Father’s Day has Methodist ties

Sonora Smart Dodd (second from right) 

Editor's Note: This story was originally published in 2010, the year often referenced as the centennial of the first celebration of Father's Day. Information regarding the centennial has been updated to reflect this.

To all you dads out there: While you're relaxing in your recliner and watching sports on June 21, and your kids are on their best behavior to honor Father's Day, don't forget to thank a United Methodist.

That's right. Not one, but two United Methodist churches with the same name, oddly enough, can lay claim to originating the celebration of all things paternal.

In 1909 in Spokane, Wash., Sonora Smart Dodd listened to a Mother's Day sermon at Central Methodist Episcopal Church. Dodd's own mother had died 11 years earlier, and her father had raised their six children alone. Dodd felt moved to honor her father, and fathers everywhere, with a special day as well.

She proposed her idea to local religious leaders, and gained wide acceptance. June 19, 1910, was designated as the first Father's Day, and sermons honoring fathers were presented throughout the city.

When newspapers across the country carried the story about Spokane's observance, the popularity of Father's Day spread. Several presidents declared it a holiday, and in 1972, Richard Nixon established it as the third Sunday in June.

Dodd's pivotal role in the creation of a national Father's Day celebration was recognized in 1943 with a luncheon in her honor in New York City. Central Methodist Episcopal is now known as Central United Methodist, and holds a Father's Day service every year.

Read more at this link.