<P> The First General Assembly held in Chicago , Illinois from October 10 -- 17 , 1907 brought together the Eastern and the Western streams . The Western group was the Church of the Nazarene founded in October 1895 in Los Angeles , California by Dr. Phineas F. Bresee , a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church , and Dr Joseph Pomeroy Widney , a Methodist physician , and the second president of the University of Southern California . The Eastern group was the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America , a denomination formed on April 13 , 1897 through the merger of two older bodies : The Central Evangelical Holiness Association ( organized March 13 -- 14 , 1890 ) and led by Fred A. Hillery and C. Howard Davis ; and three churches organized by William Howard Hoople since January 1894 , and formed into the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America . On November 12 , 1896 , these two groups met in Brooklyn , agreed upon a plan of union , which included retaining the name and Manual of Hoople 's group . Prominent leaders included Hiram F. Reynolds , Davis , and Hoople . At the time of its merger with the Church of the Nazarene in 1907 , the APCA existed principally from Nova Scotia to Iowa and the northeastern United States . The name of the united body adopted at the First General Assembly was Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene , and Bresee and Reynolds were elected the first general superintendents . </P>
<P> The First General Assembly held in Chicago , Illinois from October 10 -- 17 , 1907 brought together the Eastern and the Western streams . The Western group was the Church of the Nazarene founded in October 1895 in Los Angeles , California by Dr. Phineas F. Bresee , a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church , and Dr Joseph Pomeroy Widney , a Methodist physician , and the second president of the University of Southern California . The Eastern group was the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America , a denomination formed on April 13 , 1897 through the merger of two older bodies : The Central Evangelical Holiness Association ( organized March 13 -- 14 , 1890 ) and led by Fred A. Hillery and C. Howard Davis ; and three churches organized by William Howard Hoople since January 1894 , and formed into the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America . On November 12 , 1896 , these two groups met in Brooklyn , agreed upon a plan of union , which included retaining the name and Manual of Hoople 's group . Prominent leaders included Hiram F. Reynolds , Davis , and Hoople . At the time of its merger with the Church of the Nazarene in 1907 , the APCA existed principally from Nova Scotia to Iowa and the northeastern United States . The name of the united body adopted at the First General Assembly was Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene , and Bresee and Reynolds were elected the first general superintendents . </P>
when did the church of the nazarene start
when did the church of the nazarene start
October 1895
October 1895