Boehm, Martin

(1725–1812)

   Bishop and Denomination Founder.

   Boehm was born in Pennsylvania, to a Mennonite family. In 1756 he became an itinerant preacher among the villages of Virginia and Pennsylvania, but he was later expelled by the Mennonite Church because he was prepared to embrace new ways and speak to his listeners in English. In 1768 he met Philip otterbein and they began working in partnership. This culminated in the foundation of the new Church of the United Brethren in Christ in 1800. This was Arminian and perfectionist in its theology, and Boehm and Otterbein were the Church’s first Bishops. Since then the United Brethren have gone through various forms of organisation. There was a new constitution in 1889; the Church merged to become the Evangelical United Brethren in 1946 and since 1968 it has been part of the United Methodist Church.

   R.T. Handy, A History of the Churches of the United States and Canada (1976).