Philip William Otterbein

Philip William Otterbein was born in Dillenburg, Hesse, Germany, into a family that included many clergy.

Norwood comments that "They were an interesting pair: Otterbein the stately university-trained minister and Boehm the Mennonite farmer with a full beard.

Boehm was excommunicated from the Mennonite Church 1775, primarily because of his evangelical activities and associations with Christians of other denominations, formally for other reasons.

[5]) On the day he began pastoral duties in Baltimore, May 4, 1774, he met Methodist lay preacher Francis Asbury, who would be his friend throughout the remainder of his life.

Ten years later, Asbury asked Otterbein to be one of four clergy who would lay hands on him when Asbury was ordained (or consecrated) at Lovely Lane Chapel in Baltimore, Maryland as Methodist bishop, December 27, 1784, when the Methodist Episcopal Church was officially organized.

Officially, Otterbein remained in good standing as a German Reformed clergyman until his death, but his work led inexorably to the formation of a new Protestant denomination, the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.

Two years later, in 1800, another conference took more organizational steps,[7] including the decision to use a German translation of the Methodist Episcopal book of discipline.

[8] In spite of his reluctance to form a church, the younger men in his movement began conducting themselves as if they were clergy, including administration of sacraments, so seven weeks before his death, Otterbein ordained three of his workers: Christian Newcomer, Joseph Hoffman, and Frederick Schaffer.