March – 100 years ago
The 52nd annual session of the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church convened March 17-22, 1920, at Stevens Memorial Church in Harrisburg. The 18th Amendment having just gone into effect in January, the report of the Conference Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals stated: “Rejoicing in the fact that we have won the greatest victory that the world has ever known, we must understand that we cannot sit down and fold our arms and feel that the work is done. Duties are not ended with the adoption of the amendment to the Constitution of the United States closing the saloons forever in our nation. Proper laws must be made to make the amendment effective. To do this will require earnest work and courage on the part of all temperance people.”The first church building at the conference site was dedicated in 1873 as Mount Pleasant, and later re-named Thirteenth Street. The name Stevens Memorial was adopted when the present sanctuary was dedicated in 1909. With 1403 members in 1920, Stevens Memorial was the conference’s largest membership church. In 2004 the building was transferred to Stevens Emmanuel UMC, an Hispanic ministry, and in 2013 the church was closed and the building sold.
April – 50 years ago
The April 1970 United Methodist monthly publication of the former Wyoming Conference included the following local church news item: “The first major alterations and improvements in a century are now in progress at Gibson, Pa. The church celebrated its centennial June 15, 1969. A basement is being dug under the entire church and there are plans for Sunday School rooms, a dining room and kitchen facilities. The church was built in 1868 and dedicated June 3, 1869.”The April 1970 issue of The Link of the former Central Pennsylvania Conference included an article titled “Help Needed on Hill” encouraging good Pennsylvania United Methodists everywhere to urge their elected representatives to defeat proposed bills that would (1) establish a state lottery, (2) permit the Sunday sales of liquor, (3) permit the sale of beer in grocery stores. Eventually, however, Pennsylvania followed the lead of other states and authorized a state lottery in 1971, Sunday sales of liquor in 2002, and sales of beer in grocery stores in 2016.
