HISTORY - continued

United Church of Christ

The UCC (as The United Church of Christ is known) came into being in 1957. It was the ultimate result of the merger of four denominations – The Congregational Church, Christian Church, Reformed Church and the Evangelical Synod of North America.

The Congregational Churches were organized when the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation acknowledged their essential unity in 1648.

The Christian Churches sprang up in the late 1700s in reaction to the theological and organizational rigidity of Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists. These two groups, the Congregational Churches and the Christian Churches merged in 1931 to become the Congregational Christian Church.

The Reformed Church in the United States traced its beginnings to 1725 and congregations of German settlers in Pennsylvania. Later its ranks were expanded by Reformed folk from Switzerland and other countries. The Evangelical Synod of North America traced its beginnings to 1840 and an association of Evangelical Germans in Missouri. It reflected a union of Lutheran and Reformed Churches in Germany. These two groups, the Reformed Church in the United States and the Evangelical Synod of North America merged in 1934 to become the Evangelical and Reformed Church.