United Methodist Church (U.S.). North Georgia Conference

The Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (M.E.C.) was organized at the church's General Conference of 1830. The members met for the first time in Macon, Georgia, in 1831. Within a few years the church began to struggle with the issue of slavery. Unable to reach an agreement, the church divided in 1844 and the slave-holding states formed the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (M.E.C.,S.).

In 1866 the Georgia Conference of the M.E.C.,S. was divided into the North Georgia and South Georgia Conferences. After much debate the conference voted for a dividing line that ran generally east and west and slightly north of Macon. The division put nearly two-thirds of the state in the South Georgia Conference and approximately two-thirds of the members in the North Georgia Conference. At the time of its creation the North Georgia Conference consisted of a total of roughly 540 churches with a combined lay membership of 38,000 and 390 clergy. It included the districts of Augusta, Athens, Atlanta, Elberton, Dahlonega, Griffin, La Grange, Milledgeville, and Rome.

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