‘What vast trails of country!’ Newly discovered Methodist documents in Baltimore outline how Bishop Francis Asbury urged ministers to stay on the move.

The Rev. Bonnie McCubbin’s first task in her new job as archivist for the local branch of a major denomination was far from soul-stirring. It was to sort through thousands of files assigned to her care during the coronavirus pandemic. As she made her way through the rows of piled-up boxes at Lovely Lane United Methodist Church in North Baltimore’s Old Goucher neighborhood, her eye fell on a carton marked with a name that, to many Methodists, is at least as familiar and powerful as the Bible’s prophets and heroes.