Origin
of United Church of Christ
The
United Church of Christ came into being in 1957 with the union of two Protestant
denominations: the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian
Churches. Each of these was, in turn, the result of a union of two earlier denominations.
The Congregational Churches were organized when the Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation
(1620) and Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1629) acknowledged their
essential unity in the Cambridge Platform of 1648. The Reformed Church in the
United States traced its beginnings to congregations of German settlers in Pennsylvania
founded from 1725 on. Later, its ranks were swelled by Reformed from other countries.
The Christian Churches sprang up in the late 1700s and early 1800s in reaction
to the theological and organizational rigidity of the Methodist, Presbyterian,
and Baptist churches of the time.
The
Evangelical Synod of North America traced its beginning to an association of
German Evangelical pastors in Missouri. This association, founded in 1840, reflected
the 1817 union of Lutheran and Reformed churches in Germany.
Through the years, Members of other groups such as Native Americans, African
Americans, Asian Americans, Volga Germans, Armenians, Hungarians, and Hispanic
Americans have joined with the four earlier groups. Thus the United Church of
Christ celebrates and continues a wide variety of traditions in its common life.
Link to the Metropolitan
Christian Council Detroit/Windsor for information
on the organization and news of many other Detroit and Windsor churches.
http://www.metrochristian.net
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