Centennial Celebrations: Herald of Holiness and NNU

by George Lyons

The first issue of the Herald of Holiness was published on April 17, 1912. It served as the official voice of the Church of the Nazarene. The Herald was a weekly publication until 1971 (when it became biweekly; and in 1989, monthly). In 1999, it became Holiness Today, which is published bimonthly.

Benjamin F. Haynes edited the Herald for its first decade, from 1912 to 1922. He had been one of the leading pastors in the Methodist Episcopal Church: South before he joined the newly formed (1907) holiness denomination led by General Superintendents Phineas F. Bresee (1907-15), Hiram F. Reynolds (1907-32), and Edward F. Walker (1911-18): The Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene.

It was in the era the Herald began that Eugene Emerson organized an elementary school in Nampa, Idaho, which was to become Northwest Nazarene University (NNU). In celebration of NNU’s centennial (2013-14), the Wesley Center Online is releasing one digitized issue of the Herald of Holiness each week, 100 years after their initial publication.

The first issue of the Herald was released on April 17, 2012, at http://wesley. nnu.edu/ sermons-essays-books/herald-of-holiness/. To facilitate the centennial republication of the Herald, NNU is also hosting a weekly blog http://wesley.nnu.edu/blog/. These highlight some of the notable articles in each issue. The blog also gives readers an opportunity to ask questions and make comments on how things have changed and remained the same in the 100 intervening years.

The republication of the Herald of Holiness was made possible through the cooperation of Nazarene Archives and NNU’s Wesley Center Online.

NNU faculty and other volunteers are producing the blog. Blog entries focus on themes found in the early issues of the 16-page weekly church news magazine: The spiritual and pastoral tone of the early Herald; the connectional ministry of the Church of the Nazarene and items of political nature; and wider questions of Nazarene identity in doctrine and polity.

The Wesley Center Online welcomes volunteer bloggers who are willing to preview one or more issues of the Herald and write a weekly blog. If interested, contact the Wesley Center at http://wesley.nnu.edu/.

George Lyons is professor of New Testament at Northwest Nazarene University and director of the Wesley Center Online.

 

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