1.
United Methodist Church
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The United Methodist Church is a mainline Protestant denomination, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor—the Methodist Church—was a leader in Evangelicalism and it was founded in 1968 in Dallas, Texas, United States, by union of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The UMC traces its roots back to the movement of John. As such, the theological orientation is decidedly Wesleyan. It embraces both liturgical and evangelical elements and it has a connectional polity, a typical feature of a number of Methodist denominations. The United Methodist Church, with at least 12 million members as of 2014, is the largest denomination within the wider Methodist movement of approximately 80 million people across the world. In the United States, the UMC ranks as the largest mainline Protestant denomination, the largest Protestant church after the Southern Baptist Convention, and the third largest Christian denomination. In 2014, its membership was distributed as follows,7.2 million in the United States. It is a member of the World Council of Churches, the World Methodist Council, the movement which would become The United Methodist Church began in the mid-18th century within the Church of England. A small group of students, including John Wesley, Charles Wesley and George Whitefield and they focused on Bible study, methodical study of scripture and living a holy life. Other students mocked them, saying they were the Holy Club, eventually, the so-called Methodists started individual societies or classes for members of the Church of England who wanted to live a more religious life. In 1735, John and Charles Wesley went to America, hoping to teach the gospel to the American Indians in the colony of Georgia, instead, John became vicar of the church in Savannah. His preaching was very legalistic and full of rules. After two years in America, he returned to England dejected and confused, Peter believed a person is saved solely through the grace of God and not by works, and John had many conversations with Peter about this topic. On May 25,1738, after listening to a reading of Martin Luthers preface to Romans, John finally understood that his works could not save him. For the first time in his life, he felt complete peace, in less than two years, the Holy Club disbanded. John Wesley met with a group of clergy, the ministers retained their membership in the Church of England. Though not always emphasized or appreciated in the Anglican churches of their day, their teaching emphasized salvation by Gods grace, three teachings they saw as the foundation of Christian faith were, People are all by nature dead in sin and consequently, children of wrath
2.
Financial endowment
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A financial endowment is a donation of money or property to a nonprofit organization for the ongoing support of that organization. An endowment may come with stipulations regarding its usage, the total value of an institutions investments is often referred to as the institutions endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust. Among the institutions that commonly manage endowments are academic institutions, cultural institutions, service organizations, the earliest endowed chairs were those established by the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius in Athens in AD176. Aurelius created one endowed chair for each of the schools of philosophy, Platonism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism. Later, similar endowments were set up in other major cities of the Empire. Today, the University of Glasgow has fifteen Regius Professorships, private individuals soon adopted the practice of endowing professorships. Isaac Newton held the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge beginning in 1669, unrestricted endowment can be used in any way the recipient chooses to carry out its mission. Term endowment funds stipulate that all or part of the principal may be expended only after the expiration of a period of time or occurrence of a specified event. Quasi endowment funds must retain the purpose and intent as specified by the donor or source of the original funds, Endowment revenue can be restricted by donors to serve many purposes. Endowed professorships or scholarships restricted to a subject are common. Ignoring the restriction is called invading the endowment, but change of circumstance or financial duress like bankruptcy can preclude carrying out the donors intent. A court can alter the use of restricted endowment under a doctrine called cy-près meaning to find an alternative as near as possible to the donors intent, the restricted/unrestricted distinction focuses on the use of the funds, see quasi-endowment below for a distinction about whether principal can be spent. Academic institutions, such as colleges and universities, will control a endowment fund that finances a portion of the operating or capital requirements of the institution. In addition to an endowment fund, each university may also control a number of restricted endowments that are intended to fund specific areas within the institution. The most common examples are endowed professorships, and endowed scholarships or fellowships, in the United States, the endowment is often integral to the financial health of educational institutions. Alumni or friends of institutions sometimes contribute capital to the endowment, the endowment funding culture is strong in the United States and Canada but less pronounced overseas, with the exceptions of Cambridge and Oxford universities. Endowment funds have also created to support secondary and elementary school districts in several states in the United States. An endowed professorship is a position permanently paid for with the revenue from an endowment fund set up for that purpose
3.
Winchester, Virginia
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Winchester is an Independent City located in the northwestern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 26,203, as of 2015, its population is an estimated 27,284. It is the county seat of Frederick County, although the two are separate jurisdictions, the Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Winchester with surrounding Frederick County for statistical purposes. Winchester is home to Shenandoah University and the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, indigenous peoples lived along the waterways of present-day Virginia for thousands of years before European contact. Archeological, linguistic and anthropological studies have provided insights into their cultures, the Algonquian-speaking Shawnee began to challenge the Iroquoians for the hunting grounds later in that century. The explorers Batts and Fallam in 1671 reported the Shawnee were contesting with the Iroquoians for control of the valley and were losing, during the later Beaver Wars, the powerful Iroquois Confederacy from New York subjugated all tribes in the frontier region west of the Fall Line. By the time European settlers arrived in the Shenandoah Valley around 1729, the Iroquois Six Nations finally ceded their nominal claim to the Shenandoah Valley at the Treaty of Lancaster. The treaty also established the right of colonists to use the Indian Road, the father of the historical Shawnee chief Cornstalk had his court at Shawnee Springs until 1754. The Shawnee settled for years in the Ohio Country before being forced by the US government under Indian Removal in the 1830s to remove to Indian Territory. Winchester had a role as a frontier city in those early times. French Jesuit expeditions may have first entered the valley as early as 1606, the first confirmed exploration of the northern valley was by the explorer John Lederer, who viewed the it from the current Fauquier and Warren County line on August 26,1670. In 1705 the Swiss explorer Louise Michel and in 1716 Governor Alexander Spotswood did more extensive mapping and surveying, in the late 1720s, Governor William Gooch promoted settlement by issuing large land grants. Robert King Carter, manager of the Lord Fairfax proprietorship, acquired 200,000 acres, the Scots-Irish comprised the most numerous group of immigrants from the British Isles before the American Revolutionary War. The settlement of Winchester began as early as 1729, when Quakers such as Abraham Hollingsworth migrated up the Great Valley along the long-traveled Indian Path from Pennsylvania and he and others began to homestead on old Shawnee campgrounds. Tradition holds that the Quakers purchased several tracts on Apple-pie Ridge from the natives, the first German settler appears to have been Jost Hite in 1732, who brought ten other families, including some Scots-Irish. Though Virginia was an Anglican colony, Governor William Gooch had a tolerant policy on religion, the availability of land grants brought in many religious families, who were often given 50-acre plots through the sponsorship of fellow-religious grant purchasers and speculators. As a result, the Winchester area became home to some of the oldest Presbyterian, Quaker, the first Lutheran worship was established by Rev. John Casper Stoever, Jr. and Alexander Ross established Hopewell Meeting for the Quakers. By 1736, Scots-Irish built the Opequon Presbyterian Church in Kernstown, a legal fight erupted in 1735 when Thomas Fairfax, Sixth Lord Fairfax came to Virginia to claim his land grant
4.
Virginia
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Virginia is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, as well as in the historic Southeast. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, the capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond, Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealths estimated population as of 2014 is over 8.3 million, the areas history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony, slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colonys early politics and plantation economy. Although the Commonwealth was under one-party rule for nearly a century following Reconstruction, the Virginia General Assembly is the oldest continuous law-making body in the New World. The state government was ranked most effective by the Pew Center on the States in both 2005 and 2008 and it is unique in how it treats cities and counties equally, manages local roads, and prohibits its governors from serving consecutive terms. Virginias economy changed from agricultural to industrial during the 1960s and 1970s. Virginia has an area of 42,774.2 square miles, including 3,180.13 square miles of water. Virginias boundary with Maryland and Washington, D. C. extends to the mark of the south shore of the Potomac River. The southern border is defined as the 36° 30′ parallel north, the border with Tennessee was not settled until 1893, when their dispute was brought to the U. S. Supreme Court. The Chesapeake Bay separates the portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginias Eastern Shore. The bay was formed from the river valleys of the Susquehanna River. Many of Virginias rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James, the Tidewater is a coastal plain between the Atlantic coast and the fall line. It includes the Eastern Shore and major estuaries of Chesapeake Bay, the Piedmont is a series of sedimentary and igneous rock-based foothills east of the mountains which were formed in the Mesozoic era. The region, known for its clay soil, includes the Southwest Mountains around Charlottesville. The Blue Ridge Mountains are a province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the state. The Ridge and Valley region is west of the mountains and includes the Great Appalachian Valley, the region is carbonate rock based and includes Massanutten Mountain. The Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland Mountains are in the southwest corner of Virginia, in this region, rivers flow northwest, with a dendritic drainage system, into the Ohio River basin
5.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
6.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
