The ''Christian Advocate'' was a weekly newspaper published in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
by the
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...
. It began publication in 1826 and by the mid-1830s had become the largest circulating weekly in the United States, with more than 30,000 subscribers and an estimated 150,000 readers. After changes of name and a split into two publications, publication ceased in 1975.
Overview
The Methodist Book concern was authorized by the General Conference to publish ''The Christian Advocate'' for 147 years. Its publishing location would change as the Methodist Church expanded westward and the slavery issue divided the church in 1844. After the church united again, what had become a monthly magazine was finally edited in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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and printed in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...
, in 1939. It was first a weekly
broadsheet
A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...
, and later a monthly magazine for Methodist families. In the intervening years, ''The Advocate'' name was part of the name of numerous Methodist journals published by local conferences and jurisdictions of the church.
The last chapter of the ''Christian Advocate'' magazine was reported in ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine's Religion section (October 11, 1956):
In 1959 editors of ''The New Christian Advocate'' changed the name back to ''The Christian Advocate'' and its format from pocket size to full size, with circulation bi-monthly. In 1973, due to declining circulation, the United Methodist Board of Publishing authorized the replacement of both magazines with a pocket-sized magazine entitled ''United Methodists Today''. A supplement for pastors was published, ''Today's Ministry''. Both magazines ended in 1975.
In popular culture
The ''Christian Advocate'' featured in the third episode of the 2022
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
series ''
The Gilded Age'', as an example of the prejudice black writers faced in the 1880s.
Notable editors and writers
*
Nathan Bangs
Nathan Bangs (2 May 1778 – 3 May 1862) was an American Christian theologian in the Methodist tradition and influential leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church prior to the 1860s.
Born in Stratford, Connecticut, he received a limited edu ...
*
James Monroe Buckley
James Monroe Buckley (December 16, 1836 – February 10, 1920) was a Methodist minister, doctor, author, and editor of the ''Christian Advocate''.
Biography
James Monroe Buckley was born in Rahway, New Jersey on December 16, 1836 to John Buckl ...
*
William Curnow
William Curnow (1832 – 14 October 1903) was a Cornish Australian journalist, and Methodist minister, and was editor of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' for 15 years.
Early life
Curnow was baptised on 2 December 1832 at St Ives, Cornwall, Unite ...
*
John Price Durbin
John Price Durbin (October 10, 1800 - October 18, 1876) was an American Methodist clergyman and educator who served as Chaplain of the United States Senate from 1831 to 1832 and president of Dickinson College from 1833 to 1844.
Early life
Durbi ...
*
Charles Henry Fowler
Charles Henry Fowler (August 11, 1837 – March 20, 1908) was a Canadian-American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church (elected in 1884) and President of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois from 1872 to 1876.
Early life
Charles ...
*
George Peck[Amasa Franklin Chaffee, "George Peck," ''History of the Wyoming Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.'' New York: Eaton & Mains, 1904, pp. 220-223. Found in]
USGenWeb Archives
Accessed 26 August 2009.
See also
*''
Southwestern Christian Advocate
The ''Southwestern Christian Advocate'' (1877–1929) was a widely distributed newspaper for the African American community in the Southern United States. Like the ''Christian Advocate'' published in New York City, the publication targeted a ...
''
*''
Wesleyan Christian Advocate
The ''Wesleyan Christian Advocate'' (WCA) was a Methodist publication in Georgia.
Preceded by the ''Southern Christian Advocate, WCA'' was first published in 1878 after relocating to Charleston, South Carolina.
Atticus Greene Haygood and W. C. ...
''
References
{{Reflist
External links
"United Methodist Publishing House" ''
Tennessee Encyclopedia
''Tennessee Encyclopedia'' is a reference book on the U.S. state of Tennessee that was published in book form in 1998 and has also been available online since 2002. Contents include history, geography, culture, and biography.
The original print ed ...
''.
"Christian Advocate (Chicago, Ill.)" WorldCat Identities
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...
.
Newspapers established in 1826
History of Methodism in the United States
Christian magazines
Defunct newspapers published in New York City
1826 establishments in New York (state)