 Everyone calls it "The Cross and
Flame." It was never officially named, but spontaneously people
began to use those words to describe the emblem of The United
Methodist Church after its formation in 1968.
Since that time the Cross and Flame has become firmly
established as the identifying mark for the denomination. It is
used in official publications, on church letterheads and name
cards, in stained glass windows and on the facades of church
buildings. It functions for The United Methodist Church the way
trademarks function for commercial enterprises. |
It seems appropriate to put into the record the story of how the
insigne1
was authorized and created.
Since I was one who was involved in the process I am offering
this personal memoir.2
|
|
Previous Symbols
|
At the time of the union of the
Evangelical United Brethren and The Methodist Church there had
been a history of church symbols, some officially authorized and
some unofficial. That history prepared the way for the decision
to have an official insigne for the new denomination.
|
Prior to the 1946 union of the
Evangelical Church and the Church of the United Brethren in
Christ, neither of the official periodicals, The Evangelical
Messenger nor The Religious Telescope displayed a
denominational insigne. In the Evangelical Church the Missionary
Society used a seal.3
It was based on a design used by the Missionary Society of the
preceding Evangelical Association. The seal appeared in
Missionary Society reports from 1922 through 1946.
|
Editions of the United Brethren
Discipline from 1895 through 1945 carried on the title page
a device composed of a torch, a quill pen and a book, with the
words, "Lux et Veritas," but this appears to be more of a
publisher's colophon than a denominational symbol.4
|
Seals of the Church of the United
Brethren in Christ and the Evangelical Association are preserved
as banners at Otterbein Home in Lebanon, Ohio. The former shows
in full figure the historic 1767 meeting of Philip William
Otterbein and Martin Boehm with Otterbein's words in English,
"We are brethren." This design was used in some United Brethren
publications. The main feature of the other seal is a cross,
surrounded in a circle by the words, "The Evangelical
Association's Conference Seal." The design also includes two
stars and the letters "L S."5
|
At the
1958 General Conference of the Evangelical United Brethren
Church the General Council on Administration recommended
adoption of an insigne and offered a proposed design. The
recommendation was approved. Previously the Council on
Administration had asked the Rev. Ralph M. Holderman "to design
a denominational symbol patterned in some degree after the
present denomination road-sign."7
The result was a circular insigne in which the church name
surrounded a bold Latin cross with clasped hands in the
foreground-recalling the 1946 handshake by the senior bishops,
Arthur R. Clippinger and John S. Stamm, at the United Conference
in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.8
|
 |
The road sign already had entered
use as an unofficial EUB symbol. The clasped-hands design had
found other uses as well. For example, as early as 1951, the
Nebraska Annual Conference had a seal based on that design.9
|
Dr. Holderman, incidentally, was a
craftsman as well as a designer. Over the years he made many
liturgical objects for use in churches and after 1968 he crafted
many renditions of the Cross and Flame.
|
In 1966 the Women's Society of World
Service of the Evangelical United Brethren Church introduced a
pin in silver or gold depicting a cross with a two-tongued flame
superimposed.10
|
On the Methodist side, union in 1939
brought together the Methodist Protestant Church, the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and the Methodist Episcopal Church.
There is no evidence of use of an insigne by any of those
denominations. However, the Methodist Disciplines, like
those of the United Brethren, carried on the title page a device
that most likely was a publisher's colophon.11 It was used from 1912 through 1936 and depicted the sun, a
seven-branched candlestick, an open scroll, and the Latin words
"Litterae Lux Fax Deus."
|
During the years of the Methodist
Church the Methodist Publishing House had a colophon for its
publishing arm, Abingdon Press, and identified the work of the
House as a whole with a symbol depicting a circuit rider on
horseback with the words, "Since 1789." Other general agencies
used symbols of their own from time to time. For many years the
"Golden Cross" had been a symbol of offerings for Methodist
hospitals. But there was none to represent the denomination as a
whole.
|
In 1956 the Rev. Howard Greenwalt
came from California to Chicago to be associate general
secretary of the Commission on Promotion and Cultivation. He
worked with a Chicago commercial artist, Burton M. Cherry, and they devised
the "World Parish Cross." It consisted of a gold-colored cross
in block style with a polar projection of the globe in red where
the arms crossed. It was introduced in 1957 and was used by the
commission in the promotion of giving for the various
benevolence funds. It became quite popular, particularly as a
lapel pin. The Commission made it available as a mat or cut for
printing, a stencil inset for duplicating machines, and a
reproduction proof. The lapel pins and necklaces in gold, silver
and brass were sold in Cokesbury Book Stores.12
|
Dr. Greenwalt aspired to official
recognition of the World Parish Cross. In 1961 he offered it to
the World Methodist Council but the offer was declined in favor
of a triangular insigne offered by Bishop Ferdinand Sigg of
Switzerland (still in use in 1955).13
A petition to the 1964 General Conference asked for it to be
declared the official symbol for the Methodist denomination, but
the proposal was not accepted. Notwithstanding the lack of
official endorsement, it was widely used.14
|
|
Looking Toward
Church Union
|
By this time the Evangelical United
Brethren Church and The Methodist Church had committed
themselves to work toward union. A Joint Commission on Church
Union, representing the two bodies, was set up to devise the
Plan of Union. Dr. Greenwalt approached the Joint Commission and
won acceptance of the idea that the new church should have an
official insigne. The Commission wrote this into the Plan of
Union. Moreover, it authorized his agency to develop the insigne
and wrote into the new Discipline that use of the emblem
should be supervised by its successor, the Division of
Interpretation of the Program Council.15
|
Authorization for the commission on
Promotion and Cultivation to proceed with the design of an
insigne must have been received in 1966, because by 1967 the
design team was well into its work. Dr. Greenwalt appointed two
of his staff to develop the design. They were Edward J. Mikula,
art director, and Edwin H. Maynard, editorial director. A small
advisory committee, equally representing the two churches, was
formed.16
|
The artist was well prepared for his
role. Trained at the Art Institute of Chicago, he was
experienced in the graphic arts and had created logos for the
Illinois Farm Supply Company and the Associated Church Press.17
His partner brought editorial experience and had read in the
fields of Christian symbolism and theology.
|
The design team began by collection
a small library representing, on one hand, corporate logos and
trademarks, and on the other, Christian symbolism. They also
collected examples of insignia in use by other denominations.18
(Paradoxically, they did not see the Evangelical United Brethren
women's pin.)
|
Early on they established principles
for the design: that it should be simple, bold, instantly
recognizable, obviously Christian and uniquely Wesleyan. They
determined that it should have official colors, but also be
capable of reproduction in black and white. They planned to make
it in two versions with and without words.19
They determined that
the insigne's "primary attributes must be simplicity,
distinctiveness, easy recognition, and easy remembering."20 Mikula declared: "You can't have elegance without simplicity."21
|
Aided by input from the advisory
committee and staff colleagues, the design team explored
numerous ideas-some two dozen in all. These were sketched and
circulated for comment. A consensus gradually formed around a
combination of the cross, as the obvious Christian symbol, and
some representation of the Holy Spirit as a mark of Wesleyan
theological thought. The latter might be represented by a dove,
or by a flame, with its overtones of Pentecost (Acts 2:3).
Finally, two designs were made ready for submission of the
Commission on Promotion and Cultivation of The Methodist Church
at its final meeting in the fall of 1967.
|
One of the designs is the one known
today as the Cross and Flame. The other was similar, but with
the addition of a globe to represent the Creator God and the
mission of the church in the world. The cross was described as
representing Christ's sacrifice and also "the giving of self for
others-which in turn suggests service, a dominant factor in the
Wesleyan tradition." The flame was identified as one of the
traditional symbols of the Holy Spirit, "appropriately included
because a substantial part of the Wesleyan contribution in
theological understanding involves the work of the Holy Spirit."
The description for commission members continued: "The flame is
also symbolic of Pentecost, with its implication for the
evangelization of men [sic]. The fact that this particular flame
has two tongues can be seen as representing the two bodies that
are uniting in 1968 to form the United Methodist Church."22 For others the flame recalled Wesley's "heartwarming experience"
at Aldersgate.23
|
The Commission on Promotion and
Cultivation chose the simpler, bolder version and commended it
to its successor body in the new church. For those concerned
that the symbol should be Trinitarian, an explanation was
offered later: "Thus it relates the church to God the Father by
the way of the second and third persons of the Holy Trinity -
God, the Son, symbolized by the cross, and God the Holy Spirit,
symbolized by the flame."24
|
|
A New Church, A New
Emblem
|
The Uniting Conference, meeting in
Dallas, Texas, April 21 to May 4, 1968, adopted as part of the
new Discipline the recommendation from the Joint
Commission on Church Union that there should be an official
insigne, designed and created by what would become the Division
of Interpretation of the Program Council.25
The legislation specifically authorized use of the insigne by
various units within the church and directed the Division of
Interpretation to provide patterns for authorized use and to
protect the insigne from infringement.
|
The Program Council of the new
church convened in Dayton, Ohio, October 1, 1968. Members who
had been elected to the Division of Interpretation met to
organize that work. One item before them was the design of the
insigne, presented by the transitional staff. The Cross and
Flame design, as recommended by the Methodist Commission on
Promotion and Cultivation, was presented in hand-made posters
and hand-out sheets in two forms: one with no words and one
inscribed, "The United Methodist Church." There were sketches to
show possible uses. Official colors were designated as black and
a shade of red known in the printing industry a "PMS Warm Red."
There was discussion and two or three persons suggested
modifications, but the vote for the designs as presented was
overwhelming. When actions of the Division of Interpretation
were ratified by the entire Program Council, the church had its
identifying mark.
|
Staff moved quickly to make the new
insigne available to the entire church. The emblem appeared on
the cover of Methodist Story-Spotlight in November, along
with an interpretation,26 and the "patterns" called for by the Discipline were
issued as placards 8 1/2 by 11 inches and sheets of reproduction
proofs. There also were stencil insets for printing with stencil
duplicators, in common use by churches at the time, and decals.27
|
The Division of Interpretation
registered the design with the United States Patent and
Trademark Office - technically not as a trademark, but as a
"service mark." 28
The protection has been renewed through the years.
|
The United Methodist Publishing
House was already in the production process of the 1968 edition
of The Book of Discipline by the time the Cross and Flame
had been adopted in the Program Council, so it could not appear
on that book. The Publishing House before union had created a
Cross and Crown insigne, using a plain Latin cross and beneath
it a crown in a shape resembling the letter "M". This device,
already used on the 1964 editions of The Methodist Hymnal
and The Book of Worship, was used on the 1968 editions of
The Book of Discipline, and The Book of Worship,
and on copies of the 1964 hymnal produced after church union.
However, the Publishing House joined force with the Division of
Interpretation and before long items of costume jewelry and
other forms of the Cross and Flame were being distributed
through Cokesbury Book Stores. Editions of The Book of
Discipline from 1972 on carried the Cross and Flame, as did
subsequent printings of The Book of Hymns and The
United Methodist Hymnal of 1989. Highway signs to direct
motorists to United Methodist churches carried the new emblem by
1970.29
|
The Cross and Flame quickly began to
appear on letterheads and name cards of local churches and
pastors and in newspaper advertising by churches. Annual
conferences and church agencies used it, sometimes incorporating
it into a design to represent the agency (as, for example, in
the emblem of United Methodist Women).
|
In less than two years, at the
special session of the General Conference in 1970, Bishop J.
Gordon Howard would say in the Episcopal address:
|
We have become familiar with
our United Methodist symbol: the Cross and the Flame - the
Cross of giving and sharing, of serving and sacrifice; the
Flame of renewing and regenerating, of new life leading to
appropriate action...They must cease being decorative and
become incarnate. They must take hold of us until we become
sources of the life which is reconciled both with God and
with man.30
|
|
The Rest Is History
|
The trite saying, "The rest is
history," applies to the Cross and Flame. Once it had been
introduced, uses multiplied. It was seen on highway signs, on
the facades of churches, and on bell towers. Inside church
buildings it appeared on stoles and choir robes and sometimes on
the communion table - and many times in stained glass windows.
It has been used on countless banners and on a United Methodist
flag. It has been imprinted on church bulletins and embossed on
business cards, certificates and stationary.31
|
Less formally, it has been stamped
onto t-shirts and used on neckties, scarves, bumper stickers,
coffee mugs and placemats. It has been used in needlepoint, bead
work and quilts. It has been carved into wood and stone,
including numbers of cornerstones. The trade association for
stone carvers obtained permission for its use on tombstones of
clergy and others closely related to the church. It is
incorporated into designs for special occasions, for example in
the logo used by the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference for
its sesquicentennial in 1994.32
|
Wherever there are Central
Conferences of The United Methodist Church, the Cross and Flame
will be seen. This includes countries such as the Philippines,
Norway, Germany, Zaire or Zimbabwe. During days of the Iron
Curtain it could be seen inside the Soviet Union in Estonia and
in more recent years it has appeared at United Methodist
churches inside Russia.
|
In 1969 Astronaut Alan L. Bean, a
charter member of Clear Lake United Methodist Church in Clear
Lake City, Texas, carried the Cross and Flame half a million
miles in space. It was part of a crewel-work banner of Christian
symbols made by a church member, carried by Bean on the Apollo
XII mission, and then presented to the church. On that mission
Bean became the fourth person to reach the moon.33
|
The need for the insigne to be used
with languages other than English became evident. By December of
1968 the Division of Interpretation issued reproduction proofs
for the Cross and Flame with lettering in Spanish. United
Methodist communications now has it also with lettering in
Korean and permission has been granted for churches in Central
Conferences to adapt it for languages in use locally. It has
been adapted by some autonomous national churches, for example
in South Korea and Kenya.
|
Meanwhile attempts to use the symbol
for causes other than The United Methodist church have been
challenged. Occasionally a lawsuit has been threatened, but
usually the transgressors have been quick to cease misusing the
protected United Methodist service mark. Strict rules for
reproduction control the integrity of the design. The cross has
slanted ends on the vertical and crossbar members. A noticeable
distance separates the flame from the cross-assuring that it is
a cross and flame, not a burning cross.
|
There has been no infringement, but
a flattering kind of imitation, in the fact that three
denominations that have adopted official insignia in recent
years have incorporated a cross and a flame as major elements in
their designs. They are the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana),
the newly formed Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), and the also new
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
|
There have been changes in
structure. In 1972 the General Commission on Communication
(United Methodist Communication, or UMCom) was formed and what
had been the Division of Interpretation of the Program Council
became UMCom's Division of Program and Benevolence
Interpretation. That agency continues to make the Cross and
flame available for United Methodist use, to protect integrity
of the design in authorized use, and to guard against improper
use. Authorization I the 1992 Book of Discipline is
changed only slightly from the language of 1968.35
|
One may say that the Cross and Flame
has succeeded in fulfilling its original purpose-to help provide
identity for the United Methodist denomination. In hundreds of
communities it is easy to find the local United Methodist church
because the insigne is prominently displayed. Churches,
districts, annual conferences and institutions have proudly
displayed the emblem to identify themselves with the parent
body. Individuals display it in pins and necklaces to identify
themselves with their church.
|
Those who have been involved not
only with its creation, but with its protection and use over
twenty-seven years, can take satisfaction that the Cross and
Flame is a successful design that has contributed in its way to
the life and mission of the church.
|
|
Footnotes
|
1 The author prefers the singular
form, insigne. The Oxford English Dictionary defines insigne as
"a badge, ensign or emblem," adding that "insignia has been
erroneously used as singular." Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd
ed. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1989), vol. VII, 1027.
|
2 Since this is a personal memoir,
the author assumes responsibility for any undocumented facts or
judgments. The manuscript has been reviewed by Mrs. Helen
Greenwalt, widow of Howard Greenwalt, Edward J. Mikula, the
artist, and Dr. Curtis A. Chambers, member of the Joint
Commission on Church Union, co-editor of the Plan of Union and
the 1968 Book of Discipline, later general secretary of United
Methodist Communications. Others have helped to authenticate
particular points.
|
3 Mission of the Evangelical Church,
Annual Report 1942-43 (Cleveland, Ohio: Missionary Society of
the Evangelical Church), title page.
|
4 A Manual of Church Discipline of
the United Brethren in Christ (Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren
Publishing House, 1895); Discipline of the Church of the United
Brethren in Christ, 1945-1949 (Dayton, Ohio: The Otterbein
Press, 1945), title pages.
|
5 "The Story of the Hangings,"
undated leaflet in the archives of Otterbein Home, Lebanon,
Ohio; presumed to have been issued in 1975 at the dedication of
the banners.
|
6 Official Proceedings of the
Thirty-ninth (Fourth) General Conference of the Evangelical
United Brethren Church, October 9-17, 1958, Harrisburg, Pa.
(Dayton, Ohio: Otterbein Press), 34 and 408.
|
7 Blue Book of Reports and Memorials
of the Thirty-ninth General Conference of the Evangelical United
Brethren Church, Harrisburg, Pa., October 9-17, 1958 (Dayton,
Ohio, General Council on Administration of the EUB church,
1958), 34.
|
8 The Johnstown handshake is
described in The Evangelical Messenger, Nov. 30, 1946, 13.
|
9 Proceedings of the Nebraska
Conference of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, June
20-24, 1951 (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1951), title page.
|
10 World Evangel, September, 1966,
288.
|
11 Doctrines and Discipline of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, 1912 and 1936 (New York: Methodist
book Concern), title pages.
|
12 The Methodist Story, June 1961,
1.
|
13 Letter to the author from Joe
Hale, general secretary of the World Methodist council, April 5,
1995.
|
14 Edwin H. Maynard, Keeping Up With
a Revolution (Nashville, Tennessee: United Methodist
Communications, 1999), 63-4.
|
15 Maynard, 64.
|
16 Transcript of oral history
interview with Howard Greenwalt, October 1981, 17. Original of
transcript is in the archives of United Methodist
Communications.
|
17 Methodist Story-Spotlight,
November, 1968, 2.
|
18 Notes on an interview with Edward
J. Mikula, October 8, 1992.
|
19 Mikula interview.
|
20 "Proposed Emblem for The United
Methodist Church." A staff memorandum dated July, 1967 to
accompany presentation of the proposed design to the Commission
on Promotion.
|
21
|
22 Proposed Emblem..."
|
23 Mikula interview.
|
24 Methodist Story-Spotlight,
November, 1968, 2.
|
25 The book of Discipline of the
United Methodist Church, 1968 (Nashville, Tennessee: The
Methodist Publishing House, 1968), par. 833.8, 213.
|
26
|
27 A Mark Known the World Over,
leaflet issued by United Methodist communications, 1988. This
leaflet to interpret the insigne was first published in 1979 and
originally written by Ruth D. Fuller. Revised editions over a
number of years were printed in large quantities and made
available to local churches for distribution to members.
Quotations here are from the 1988 version.
|
28 The original certificate is on
file in the archives of United Methodist Communications.
|
29 Advertised in Daily Christian
Advocate, April, 20, 1970, 55.
|
30 Daily Christian Advocate, April
21, 1970, 68.
|
31 A Mark Know the World Over.
|
32 New World Outlook,
September-October, 1994, 4-5.
|
33 Press
release Dec. 1, 1969, untitled, from the Washington Office of
United Methodist Information.
|
34 A
Mark Known the World Over.
|
35 The
Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church (Nashville,
Tennessee: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1992), par.
1906.16, 645.
|
|
Contributions
|
EDWIN H.
MAYNARD retired in 1984 as Assistant General Secretary of United
Methodist Communications. He is a graduate of Cornell College
(B.A., L.H.D.) and Syracuse University (M.A.). He was an editor
of the Encyclopedia of World Methodism and the author of a
history of communications in The United Methodist Church titled,
Keeping Up With a Revolution (1990).
|
SUSAN E.
WARRICK was Assistant General Secretary of the General
Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist
Church. She is a graduate of Houghton College (B.A.) and The
College of William and Mary (M.A.). She is co-editor of the new
Historical Dictionary of Methodism (1996). Her article was
presented as a paper at the North American Section of the World
Methodist Historical Society in 1994.
|
KAREN
WESTERFIELD TUCKER is Assistant Professor of Liturgical Studies
at the Duke University Divinity School. She is a graduate of
Emory and Henry College (B.A.), Duke University (M.Div.), and
the University of Notre Dame (M.A., Ph.D.). She is editor of The
Sunday Service of the Methodists: Twentieth-century Worship in
World-Wide Methodism (1995) and is the author of two chapters in
the forthcoming Liturgical Definitions of Human Life: Life-cycle
Rituals in Judaism and Christianity.
|
ROBERT
H. TERRY is Professor of History and International Relations at
York College of Pennsylvania and Director of its Oral History
Center. He is a graduate of Mansfield University (B.S.),
Shippensburg University (M.Ed.) and The American University
(M.A., Ph.D.). He is the author of a history of the McCurdy
School titled, Light in the Valley.
|
DANIEL
M. WELLIVER is Executive Director of the Neighborhood Center of
The United Methodist Church, Inc., in Harrisburg, PA. He is a
graduate of Juniata College (A.B.) and Pennsylvania State
University (M.A.).
|
|
