The recent move by United Methodists in Bulgaria and Romania to leave the denomination is the latest in a history of separations within the Methodist tradition.
The Rev. Charles Yrigoyen Jr., a leading United Methodist historian, oversaw the denomination’s Commission on Archives and History for nearly 24 years. He died at age 84.
Elizabeth Upham Yates was one of the first Methodist women granted a license to preach, a pioneering Methodist missionary in China, among the first women elected to serve as delegates to a General Conference, and a champion for women's suffrage.
The Rev. Francis Burns, raised as an indentured servant, became the first Black bishop in The Methodist Episcopal Church as Missionary Bishop of Liberia in 1858.