Christian Advocate


The Christian Advocate was a weekly newspaper published in New York City by the Methodist Episcopal Church. It began publication in 1826 and by the mid-1830s had become the largest circulating weekly in the United States, with more than 30,000 subscribers and an estimated 150,000 readers.
The Methodist Book concern was authorized by the General Conference to publish The Christian Advocate for 147 years. Its publishing location would change as the Methodist Church expanded westward and the slavery issue divided the church in 1844. After the church united again, what had become a monthly magazine was finally edited in Chicago and printed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1939. It was first a weekly broadsheet, and later a monthly magazine for Methodist families. In the intervening years, The Advocate name was part of the name of numerous Methodist journals published by local conferences and jurisdictions of the church.
The last chapter of the Christian Advocate magazine was reported in Time magazine's Religion section :
In 1959 editors of The New Christian Advocate changed the name back to The Christian Advocate and its format from pocket size to full size, with circulation bi-monthly. In 1973, due to declining circulation, the United Methodist Board of Publishing authorized the replacement of both magazines with a pocket-sized magazine entitled United Methodists Today. A supplement for pastors was published, Today's Ministry. Both magazines ended in 1975.