Wesley UMC - History - Notable Firsts

The Wesley congregation has always been a progressive Christian group as noted by these Notable Firsts. The following list is not in any specific order.

First Radio broadcast, or at least among the first, June 18, 1929. Wesley broadcast its services from the top floor of the Wesley Temple until 1939.

First pipe organ in the City of Minneapolis (Centenary Church).

First auditorium in the City heated by forced air (Wesley, 1891).

First Methodist congregation west of the Mississippi River (established 1852).

First Reconciling congregation in the State of Minnesota and one of the first ten in the nation (October 12, 1986).

First costly church building built in Minneapolis (Centenary, 1867 at a cost of $42,000)

First congregation in Minnesota to send women to General Conference (Mary Nind, 1888).

First and only congregation to build a skyscraper church in the city. (Groundbreaking, June 1, 1928).

First church to use psychodrama (1967).

First Sunday School orchestra was started by Palmer Stanton at Centenary Church.

First church in Minneapolis to display an electric flashing sign (November 4, 1923).

First state meeting of Women Society of Christian Service (WSCS), forerunner of the United Methodist Women, was at Wesley Church on September 26, 1940. 1,000 women attended.

First Lay Missionary Convention of the Northwest was held at Wesley in February 1909. This was the forerunner of the current Minnesota Annual Conference.

First Adlerian Family Education Center was started at Wesley in 1966 and ran until May of 1999. The Education Center was started and maintained by Mabelle Doty.

The first Senior Citizen Organization in Minneapolis, and probably in Minnesota, was organized at Wesley. Mrs. Veda Rice (1883-1962) was cofounder and first president of the Wesley Fellowship Club in March 1950.

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Biography Sources: History of Wesley Church, The First 125 Years, Wesley United Methodist Church, 1977.
and the Wesley Archives