Troy Conference to host its final NEJCAH Annual Meeting in Vermont
2/24/2010
By Karen Staulters
The Northeastern Jurisdiction of the Commission on Archives and History (NEJCAH) will meet at the Hilltop Inn in Barre, Vt., May 11 through 13. The event will be sponsored by the Troy Annual Conference, which will divide along state lines in July, with the New York churches becoming part of a new conference in Upper New York and the Vermont churches joining New England Annual Conference.
According to the NEJCAH newsletter, from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, Vermont east of the Green Mountains was its own annual conference, which has inspired the theme: “Beyond the Green Mountains—A Journey Through the Old Vermont Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.”
The program will review the history of the old Vermont Conference and visit a number of churches which played a significant part in the history of the conference including Trinity United Methodist Church in Montpelier, Grace United Methodist Church in St. Johnsbury, the Newbury Community Church, Bradford United Methodist Church and Hedding United Methodist Church in Barre. During the meeting, trips will be taken to Wolcott United Methodist Church, gathered and built by the Rev. George S. Brown, the first African American pastor in both the Troy and Vermont Conferences. Brown re-enactor Clifford Oliver will be on hand to share the story of Brown’s ministry along the Green Mountains and Adirondacks.
Participants will also visit Mother Peckett’s grave in Bradford.
The meeting will also spotlight the stories of a number of Vermont women who played a significant role in the development of the Women’s Foreign Missionary Society in Boston, Mass., in 1869, and “listen” to some individuals who were involved in the North Barre Italian Mission, which ministered to the Italian granite cutters who emigrated to Vermont to work in the Rock of Ages quarry in Barre.