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Allegheny: a Glorious Unity
by Jacob Clagg Director of
The Allegheny Region of the Churches of God, General Conference (CGGC) encompasses two historic territories of the CGGC, namely, the West Pennsylvania Conference and the West Virginia Conference. It is therefore, unquestionably, one of the oldest regions in the denomination, having come into existence even before the General Eldership did. The first eldership of the CGGC was founded in 1830 in east Pennsylvania territory, and by 1844 the Western Pennsylvania eldership was established. It was the next year, 1845, that ministers of East Penn, West Penn, and Ohio met to form the first General Eldership.
Of course, it wasn’t a perfectly contiguous movement westward that established the West Penn Eldership. Instead, traveling preachers had moved well past West Penn territory and into Ohio, establishing the Ohio Eldership in 1836. It was only later that CGGC preachers looked back east and began holding camp meetings in West Penn in 1839, according to church historian Richard Kern.2 These camp meetings were an apparent success, and Ohio preachers reported “’real conversions’ at genuine ‘Holy Ghost’ meetings,” and likewise, baptisms were common as well.3
The character of the West Penn Eldership is given unique attention by Forney. His history of the first 100 years of the CGGC has a definitive structure. At nearly 1000 pages, most of the book focuses on linear summaries of eldership meetings and the outcomes of board votes. Forney rarely quotes from anyone or anything extensively, and even more rarely quotes poetry. But in speaking about the West Pennsylvania and West Virginia Elderships, Forney’s poetic side comes to the fore.
Forney begins the section about the West Virginia Eldership with a quote from John Milton that speaks to the beauty and orderliness of the West Penn Eldership. In 1882, the West Penn Eldership made the decision that part of her body ought to be severed and turned into a new Eldership, and the “resolutions were adopted by a rising vote,” Forney claims. There was only a sense of brotherhood. It is “order,” which Milton says is “a glorious law,” and which Forney claims “Never characterized any Eldership more perennially than it did the West Pennsylvania Eldership.”4
As Forney tells it, and the eldership meetings notes record it, the West Penn Eldership continued to do ministry and even grew for the next 40 years, whereupon the eldership decided it’s lines of communication were getting too long. In our issue on the Western Region, we discussed the matter of geography, and how pivotal a role space played and continues to play in the organization of our denomination. By the 1880’s, it was clear to pastors of the West Penn Eldership that churches in West Virginia, who were ostensibly part of West Penn, were too distant to make annual meetings effective. New pastors were less and less likely to make the journey given that they had no prior connection to West Penn. And so, in 1882 the West Virgina Eldership (North) was formed and in part lead by minsters from West Penn, solidifying their relationship.
The story of the West Virginia Eldership is more tumultuous and the problems therein sound thoroughly modern even 100 years removed. Ministers and Elders of West Virginia continually lamented that so many effective and quality pastors would come into the Eldership only to leave for another field after a year or so. In the early 1900’s, the Pacific Northwest was a particularly appealing place because of climate and the ripeness of the field. The denomination had very little established at that time in what is now Washington, Oregon, and northern California, and that apparently made for an adventure too tempting for many pastors. So, while the West Virginia Eldership continued to grow, and even helped to establish another new eldership in the West Virginia Eldership (South), growth was difficult. West Virginia Eldership (South) began unofficially in
2 Richard Kern, A History of the Ohio Conference (Nappanee, IN: Evangel Press, 1986) 7.
3 Kern, 7.
4 Forney, History of the Churches of God in the United States of North America, 705.
1894 as they were not yet chartered until the following full General Eldership meeting in 1896, although work was being done in this part of West Virginia as early as 1885. The formation of this eldership was a long time coming and was accepted into the “union of Elderships”5 as Forney calls it, with much enthusiasm.
Despite the overarching sense of unity in the Allegheny Region, contention and division were not foreign in the Churches of God in the early 1900’s. In Reveries of Past Days, an unpublished personal account by F.O. Eakin (1880-1981), Eakin says that he “entered the West Penna. Eldership during a period of internal strife, both in the Eldership and the Churches of God.”6 It was the second such strife that resulted in a couple of churches, namely Butler and Barkeyville, and some dear pastors leaving the denomination. The first strife before this resulted in the Anderson separation. All of this was over the theological concept of “Second Work Sanctification.” As F.O. Eakin tells it, the discourse over this particular doctrine looked more like discord and was uniquely divisive in the CGGC. Other denominations had small flare ups of contention, but it subsided quickly. Not so for the Churches of God. That is, until Rev. Charles Manchester, then President of Findlay College from 1896-1904, managed to restore unity. Heated debate was happening on the floor of the General Eldership when Dr. Manchester “assured the group there was no imminent danger from dissension if everyone would just leave the Lord work out all differences in His own way.” F.O. Eakin quotes Dr. Manchester as having said that, “It was persecution that made radicals, and if they let those who differ with them alone, they would not become radicals, or do any harm.”7 As far as Eakin was concerned, this marked the end of disunity over the subject.
By the year 2,000, Forney’s now century old comments of unity between West Penn and West Virgina were still realized even during the process of regionalization. Correspondence between the CGGC and the pastors of the regions is remarkably light. The CGGC Archives contain a number of letters and emails that speak to the general feeling of unease about regionalization that many elderships felt. The consolidation was often seen to be an attempt to limit the autonomy of elderships. Yet, West Penn and West Virginia Eldership (by this time “conferences”) were largely in agreement about unification. That doesn’t mean that everything went smoothly though. Initial plans for regionalization imagined the Allegheny region consisting not merely of West Penn and West Virgina, but also of churches from Central PA, who had been part of the East Penn Conference, some for over 100 years. Despite numerous communications and attempts, Central PA churches wanted to remain part of East Penn Conference in what would eventually become the Eastern Regional Conference. What had initially been planned as an evenly divided Pennsylvania with ERC in the East, and Allegheny in the West, instead became what it is today, with a narrower Allegheny in West Penn.
The overarching story of the Allegheny Region is one of remarkable unity over more than 150 years of local and national challenges, changing times, church divisions, and faithful service to God and His Kingdom. In reading about the history of those who labored in fields distant by time or geography, we come to a greater respect for their sacrifices, and a greater appreciation of our present circumstances, in which we might see ourselves as benefactors of their legacy, we who are now tasked with carrying on their great work; bringing unity and Christ to our neighbors.
5 Forney, 739.
