Another Morocco Methodist church

(I thought it would be interesting to use Sundays to focus on Rensselaer area churches and to see how many Sundays I can go before I run out of material. Indiana is richly endowed with religious denominations, with influences from North and South, East and West. This is part of that series of posts.)

A couple of weeks ago this spot featured the First United Methodist Church in Morocco and noted that there was a second church, only a block away from the First United Methodist Church, that was also affiliated with the United Methodists. That second church is the Morocco Evangelical United Methodist Church at 214 E Walnut St. It is not listed in the "Church Services Directory" of the Rensselaer Republican, and it does not seem to have a website, but information about it is available on the United Methodist website and also on the Indiana Conference website. These websites say that it has Sunday School at 9 a.m., Worship at 10 a.m., and that the pastor is Royal Voeller.

The building is mentioned in the Newton County Indiana Historic Sites and Structures Inventory, where it is ranked as Notable and described as Romanesque Revival.

The mystery is why there are two United Methodists Churches in Morocco. On the church bell tower there is a clue shown below.

This church was originally a United Brethren Church, built in 1898. The United Brethren denomination was formed in 1800, but it split in 1889.

For a while, two denominations used the name "Church of the United Brethren in Christ." In 1946, the other “United Brethren” church merged with the Evangelical Association to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church. So once again, there was only one Church of the United Brethren in Christ. The EUBs merged with the Methodist Church in 1968 to form the United Methodist Church.

So, the mystery is solved. The branch of the United Brethren to which this church belonged merged with the Methodists, and the United part of the name carried over to the United Methodists.