Methodist Newsletters of yesteryear (Part 1)

I don't know what you know about what I was writing my dissertation on so I'll tell you. I had two options. One involved looking at Irish migration to North Carolina. But that might have been hard to do and I might have had to travel to NC, which I would not have minded one bit of course, but it would have dented the old finances somewhat. My other option was to do something on the Methodist Church and the political situation in Northern Ireland. A trip to the Methodist Historical Society is way cheaper than flights to NC. Although this depends on where you're coming from, I suppose.

Despite an earnest start, it took a while for me to get into it if I'm honest. Like I most students I left it to the last few months to really kick into gear. I had two big turning points and one was talking to someone very smart about Methodist history and the other was going to the Methodist Historical Society.

I ended up going there a lot. Well, when you're in the business of researching Methodist History then they're the ticket. In fact, I ended up joining. In fact, and I say this proudly, I have it on good authority I am their youngest member! Stephen McC (Dublin) has threatened to join and he would beat me by a few years, but until I see him with a membership card then I shan't believe him.

Technically speaking you don't get a membership card. You get a receipt. I might get mine laminated instead.

And you also get lots of reading material too!

I know the Methodist Historical Society gets a few rolls of the eyes and some people don't think it's...well they don't seem to like it. I think it's the lock of Wesley's hair that does it. It's hard to get excited about about a lock of hair but easy to mock those that do. But I will come out and say I am a fan of the Methodist Historical Society.

[I may not have been allowed to take these photos, so incase I get ejected from it, let's not tell them ok? In my defence, it was just my phone, no flash.]

Well, I could probably do without the busts of Wesley if I'm honest.

And these things.

And I'm not so much about the mug collection.

But the stories? Tell me the stories about the Church, tell me about the people, tell me about how we got to here and then I'm in! Furthermore, I think the way we have treated our history, heritage and artefacts is nothing short of shameful.

So if it's the stories you want to read, then there's still no place better than the Methodist Historical Society. They have the full set of Methodist periodicals - the Christian Advocate, the Irish Christian Advocate, the Methodist Newsletter. They have the Minutes of Conference, they have the Blue Book, they have it all!

I spent full days reading the newspapers and Newsletters. More from the 1960s onwards, but some of the earlier stuff too. Fascinating stuff! Like did you know they used to have Scouts on duty during Conference? Nope, me neither. The number of times I got totally sidetracked reading an article which was completely unrelated to my research...well that's why it took me so long to get started.

I found myself reading all sorts of stuff and I became familiar with the names of people. So much so that when I was a few years on and got to someone's obituary that I had once been President or something, I was genuinely shocked and sad. It was typical for my brain to say 'Aww, no! Did he die?!' Yeah, Tina, of course he did, he was born in 1885.

Of course, I did get a good laugh at some of the headlines too, like 'New kitchen in Trillick' (I promise, a genuine headline). I learned very quickly that if you're going to have a Methodist based cliche in your article, it needs to involve one of three things. I'll count them down, top ten stylee:

In at number three, hearts being strangely warmed. We like to refer to warm hearts. Allows us prove that we've Methodist blood pumping round our system.

A climber at two, 'And are we yet alive?' This is a big hit with Conference members, which is odd, because for me it could be renamed 'And have we yet found a tune?' but whatevs. No conference report is complete without emphatically answering this question. (The answer is yes, by the way. Unless it's a deep, soul-searching article in which case you ask some hard questions and restate the question at the end to really make the reader think.)

But at the top, it's a non-mover, 'Friends of all'. There is no limit to the situations we can use this phrase. Mission at home, mission overseas, ecumenical relations...if it involves people and the slightest modicum of tension us friendly Methodists are there! Heck, even I used it in the title of my dissertation. You've got to, it's the law.

The best things though about reading all these were the adverts and the photos. In the Christian Advocate and the Irish Christian Advocate it was the adverts. I took a sneaky selection for you, all from 1893.

I vote for more adverts of umbrella emporiums in the Methodist Newsletter. In fact I vote for more umbrella emporiums all round.

Yes, that is 'marvel' and 'tea pot' in the same sentence. Ah 1893 technology!

'Stories from the Indian Wigwams and Northern Camp Fires'. Book reviews sure were different.

You know, up to this point I had never given my liver's performance any consideration whatsoever. How would one know if it is 'sluggish'?

'Indigestion upsets the entire system, makes you cross, miserable, and you are sometimes unable to speak a kind word to anyone.' Isn't that just being cranky? And why would some Brandreth's sugar coated pills help this situation?

Conference was a big deal back in 1893. Although much like today, you had to prepare for it.

By donning your top hat and special cloths clerical wear, 'warranted not to glaze with wear'! Ah, if only they could see us now!

The Irish Christian Advocate offices were destroyed by a bomb in 1972 and it never recovered. Which is sad, because the detail its weekly publication covered is immense. But fear not! The Newsletter was born!

4p? Bar-gain! Success was on its way - 'occasional' soon became monthly.

Well fancy that! Around and About used to be at the back of the Newsletter.

There weren't any photos in this style of Methodist Newsletter and the only colour was at the name. Things changed with the Czechoslovakian Farmers' Gazette format (you know, big sheets, crap print, black and white dotty photos) which ran from, like, 1982 to 1996. And I began to get more distracted by the things I was seeing.

Like this. There was actually a 'Caravan Accommodation Co-Ordinator' at Castlewellan? Seriously? Like, I know it was way smaller, but that job has got nightmare written all over it.

And this I reckon is the first ever Bobby Morrison advert in 1988. He love us long time! No sister staple ad for the Florida apartment in this edition though. Johnny-Come-Lately.

But like I said, there were photos too. And they're what really distracted me...