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Our History

On January 11, 1920, fifty-seven people met and expressed their desire to become a Methodist congregation on the new Druid Hills campus of Emory University.  The preacher that day was Bishop Warren A. Candler, brother of Asa G. Candler, the founder of the Coca-Cola Company.  On February 15, 1920, the Emory University Methodist Church was formally organized with seventy-three charter members.
 
The chapel in the university’s Candler School of Theology was the congregation’s first home.  It was adequate for worship, but the Sunday school was, in a sense, homeless, and had to use classrooms elsewhere on campus.

Glenn Sanctuary, 1940

In 1930, a decision was made to build a beautiful new sanctuary on the campus. As plans unfolded, the members learned that the new building would be a memorial to the Rev. Wilbur Fisk Glenn, an Emory alumnus who for fifty years had been a Methodist minister and a leader of the church in the South. The principal donors were Dr. Glenn's children, Thomas K. Glenn, chairman of the board of the new First National Bank; his sister, Flora Glenn Candler; and her husband, Charles Howard Candler, Sr. A condition of the gift was that the congregation later build a Sunday school unit to complete the memorial.

On October 4, 1931, the congregation held its first service in the new building. A university publication reported, "At last the campus and the community have a real church edifice in which to worship, and for a few years, at least, Emory will have an auditorium large enough to accommodate its graduation exercises, musical concerts, and lectures."

Mrs. Candler’s next gift was to the construction of the Church School Building, which was dedicated in 1940.

Church and Church School Building

In 1963 the new Youth Building across North Decatur Road from the Church School Building was consecrated. This structure was constructed and paid for by the congregation. Now called the Youth and Activities Building, the YAAB made it possible for the youth of Glenn to feel they had a place they could call their own.

The record of the members of the Emory Methodist Church and Glenn Memorial Methodist Church has been one of sustained effort to carry out our promise to give our prayers, presence, gifts, and service to the work of the church.

Pastors of Emory University Methodist Church
and Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church