This week in Christian history: Pope born, ‘shall the fundamentalists win?’

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, May 15, 2022

Jacob Albright dies – May 18, 1808

This week marks the anniversary of when Jacob Albright, a German-American Methodist preacher who founded the Evangelical Church, died from what is believed to be tuberculosis.

Born near Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and coming from a Lutheran background, Albright became a Methodist in his 40s and eventually became a bishop the year before he died.

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Albright’s followers, which were mostly German-speaking, eventually formed their own group known as the Evangelical Association, and later named the Evangelical Church.

“Albright's Methodist followers formed their own German-speaking church due in part to a lack of cooperation with the English-speaking majority of American Methodists,” explained The United Methodist Church’s General Commission on Archives and History.

“The Evangelical Church united in 1946 with the United Brethren in Christ to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church.”