Church of the United Brethren in Christ

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The Church of the United Brethren in Christ is an evangelical Christian denomination based in Huntington, Indiana.

The church is a Protestant denomination of episcopal structure, Arminian theology, with roots in the Mennonite and German Reformed communities of 18th century Pennsylvania.

In 1889, a controversy over membership in secret societies, such as the Freemasons, the proper way to modify the church's constitution, and other issues split the United Brethren into majority liberal and minority conservative blocs, the latter of which was led by Bishop Milton Wright (father of the Wright Brothers).

The majority faction merged with the Evangelical Church in 1946 to form a new denomination known as the Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB). This in turn merged in 1968 with The Methodist Church to form the United Methodist Church (UMC).

The Wright-led faction continues today as a denomination of about 550 congregations, with 47,300 members in fifteen countries. Its headquarters are in Huntington, Indiana, where it operates Huntington University and The Graduate School of Christian Ministries.

Contents

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History

Though not organized until 1800, the roots of the church reach back to 1767. In May of that year, a Great Meeting (part of an interdenominational revival movement) was held at a barn belonging to Isaac Long in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Martin Boehm (1725-1812), a Mennonite preacher, spoke of his becoming a Christian through crying out to God while plowing in the field. Philip William Otterbein (1726-1813), a Reformed pastor at York, Pennsylvania, left his seat, embraced Boehm and said to him, "Wir sind bruder (we are brethren)". The followers of Boehm and Otterbein formed a loose movement for many years. It spread to include German-speaking churches in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and Ohio. In 1800, they began a yearly conference. Thirteen ministers attended the first conference at the home of Peter Kemp in Frederick, Maryland. At that conference in 1800, they adopted a name, the United Brethren in Christ, and elected Boehm and Otterbein as bishops of the conference. The United Brethren Church claims this organization in 1800 as the first denomination to actually begin in the United States. A Confession of Faith was adopted in 1815 (similar to one written by Otterbein in 1789), and it has remained the statement of church doctrine to the present. In 1841, they adopted a Constitution. It has remained mostly intact, being changed only a few times.

The United Brethren took a strong stand against slavery, beginning around 1820. After 1837, slave owners were no longer allowed to remain as members of the United Brethren Church. In 1853, the Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society was organized. Expansion occurred into the western United States, but the church's stance against slavery limited expansion to the south. By 1889, the United Brethren had grown to over 200,000 members with six bishops. In that same year they experienced a division. Denominational leaders desired to make three changes: to give local conferences proportional representation at the General Conference; to allow laymen to serve as delegates to General Conference; and to allow United Brethren members to hold membership in secret societies. The denominational leadership made these changes, but the minority felt the changes violated the Constitution because they were not made by the majority vote of all United Brethren members. One of the bishops, Milton Wright (the father of aviation pioneers Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright), disagreed with the actions of the majority. Bishop Wright and other conference delegates left the meeting and resumed the session elsewhere. They believed that the other delegates had violated the Constitution (and, in effect, withdrawn from the denomination), and deemed themselves to be the true United Brethren Church.

Until 1946 two groups operated under the name Church of the United Brethren in Christ. In 1946, the larger "United Brethren" church merged with the Evangelical Association to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church. That body in turn merged with the Methodist Church in 1968 to form the United Methodist Church. The present United Brethren Church is descended from the minority who organized under the leadership of Bishop Milton Wright. They eventually adopted two of the changes that led to the division of 1889 - local conferences have proportional representation at General Conference, and half of the delegates are laypersons. They believe they adopted them constitutionally. In 1897, denominational headquarters, a college and a publishing house were established in Huntington, Indiana.

William Otterbein retained a connection with the Reformed Church, pastoring a Reformed Church in Baltimore, Maryland from 1774 until his death in 1813. Martin Boehm was excluded by the Mennonites in 1775. He joined the Methodist Church in 1802, while remaining bishop of the United Brethren until his death in 1812. Francis Asbury, bishop of the Methodist Church in America, spoke at the memorial services of both of these United Brethren bishops. Otterbein had assisted in Asbury's ordination.

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Faith and Practice

The Church of the United Brethren in Christ is a conservative Trinitarian body of Christians that hold the deity, humanity, and atonement of Jesus; that the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, is the inspired Word of God; and that salvation is through faith, repentance and following after Christ. The church holds two ordinances: baptism and the Lord's supper. The church takes a neutral position on the observance of feet washing, stating, "the example of washing feet is left to the judgment of every one to practice or not...".


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Branches And Connections

For the first several decades the Church of the United Brethren in Christ was loosely organized, and known simply as the United Brethren Church. When they officially organized into a denomination they adopted the name "Church of the United Brethren in Christ" in order to avoid confusion with the Unitas Fratrum (Unity of the Brethren), or as it more commonly was called in English, the United Brethren (also known as the Moravian Church.) Although there was influence by Pietism and the Moravians on the founders of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, there is no direct organizational link.

Likewise, there are no organizational connections with the Brethren denominations coming out of the German Brethren and Swiss Brethren movements, nor are there any connections with various Mormon groups that use "United Brethren" in their name.

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Church of the Brethren in Christ

Known branches of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ include several congregations led by United Brethren founder Martin Boehm that eventually became part of the Brethren in Christ Church. While they were associated with the United Brethren during the early decades, they never joined when the movement formalized into a denomination.

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Missionary Church

There were also a small number of pastors and members that withdrew during the 1800s and eventually contributed to the covergence of denominations of what is now the Missionary Church, USA.

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United Christian Church

In addition a small group of members withdrew (primarily over a desire for a stronger stand on pacifism) to form one of the denominations known as the United Christian Church around the middle of the 19th century.

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Christian Union Church

In 1848 a small group withdrew to form the Republican United Brethren Church. They later merged with another small splinter group called the Reformed United Brethren Church to form the Evangelical United Brethren Association (not to be confused with the later Evangelical United Brethren Church). The Evangelical United Brethren Association is said to have united with others to form the Christian Union Church in 1864.

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United Methodist Church & United Church of Canada

The largest "branching" came in 1889 when the main body divided into two groups. The larger group embraced a new constitution while the smaller group retained the original constitution. The larger group was known as the Church of the United Brethren in Christ or, later, The United Brethren Church (UB). In 1946 the United Brethren Church merged with the Evangelical Church to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB). In 1968 the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged with the Methodist Church to form the United Methodist Church (UMC).

In Canada the Evangelical United Brethren Churches joined the United Church of Canada which was formed a number of years earlier with the merger of the Methodist Church, the Congregational Churches, and some Presbyterian Churches in Canada.

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Evangelical Church of North America & Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada

At that time, a number of the Evangelical United Brethren Churches in the US and Canada left the Evangeical United Brethren Church/United Methodist Church. Some rejoined the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, other denominations, or remained independent. Most joined together to form the Evangelical Church of North America. Later, due to international laws and legal requirements by Revenue Canada, the Canadian branch of the Evangelical Church of North America withdrew to form its own denomination. The Evangelical Church in Canada then merged with the Missionary Church of Canada to form the Evangelical Missionary Church in Canada. Fraternal ties between the Evangelical Church and the Evangelical Missionary Church have been maintained.

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Church of the United Brethren in Christ, International

The smaller group of churches resulting from the 1889 division became known as the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Old Constitution. Later, after the other Church of the United Brethren in Christ had changed names, "Old Constitution" was dropped from the name. Today, they are often casually referred to as United Brethren (UB) or the United Brethren Church (UBC).

In the late 1980s through the early 2000s a need to comply with changing international laws resulted in the creation of a number of United Brethren Churches, organized by country. These independent national denominations covenanted together to create an interdependent body called the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, International.

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Church of the United Brethen in Christ, International

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National Conferences

The Church of the United Brethren in Christ, International currently consists of nine (9) self-governing national conferences. (At the 2005 Genereal Conference of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, International, Mexico and the Philippines were accepted as the eighth and ninth national conferences.) The nine national conferences are:

  • The United Brethren Church in Canada
  • The Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Honduras
  • The Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Hong Kong
  • The Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Jamaica
  • The Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Mexico
  • The Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Nicaragua
  • The Philippine National Conference of the United Brethren In Christ
    • aka "Looking Unto Jesus United Brethren In Christ Church"
  • The Church of the United Brethren in Christ, Sierra Leone
  • The Church of the United Brethren in Christ, USA
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Mission Districts

In addition there are seven (7) mission districts. A mission district is a collection of churches in a country which are not yet organized into a national conference. Instead, those churches are under the supervision of a national conference. For example, Global Ministries of the United States National Conference currently oversees mission districts in Haiti, India and Macau. Any of those mission districts could seek status as a national conference.

A mission district can apply to become a national conference if it meets the requirements. The procedure is:

  1. The churches in the mission district vote to seek membership in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, International.
  2. They develop their governing documents and submit them to the international Executive Committee for review.
  3. The General Conference approves, by a two-thirds vote, the request for membership.

These are the current mission districts:

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Organization

The General Conference of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, International meets every four years. It is the highest governing body of the church, and is composed of representatives from the nine (9) national conferences. The national conference of each country elects its own highest official. These national conference officials make up an international Executive Committee. The Executive Committee meets annually to take care of business between sessions of the General Conference.

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Church of the United Brethren in Christ, USA

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Organization

The Church of the United Brethren in Christ, USA is the United Brethren national conference for the United States. Its national offices are located in Huntington, Indiana. Led by an elected bishop, it is composed of clergy and lay representatives from US cogregations and US-sponsored mission fields. The national conference meets every two (2) years, with the next National Conference schedule to be held during the summer of 2007.

On October 14, 2003 the Executive Leadership Team of the United Brethren Church, USA voted to pursue joining with the Missionary Church. The joining was tentatively scheduled to occur in 2005 but was defeated by a vote of the membership in 2004.

At the 2005 National Conference of the United Brethren Church, USA significant changes were passed that intiated a major restructuring and refocusing of the denomination into a network of Great Commandment/Great Commission-focused congregations. The new organizational structure is designed to better equip congregations and their leadership while building stronger relationships and accountability.

The new structure

  • Moves the National Conference from a 4 year cycle to a 2 year cycle.
  • Requires each United Brethren Church in the United States must affirm their continued support for a covenant agreement every two years. The covenant agreement layouts out the minimum expectations to be a United Brethren Church.
  • Requires all pastors and their congregations work together with other pastors and congregations in groups of 5-10 called "clusters". The new structure allows flexibility in the formation and focus of a cluster. Each cluster has a coach who has been trained to equip the pastors in the cluster to equip their churches. All coaches report to the Director of Healthy Churches, a national conference staff member.
  • Allows for a variety of mission-focused networks & associations to be created. These groups may revolve around world evangelism, church planting, or any number of other affinities.

Any church, regardless of denominatinal affiliation may participate in the equipping clusters or the affinity groups under the new structure. While a church is not required to be an United Brethren Church, they do need to agree to basic beliefs and values. In order to have a representative vote in the National Conference, however, a church must be in good standing of a signed covenant with the United Brethren Church, USA.

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Affiliated Ministries
  • Global Ministries is the official agency of the Church of the United Brethren Church, USA for world-wide evangelism and disciplship. Areas of responsibility include overseeing Mission Conferences, certifying missionaries, and promoting connections between US & non-US congregations.
  • Huntington University, and the Huntington University Graduate School of Christian Ministries, located in Huntington, Indiana, are affiliated with the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, USA. The successor of Hartsville Seminary, Huntington University was founded in 1897 as Central College. It soon changed its name to Huntington College, becoming Huntington University on July 1, 2005.
  • UB Uth resources and promotes ministry to youth and youth ministers.
  • UB Women promotes ministry to women, for women, and by women.
  • Laurel Mission is a wholistic ministry meeting physicial, social, and spiritual needs in rural Kentucky.
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Publications

Connect is an official newsletter of the church.

"Worldview" is the official publication of Global Ministries and is publishd monthly.

bishopBlog, UB News, and ClusterCoach are online publications and are updated frequently.

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Status

The total number of United Brethren churches is 600, with a membership of 47,300. In 2000, membership in the United States was 24,603 in 253 congregations. The majority of United Brethren churches are located in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. Outside the United States, there are churches in Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Macau, Mexico, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, and Thailand.

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Higher Education

Since its beginning the 1700s, the Church of the United Brethren in Christ founded 34 colleges, seminaries, and academies in the United States. Those still surviving as independent entities, include:

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Other

Francis Scott Key, who wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner," was a Sunday school teacher for the United Brethren. Orville and Wilbur Wright, who invented the airplane, were the sons of United Brethren bishop Milton Wright.


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External links

National Conferences

UBC-USA Affiliate Ministries

UBC-USA Camps

Huntington University

Publications

Additional UB links

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References

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