Sierra Leone was nationalized; missionaries continued serving in Sierra Leone, but under the leadership of Sierra Leoneans. In 1994, all UB missionaries were evacuated from Sierra Leone because of a blossoming rebel war, which continued throughout the 1990s and devastated the country. By 2001, thanks to the intervention of Nigerian, British, and United Nations forces, a high degree of peace had returned to the country. However, rebel activity continued in some areas, particularly in diamond mining regions. The Mattru Hospital was reopened by the group Doctors Without Borders, and church life was resuming and expanding.

Germany

A mission outreach into Germany began in 1869. However, that work remained with the other group (now the United Methodists) after the division of 1889.

China

After the division of 1889, the New Constitution group retained control of the WMF's mission school for Chinese people in Oregon. However, they stopped supporting the work in 1898 and we regained sponsorship. The school closed in 1931, but it served as a bridge for opening a school near Canton, China, in 1932. This work was discontinued after the communist takeover of China in 1949. Dr. Y. T. Chiu, the original contact in China, then moved to Hong Kong and started United Brethren mission work there in 1950. The Hong Kong Conference was officially organized in 1962. On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong became part of China (it had been governed by Great Britain).

Hong Kong's leaders have been aggressive in reaching out to neighboring countries. Their initiative led to the establishment of work in Macau (1987), Thailand (1993), and Myanmar (1998). No missionaries have ever served in Hong Kong; it has always operated fully under the leadership of nationals.

Kentucky

The WMF assumed sponsorship of a mission field in Big Laurel, Kentucky, in 1939. Oversight of the two Laurel Mission churches was transferred to Central Conference in 1973.

Jamaica

The Parent Board began mission work in Jamaica in 1945. Originally, Rev. James B. O'Sullivan was recruited to head up new mission work in the Bahamas; an established work there had invited us to assume owernship. While on his way to the Bahamas, he was shipwrecked off of Cuba in a hurricane; several weeks later, he reached Jamaica. By then, the Parent Board, after some on-site investigation, had decided against going into the Bahamas, but they invited O'Sullivan to begin working in Jamaica. That is how Jamaica Conference got started. A conference of eleven churches was organized in 1952. James O'Sullivan died in October 2001.

Honduras

In 1929, Rev. James Elliott left his native Belize to pastor several English-speaking churches for the English Methodist Church on the north coast of Honduras. A year later, the Methodists abandoned their work in that country, but Elliott remained to pastor those now-independent congregations. During the next 15 years, he searched for a group willing to assume supervision of his churches. Finally, around 1944, he came in contact with the United Brethren church, which took a great interest in starting something in Honduras. Beginning in 1947, missionaries were sent to teach in Elliott's school in La Ceiba and to help out in the churches.

The work took a major turn in 1952, after the Archie Cameron family arrived in Honduras. Cameron, along with Honduran coworker Eudaldo Mejia, focused major attention on the largely unevangelized Spanish population. When Elliott's three English-speaking churches (against Elliott's wishes) severed their relationship with the United Brethren church in 1953, the Camerons stayed and focused entirely on the Spanish-speaking population.

The first Spanish church was organized in 1953, and Honduras Conference was officially organized in 1956. Over the next 20 years, Cameron helped start numerous churches in villages throughout northern Honduras, the work expanded into the southern part of the country, and the large Bethel School (now 2000 students strong) was established in La Ceiba.

Archie Cameron retired as field director in 1985, and since 1990, the country has been under national supervision. Today, Honduras Conference continues to be a pace-setter for the denomination in church planting.

Nicaragua

In 1965, Honduras Conference sent one of its pastors, Juan Campos, to Nicaragua to start churches there. He was joined a few years later by Rev. Guillermo Martinez, a native of El Salvador who was expelled from Honduras following the Soccer War of 1969. The Sandinista revolution of 1979 started almost in Martinez's back yard in Masaya. The UB churches in Nicaragua weathered the years of Sandinista rule, and since the establishment of democracy and national elections in the 1990s, the church has aggressively expanded from less than 10 churches to over 30 churches. The Nicaragua Conference was established in 1993. No UB missionaries have ever served in Nicaragua.

India

In 1974, the United Brethren church began supporting missionaries Richard and Miriam Prabhakar in India. Richard was chief medical officer at the Narsapur Christian Hospital and also director of the nearby Bethesda Leprosy Hospital. The Prabhakars became involved in various other ministries, including a large Bible correspondence program, radio ministry and, in the mid-1980s, church planting. The statistics for 2000 showed 33 UB churches in India, all located in Hindu "tribal" areas. The US National Conference provides oversight.

Macau

In the late 1980s, Hong Kong Conference approached the Mission board about helping to start mission work in Macau, a peninsula west of Hong Kong off of the Chinese mainland. The United States provided two families, along with funding, while Hong Kong provided a Chinese coworker and additional help. The work focuses on two areas: schools for teaching English, and church planting (mostly using contacts made through teaching). Two churches function in the main part of the city, and a new work began in 2001 on the island of Taipa, which is part of Macau. In 1999, Macau became part of China (it had been governed by Portugal).

Thailand

In 1993, Hong Kong began working among the Akha people high in the mountains of northern Thailand, on the border with Myanmar. The Akha are a group of people who migrated from China in the early 1900s. The work now includes churches and schools in two villages.

Costa Rica

The work in Costa Rica began in 1995 as an outreach of Nicaragua Conference. A Nicaraguan pastor who had married a Costa Rican woman spearheaded the work in the capital city of San Jose. Today, we have three churches in Costa Rica which operate under the supervision of Nicaragua Conference.

Mexico

A group of churches in central Mexico affiliated with us in 1997. The initial contacts with Mexico came through members of our Hispanic churches in southern California. The Mexico Mission District operates under the supervision of the US National Conference.

El Salvador

In 1999, the UB churches of Nicaragua, Honduras, and the United States partnered to begin working in El Salvador. Six congregations in El Salvador chose to affiliate with us. Honduras Conference provides the primary oversight.

Haiti

United Brethren work in Haiti began when Rev. Richard Oliam, a Haitian minister then living in Paris, France, learned about the United Brethren church through the UB website. He was supervising a group of churches in Haiti and wanted to find a group for them to affiliate with. Contacts were made. In October 2000, our missions leaders officially decided to launch into Haiti. Richard Oliam has since moved back to Haiti to personally supervise the Haitian churches. There are 20 churches in the southern part of the country and three churches in the western arm. In addition, ten churches in the northern part of the country have connections with our Haitian pastors in Florida. They, too, have decided to affiliate with us, and Oliam is providing oversight of them as well.

Ethnic Ministries in the United States

In its earliest years, United Brethren work began among immigrants from Germany. William Otterbein himself, one of our founders, originally came from Germany as a missionary of the Reformed Church. A ministry to immigrants from China, established in Oregon in the 1800s, became a bridge to ministry in China itself.

Since the 1980s, there has been an explosion in ethnic ministries within the United States. What had been almost entirely a Caucasian church now includes thriving ministries among immigrants from Hispanic countries, China, Haiti, Jamaica, and Africa.

California Conference took the lead in reaching out to immigrants from Hispanic countries. Ministers with Hispanic backgrounds--Victor Aviles, David Medina, Luis Benitez--pastored Hispanic churches which shared facilities with Anglo churches in California Conference. Under David Medina, several churches in Mexico, in the Baja region, affiliated with us for a short period of time (until Medina's relationship with the UB church ended). Luis Benitez, pastor of the Burbank Hispanic Church, has helped plant several other Hispanic churches in the southern California area as part of California Conference.

In 1987, the Missions department brought Honduran minister Denis Casco to the States and created Latin American Ministries. Through LAM, several more Hispanic churches have arisen in southern California, and Hispanic churches have also been either started or adopted in other places across the country--in Arizona, Texas, Illinois, and Florida. Contacts through LAM also led to the establishment of the Mexico Mission District.

Various other ethnic churches have arisen since the mid-1980s. Some are part of existing annual conferences in the United States, some remain under the oversight of the Global Ministries Leadership Team. These include:

• Jamaican and Chinese churches in New York City.
• Haitian, Jamaican, and Hispanic churches in Florida.
• African (primarily Sierra Leonean) churches in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.
• A Hispanic church in Indiana.

The 2001 US National Conference took official action to incorporate ethnic ministries, as soon as practical, into existing annual conferences.