Formation and early years (1890–1907)[edit] Phineas Bresee sought to return to John Wesley's original goals of preaching the good news of the gospel to the poor and underprivileged. The origins of the Church of the Nazarene today have seeds in the Third Great Awakening period in America. In October 1895, Dr. Bresee and Dr. Widney founded a church in downtown Los Angeles to refocus the Methodist Episcopal Church on serving the poor living in cities, under the name Church of the Nazarene. Groups with similar beliefs along the east coast known as the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America, which itself was a merger of two older denominations dating back to 1890 called The Central Evangelical Holiness Association, were led by Fred A. Hillery, C. Howard Davis and William Howard Hoople. On November 12, 1896, these two groups met in Brooklyn and agreed to merge, which included retaining the name and Manual of Hoople's group.[10] Both the east coast churches and Bresee's west coast church met in Chicago from October 10–17, 1907, and decided to merge into a new church named The Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene. This has since been considered the First General Assembly of the Church. At the time of its merger with the Church of the Nazarene in 1907, the APCA existed principally from Nova Scotia to Iowa and the northeastern United States. In April 1908, Bresee accepted Edgar P. Ellyson, president of the Holiness University of Texas of Peniel, Texas; his wife, Mary Emily Ellyson; and its members of the Holiness Association of Texas into the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene.[11] In September 1908, the Pennsylvania Conference of the Holiness Christian Church under the leadership of Horace G. Trumbauer merged with the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene.[12]

Graduation 2024