Location: Shalom Spirituality Center, Dubuque, IA

North Central Jurisdiction Commission on Archives & History Convocation

Sprung Forth From the Northwest Ordinance and Louisiana Purchase:
Emergent Methodism in the Upper Mississippi River Basin

Oct. 5-8

Shalom Spirituality Center
Dubuque, IA

Registration Fee is $160 per person.
This covers the conference costs and includes entry to the National Museum of the Mississippi River and the Mississippi River Cruise. Lodging and meals are not included in the registration fee but may be selected as additional options during registration.

Online Registration

Co-sponsored by four CAH conference teams: Northern IL, Iowa, Minnesota & Wisconsin.

Dubuque, Iowa
(our primary accommodation will be the Shalom Retreat Center)

Learn more about the informal research paper exchange.

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In the organizational structure of the Church’s Ministry of Memory (from the General Commission on Archives and History to the local church), the annual Convocation is the place (since the 1970’s) where Annual Conference Commissions on Archives and History report on status, progress, and issues. An opportunity to expand on the Conference Historical Reports, these records of your Commission and Archives are held in the Jurisdictional Archives at DePauw University in Indiana (giving us another repository to maintain the record of our activities).

The Convocation gives us the opportunity, in both formal and informal settings, as people involved in Commissions and Archives across the North Central Jurisdiction to support one another, share ideas and resources, and get to know one another face-to-face.

The Convocation will explore things “Methodist” on the ground where they happened. In this regard, the 2026 Convocation,” “Sprung Forth From the Northwest Ordinance and Louisiana Purchase: Emergent Methodism in the Upper Mississippi River Basin” will examine the beginnings of Methodism in a unique area that was both united (and divided) by the Mississippi. Situated in the “driftless region,” a portion of the Midwest untouched by the glaciers of the last Ice Age, this is a land of wooded hills and valleys (which we hope will be stunning in Autumn foliage).

To illustrate Methodist history in the region embraced by four Annual Conferences, visits are planned in Iowa (St. Luke’s UMC Dubuque, oldest church in the Iowa Conference, with its Tiffany windows), in Illinois (Galena UMC, home church of Ulysses and Julia Grant), and Wisconsin (Platteville, Mineral Point, and Linden UMC, a church built by Cornish miners in the lead mining region who patterned their chapel after their home chapels in Corn-wall). We will also hear about early Methodism in Minnesota.

On the final day, we will visit the award-winning National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, including a one-hour boat tour on the Mississippi itself. While the program is still under construction, it can only get more exciting from here.

The Committee looks forward to seeing you in Dubuque next October! Planning committee:
Thelma Boeder, Jonathan Cooney, Carla Evers, Heidi Heller, Carol Noren, Dale Schoening, Marilyn Steenwyk, Daniel Swinson, Richard Wang, Cate Whitcomb, Melanie Young, Steven Zekoff