The United Church of Christ came into being in 1957 with the union of two Protestant Denominations: the Evangelical and
the 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
the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1629) acknowledged thier 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 folk from Switzerland and 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 NativeAmericans, 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.
(exerpt, UCC brosure, cr. 1980,91,93 UCpress)
