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The '''Methodist Episcopal Church, South''' or "Southern Methodist Church" split from the national body over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844.  This body maintained its own polity until it reunited with the northern group as well as the small [[Methodist Protestant Church]] to form the "The Methodist Church (USA)" in 1939, which in turn later (1968) merged with the [[Evangelical United Brethren Church]] to form The [[United Methodist Church]].  Some more theologically conservative MECS congregations dissenting from the merger formed the small "Southern Methodist Church" in 1940.

The '''Methodist Episcopal Church, South''' or "Southern Methodist Church" split from the national body over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1844.  This body maintained its own polity until it reunited with the northern group as well as the small [[Methodist Protestant Church]] to form the "The Methodist Church (USA)" in 1939, which in turn later (1968) merged with the [[Evangelical United Brethren Church]] to form The [[United Methodist Church]].  Some more theologically conservative MECS congregations dissenting from the merger formed the small "Southern Methodist Church" in 1940, and still others continued to exist under the Methodist Episcopal Church, South name until 2010.

==History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South==

==History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South==