John G. McEllhenney is adjunct professor of Methodist Studies at Drew University Theological School and Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Recently retired following more than thirty years of pastoral leadership in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, McEllhenney is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College (A.B., Summa Cum Laude, with a major in history), where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year, and Drew University Theological School (B.D., Magna Cum Laude). He holds an honorary doctorate from Albright College, Reading Pa.
McEllhenney has published several works in the field of Methodist Studies, most recently as the editor and one of the authors of United Methodism in America: A Compact History (Abingdon Press, 1992), a contributor to the Historical Dictionary of Methodism, edited by Charles Yrigoyen, Jr., and Susan E. Warrick (Scarecrow Press, 1996), and the author of a work on John Wesley published by the General Commission on Archives and History (1996).
He served for several years as columnist on religion for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and he has published articles in Together, United Methodist Today, Circuit Rider, Methodist History, The United Methodist Reporter, and the Interpreter. His hobby is book collecting, focusing on the poets Robert Frost and R. S. Thomas. He is currently writing the history of the United Methodist Church of West Chester, Pa.; a book-length manuscript on the poetry of R. S. Thomas; and materials for a seminary-level course on United Methodist History, Polity and Doctrine which the Theological School of Drew University plans to offer some time next year on the Internet.