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Evangelical and Reformed Church, Protestant denomination formed by the merger (1934) of the Reformed Church in the United States and the Evangelical Synod of North America. Both of these bodies had originated in the Reformation in Europe. Their churches in America were established by immigrants from Germany and Switzerland. The Reformed Church in the United States, long known as the German Reformed Church, organized its first synod in 1747 and adopted a constitution in 1793. The Evangelical Synod of North America (not to be confused with the Evangelical Church, which merged in 1946 with the United Brethren in Christ to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church) was founded in 1840 at Gravois Settlement, Mo., by a union of Reformed and Lutheran Christians. In its early years it was known as the German Evangelical Church Association of the West. The Evangelical and Reformed Church is presbyterian in organization, and its creed is the Heidelberg and Luther's catechisms and the Augsburg Confession; great latitude in interpretation is allowed, however, with greater emphasis leaning toward deed rather than creed. The church maintains educational institutions and foreign missions. In 1957 the Evangelical and Reformed Church united with the Congregational Christian Churches to form the United Church of Christ.

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Evangelical United Brethren Church

Evangelical United Brethren Church, Protestant denomination created (1946) by the union of the Evangelical Church and the United Brethren in Christ. Both denominations originated early in the 19th cent. and had similarities in organization and polity. The Evangelical Church was begun by the evangelical, pietistic efforts of Jacob Albright, a Lutheran convert to Methodism, who preached among his fellow Pennsylvania Germans. The United Brethren in Christ came into being as a result of the evangelistic preaching of Philip William Otterbein of the German Reformed Church and Martin Boehm, a Mennonite bishop. These two ministers conducted revivals among the German-speaking people of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. The methods of Albright, Otterbein, and Boehm were similar: after evangelistic meetings, converts were encouraged to form classes or societies for strengthening their spiritual life. The groups formed under Albright held a general conference in 1807 at which he was elected bishop; in 1816 the name Evangelical Association was adopted. In 1891 a group that became the United Evangelical Church seceded from the Evangelical Association, but in 1922 the two bodies reunited as the Evangelical Church. The societies formed under Otterbein and Boehm took shape as a distinct ecclesiastical body, to be known as the United Brethren in Christ, at a conference in 1800, at which the two ministers were elected bishops. The United Brethren in Christ (Old Constitution) parted from the main body in 1889; from that time they have maintained a separate church. Members of the Moravian Church are also sometimes called the United Brethren. In earlier years the membership of the Evangelical Church and of the United Brethren in Christ included few who were not German in speech, but later the German-speaking element formed only a small proportion. Extension W of the Alleghenies was rapid. The newly combined church supported publishing houses in the United States and abroad, four theological seminaries, a number of colleges, and foreign missions. It had an episcopal form of government. In doctrine it was Arminian. Particular emphasis was laid on prayer, a life of devotion to Christ, and the responsibility of the individual. Having long maintained a close relationship with the Methodist Church, it merged with it to found (1968) the United Methodist Church, U.S.A.

See R. W. Albright, History of the Evangelical Church (1942, repr. 1956); J. W. Owen, A Short History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (1944).

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Evangelical League

Evangelical League: see Protestant Union.

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Evangelical Church

Evangelical Church: see Evangelical United Brethren Church.

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Evangelical Alliance

Evangelical Alliance, an association of Evangelical Christians in a union, not of churches, but of individuals belonging to different denominations and different countries. It was formed to give evidence of the unity existing among Evangelical believers and to advance such unity. The Alliance was founded in 1846 in London, at a conference in which some 50 denominations were represented by several hundred clergymen and laymen, gathered from many parts of the world. Branches have been organized in various countries. An American branch was established in 1867. In 1908 the American Alliance was replaced by the Federal Council of Churches, which was superseded in 1950 by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. The largest association is the one first formed in Great Britain, which in 1923 became known as the World's Evangelical Alliance.

See A. J. Arnold, History of the Evangelical Alliance (1897); J. W. Ewing, Goodly Fellowship: A Centenary Tribute to the Life and Work of the World's Evangelical Alliance, 1846-1946 (1946).

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