This week in Christian history: ‘Christmas Conference,' Pius IV elected

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, December 19, 2021

Pioneering Irish-American preacher converts to Methodism – Dec. 25, 1752

A portrait of Philip Embury (1728-1775), an eighteenth century preacher from Ireland who helped found Methodism in America. | Screengrab/

This week marks the anniversary of when Philip Embury, the Irish-born immigrant believed to be the first Methodist preacher to settle in America, converted to Methodism.

Baptized as a baby in the Church of Ireland, Embury was believed to have first encountered Methodism in 1749 while being educated in German at the Palatine community in Ballingrane.

After being licensed as a Methodist preacher in 1758, Embury immigrated to British colonial America and helped to found the first Methodist society in New York City in 1760.

“Embury and the other English and Irish [Methodists] raised subscriptions and in March 1768 purchased a lot in John Street, where they built a chapel,” noted the Dictionary of Irish Biography.

“This was the first chapel in the world to be named after John Wesley. Embury is reputed to have constructed the pulpit, and he and Paul Heck also carried out other interior woodwork.”