United and uniting churches

Union of Protestant churches of different creeds

Not to be confused with Unification movement.

"Union church" redirects here. For nondenominational churches in Australia, see Union Church (Australia).

For churches within the Unitarianism movement, see Unitarianism. For unions within Eastern and Catholic Christianity, see Eastern Catholic Churches. For the more general concept, see Church union.

Glass window in the town church of Wiesloch (Stadtkirche Wiesloch) with Martin Luther and John Calvin commemorating the 1821 union of Lutheran and Reformed churches in the Grand Duchy of Baden Part of a series on

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A united church, also called a uniting church, is a denomination formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations, a number of which come from separate and distinct denominational orientations or traditions.[1] Multi-denominationalism, or a multi-denominational church or organization, is a congregation or organization that is affiliated with two or more Christian denominations, whether they be part of the same tradition or from separate and distinct traditions.[2][3]

Historically, unions of Protestant churches were enforced by the state, usually in order to have a stricter control over the religious sphere of its people, but also for other organizational reasons. As modern Christian ecumenism progresses, unions between various Protestant traditions are becoming more and more common,[4] resulting in a growing number of united and uniting churches. Examples include the United Church of Canada (1925), the Church of South India (1947), the United Methodist Church (1968), the Uniting Church in Australia (1977), the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (2004), and the United Protestant Church of France (2013).[5][6][7][8]

In the developing world, this model has been attractive in countries where Protestants are a small minority of the population; by pooling resources and endorsing cross-attendance between denominations, churches can serve a wider geographical area. In the developed world, since the mid-20th century, and the rise of secularism worldwide, mainline Protestantism has shrunk, reducing the viability of many individual denominations maintaining parallel administrative structures.[9][10][11][12] Among others, Reformed (Calvinist), Anglican, and Lutheran churches have merged, often creating large nationwide denominations.[1] In some countries, Methodist and Congregational denominations have also merged. The phenomenon is much less common among evangelical, nondenominational and charismatic churches as new ones arise and many of them remain independent of each other, although in some cases instances of evangelical church congregations joining multiple denominations in a phenomenon known as "multi-denominationalism" does occur; but in most cases Evangelicals cooperate with each other through interdenominationalism while still maintaining denominational distinctions.[2][3]

Perhaps the oldest official united church is found in Germany, where the Protestant Church in Germany is a federation of Lutheran, United (Prussian Union) and Reformed churches, a union dating back to 1817. The first of the series of unions was at a synod in Idstein to form the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau in August 1817, commemorated in naming the church of Idstein Unionskirche one hundred years later.[13][14]

Around the world, each united or uniting church comprises a different mix of predecessor Protestant denominations.[1] Trends are visible, however, as most united and uniting churches have one or more predecessors with heritage in the Reformed tradition and many are members of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

## Conciliar movement

[edit]

In the 1950s and 1960s, an ecumenical spirit emerged in many churches in the United States, leading to a conciliar movement known in some circles as Conciliarity. A product of this movement was the Consultation on Church Union (COCU). The COCU disbanded formally in 2002 but moved into the Churches Uniting in Christ movement.[15]

## Denominations by country

[edit]

Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau (founded in 1817) is a United Protestant member church under the Protestant Church in Germany's umbrella. Unionskirche in Idstein held by the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau. It commemorates the union of Lutheran and Reformed Protestants in the Duchy of Nassau in August 1817, the first of its kind and a month before the Prussian Union in September of the same year.

* Australia: Uniting Church in Australia, the 1977 union of the Congregational Union of Australia, Methodist Church of Australasia, and Presbyterian Church of Australia churches.[16]
* Bangladesh: Church of Bangladesh, established in 1974 as a union of Anglican and Presbyterian churches.[17]
* Belgium: United Protestant Church in Belgium, formed in 1979 as a union of the Reformed and Lutheran churches.[18]
* Canada: United Church of Canada, the 1925 union of Congregationalist, Methodist Church (Canada), and a majority of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (including Bermuda).[19]
* Czech Republic: Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, formed in 1918 in Czechoslovakia through the unification of the Protestant churches of the Lutheran and Reformed (Calvinist) confessions.[20] However, the ECCB has deeper roots in the Czech Reformation: in the Utraquist Hussite Church (1431–1620) and in the Unity of Brethren aka Moravian Church (1457–1620).
* France: United Protestant Church of France, formed in 2013 through the unification of the Reformed Church of France and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of France.[5][21]
* Germany: Ten united church bodies within the Protestant Church in Germany from unions of Lutheran and Reformed churches: Evangelical Church in Berlin, Brandenburg and Silesian Upper Lusatia, the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, the Evangelical Church of Westphalia (all of them are successors of the Prussian Union of Churches), the Evangelical Church of Anhalt, the Protestant Church in Baden, the Evangelical Church of Bremen, the Evangelical Church in Central Germany, the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau, the Evangelical Church of Hesse Electorate-Waldeck and the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate (Protestant State Church).[22]
* India: Church of North India, the 1970 union of Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian, Congregational, and the Church of the Brethren churches.[23]
* India: Church of South India, the 1947 union of Anglican, Methodist, Congregational, Presbyterian, and Reformed churches.[24]
* Indonesia: Indonesia Christian Church or Gereja Kristen Indonesia, union of GKI East Java, GKI West Java and GKI Central Java in 1988.[25]
* Italy: Union of Methodist and Waldensian Churches, the 1975 union of Waldensian Evangelical Church and the Methodist Evangelical Church in Italy.
* Jamaica: United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, the 1965 union of Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Disciples of Christ churches.[26]
* Japan: United Church of Christ in Japan, the 1941 union of thirty-three Protestant denominations.[27]
* Kiribati: Kiribati Uniting Church,[28] a union of several Protestant denominations in Kiribati, including Congregationalists, Evangelicals, Anglicans, and Presbyterians.
* Melanesia: United Church in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands,[29] a United church in the Methodist and the Reformed tradition
* Netherlands: Protestant Church in the Netherlands, the 2004 union of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.[8]
* Pakistan: Church of Pakistan, the 1970 union of Anglicans, Scottish Presbyterians (Church of Scotland), Methodists, and Lutherans.[30]
* Philippines: Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Cristo, a merger of indigenous Presbyterian and Methodist denominations in 1932.[31]
* Philippines: United Church of Christ in the Philippines,[32] a merger of the Evangelical Church of the Philippines, the Philippine Methodist Church, the Disciples of Christ, the United Evangelical Church and several independent congregations.[33][34]
* Philippines: Union Church of Manila, an interdenominational congregation resulting from the union of Presbyterian and Methodist churches in 1914.
* South Africa: Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa.
* Sweden: Evangelical Free Church in Sweden, the 2002 union of the Örebro Mission, the Free Baptist Union and the Holiness Union.[35]
* Sweden: Uniting Church in Sweden, the 2011 union of the Baptist Union of Sweden, the Swedish branch of the United Methodist Church, and the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden.[36]
* Thailand: Church of Christ in Thailand[37]
* United Kingdom: United Reformed Church, the 1972 union of the Congregational Union of England and Wales and the Presbyterian Church of England, later joined by the Churches of Christ (Europe) and the Congregational Union of Scotland.[38]
* United Kingdom: United Free Church of Scotland,[39] formed in 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (or UP) and the majority of the 19th-century Free Church of Scotland.
* United States: United Church of Christ, the 1957 union of the two previously united churches: Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.[40]
* United States: United Methodist Church, the 1968 union of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church.[41]
* United States: Wesleyan Church, the 1968 union of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and the Pilgrim Holiness Church.[42]
* United States: Unitarian Universalist Association, the 1961 consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America.[43]
* Ethiopia has an estimated 9 million members of United churches.[44]
* Zambia: the United Church in Zambia formed in 1965 by the Church of Central Africa, Rhodesia (Presbyterian); the Union Church of Copperbelt; the Copperbelt Free Church Council; the Church of Barotseland and the Methodist church.[45]

## See also

[edit]

* Christianity
* Congregationalist polity
* Continuing church
* English Covenant
* List of Christian denominations

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c "United and Uniting churches — World Council of Churches". www.oikoumene.org. Archived from the original on 2019-08-20. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
2. ^ a b "What it means to be multidenominational – The Refuge Place". therefuge.place. Archived from the original on 2023-05-10. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
3. ^ a b "Multi-Denomination Congregations in the U.S. and Canada". Paulist Fathers. Archived from the original on 2023-05-10. Retrieved 2023-05-10.
4. ^ Haire, James (2017-03-06). Wainwright, Geoffrey; McPartlan, Paul (eds.). "United and Uniting Churches". The Oxford Handbook of Ecumenical Studies. pp. 431–440\. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199600847.013.30. ISBN 978-0-19-960084-7. Archived from the original on 2021-06-26. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
5. ^ a b France, Eglise protestante unie de. "La création de l'Église protestante unie de France". Eglise protestante unie de France (in French). Archived from the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
6. ^ "United Protestant Church of France — World Council of Churches". www.oikoumene.org. Archived from the original on 2020-07-17. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
7. ^ "Three-way PKN union drastically changes Dutch denominational landscape » The Windmill news articles » goDutch". www.godutch.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
8. ^ a b "Protestant Church in the Netherlands — World Council of Churches". www.oikoumene.org. Archived from the original on 2020-07-19. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
9. ^ "Mainline Protestants make up shrinking number of U.S. adults". Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on 2020-09-12. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
10. ^ "American Religion Statistics: Trends in U.S. Religious Affiliations". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 2015-05-12. Archived from the original on 2020-09-04. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
11. ^ "Amid Evangelical decline, growing split between young Christians and church elders". The Christian Science Monitor. 2017-10-10. ISSN 0882-7729. Archived from the original on 2020-09-11. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
12. ^ Burge, Ryan P. "Evangelicals Show No Decline, Despite Trump and Nones". News & Reporting. Archived from the original on 2020-08-30. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
13. ^ "Staatlicher Dirigismus und neue Gläubigkeit (Die Kirche im Herzogtum Nassau)" (in German). Nassau-info.de. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2011-06-10.
14. ^ Block, Mathew (2017-10-05). "Remembering the 200th anniversary of the forced union of Lutheran and Reformed churches in Prussia". International Lutheran Council. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
15. ^ Lahutsky, Nadia (Winter 2003). "The Union of Christians and Disciples in 1832 and COCU/CUIC". Discipliana. 63 (4): 120. ISSN 0732-9881.
16. ^ "UCA - Our History". nswact.uca.org.au. Archived from the original on 2020-07-25. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
17. ^ "Our History". Church of Bangladesh. 2012-01-29. Archived from the original on 2021-06-30. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
18. ^ "United Protestant Church of Belgium". Archived from the original on 2023-03-02. Retrieved 2023-03-02.
19. ^ "A Brief History | The United Church of Canada". United-church.ca. Archived from the original on 2013-05-11. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
20. ^ Archa, Tomáš Pilát. "Českobratrská církev evangelická". www.e-cirkev.cz. Archived from the original on 2019-03-25. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
21. ^ The Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace and Lorraine is not an actual united church, but a union of churches, even if the differences are quite faint in the field.
22. ^ "Protestant Church in Germany". www.ekd.de. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
23. ^ CNI. "History – CNI". Archived from the original on 2020-01-27. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
24. ^ "CSI SYNOD". www.csisynod.com. Archived from the original on 2020-08-11. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
25. ^ "Indonesian Christian Church (GKI) — World Council of Churches". www.oikoumene.org. Archived from the original on 2018-02-10. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
26. ^ "United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands — World Council of Churches". www.oikoumene.org. Archived from the original on 2018-02-28. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
27. ^ "A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE KYODAN - The United Church of Christ in Japan" (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2020-03-27. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
28. ^ "Kiribati Uniting Church — World Council of Churches". www.oikoumene.org. Archived from the original on 2016-04-08. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
29. ^ "United Church in Papua New Guinea — World Council of Churches". www.oikoumene.org. Archived from the original on 2020-03-19. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
30. ^ Office, Anglican Communion. "Anglican Communion: Member Church". Anglican Communion Website. Archived from the original on 2021-04-06. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
31. ^ Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Cristo, Manwal ng Manggagawang Unida. 2007
32. ^ "Our Story". Archived from the original on 2020-04-21. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
33. ^ Norwood B. Tye, Journeying with the United Church of Christ in the Philippines: A History (Quezon City: United Church of Christ in the Philippines, 1994), 246-247
34. ^ Guillermo Manuel, "A Study of the Movement for Union and Closer Cooperation Among the Protestant Churches of the Philippines", p. 54.
35. ^ "Intro till EFK - Evangeliska Frikyrkan (EFK)". www.efk.se (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 2020-09-20. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
36. ^ "Uniting Church in Sweden — World Council of Churches". www.oikoumene.org. Archived from the original on 2019-10-26. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
37. ^ "ประวัติศาสตร์ – The Church of Christ in Thailand" (in Thai). Archived from the original on 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
38. ^ "About us". The United Reformed Church. Archived from the original on 2020-08-10. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
39. ^ "Our History – United Free Church of Scotland". Archived from the original on 2020-09-20. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
40. ^ "About Us". United Church of Christ. Archived from the original on 2020-08-19. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
41. ^ "History". The United Methodist Church. Archived from the original on 2020-09-25. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
42. ^ Satterfield, Ray; Cope, Daniel (2018). A Heritage of Holiness: The Story of Allegheny Wesleyan Methodism. Salem: Allegheny Press. p. 149.
43. ^ "History of Unitarian Universalism | UUA.org". www.uua.org. Archived from the original on 2010-02-04. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
44. ^ Zurlo, G. (2022). Global Christianity: A Guide to the World’s Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Zondervan Academic. p. 119\. ISBN 978-0-310-11363-8. Retrieved 2024-12-05.
45. ^ "United Church of Zambia — World Council of Churches". oikoumene.org. Retrieved September 6, 2017.

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