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United and uniting churches

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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.

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 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 church 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

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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]

United and uniting churches around the world

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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.

See also

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References

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  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.