Origin from 1992
On 21 January 1992, twenty four years after The Methodist Church and The Evangelical United Brethren Church united to form the United Methodist Church at the Uniting Conference in Dallas in 1968, already recorded here, and twenty seven years before the Global Methodist Church split from it in 2019, also recorded here, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe issued the founding charter of Africa University, the first private university recognized in Zimbabwe and the first pan African university founded by a Christian church. The idea began in 1984, when the African bishops Emilio J.M. Carvalho of Angola and Arthur F. Kulah of Liberia called on the denomination's General Board of Higher Education and Ministry to build a university on the continent; the General Conference of the United Methodist Church unanimously approved the proposal in 1988 and committed the denomination's ongoing financial support. Built on land in Mutare donated by the Zimbabwean government, the university opened its first academic programs later in 1992 with forty students studying agriculture and theology, and Mugabe returned to preside over its formal opening and first graduating class of twenty seven students on 23 April 1994. Africa University's founding marked global Methodism's clearest institutional turn toward a church whose center of gravity, in members and in leadership, was shifting from North America and Europe toward Africa.
Facts
Dates
StatusEstablished marks the chartering of Africa University in Zimbabwe on 21 January 1992, a specific dated milestone between the Uniting Conference forming the United Methodist Church in 1968 already recorded here and the Global Methodist Church splitting from it in 2019 also recorded here. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Americas directly: "On 21 January 1992, twenty four years after The Methodist Church and The Evangelical United Brethren Church united to form the United Methodist Church at the Uniting Conference in Dallas in 1968..."
This source names Global Methodist Church directly: "and twenty seven years before the Global Methodist Church split from it in 2019, also recorded here, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe issued the founding charter of Africa University, the first..."
This source names Liberia directly: "Kulah of Liberia called on the denomination's General Board of Higher Education and Ministry to build a university on the continent; the General Conference of the United Methodist Church unanimously..."
This source names The United Methodist Church directly: "United Brethren Church united to form the United Methodist Church at the Uniting Conference in Dallas in 1968, already recorded here, and twenty seven years before the Global Methodist Church split..."
Occurred In
Spread Event Of
Adds a specific, dated milestone in Methodist history between the Uniting Conference forming the United Methodist Church in 1968 and the Global Methodist Church splitting from it in 2019, both already recorded here: the chartering of Africa University in Zimbabwe on 21 January 1992, the first pan African university founded by a Christian church.
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