Friedens Church of Washington | |
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| Location | 20301 FM 1155, Washington, TX 77880 |
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| Coordinates | 30°17′18.99″N96°10′0.01″W / 30.2886083°N 96.1666694°W |
| TSHS No. | 17883 |
Friedens Church of Washington is an historic evangelical protestant church of German heritage in Washington, Texas.
Friedens (German for Peace) was founded in 1890 by German immigrants to Washington County, [1] former members of the Evangelical Church of Germany. [2]
The church was constructed a mile and a half south of Washington, Texas, on two acres purchased in October 1888 for $1. [3] A local Missouri Synod Lutheran minister from nearby William Penn, [4] the Rev. Peter Klindworth, conducted the first services. [1] The Rev. David Buchmueller, an Eden Seminary graduate, [2] was hired as the first pastor and simultaneously first teacher of the church school, called the Brown's Prairie School. [1]
In 1904, the school separated from the church and became public. [2] In 1938, the Public Works Administration deconstructed this schoolhouse and built a new stone school building. The school was operated by Brenham ISD until 1967, [2] and after closure was purchased back by the church in 1970. [5]
The church was lost to fire and rebuilt in the early 1970s. [6] It was originally affiliated with the Evangelical Synod, [1] and later through merger the Evangelical & Reformed Church, then the United Church of Christ. [6] In 2022, the church left the UCC to become independent. [7] A Texas Historical Marker was added to the church in 2014, the school in 2015 [8] and graveyard in 2017. [9]
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a socially liberal mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Restorationist, Continental Reformed, and Lutheran traditions, and with approximately 4,600 churches and 712,000 members.The UCC is a historical continuation of the General Council of Congregational Christian churches founded under the influence of New England Puritanism. Moreover, it also subsumed the third largest Calvinist group in the country, the German Reformed. Notably, its modern members' theological and socio-political stances are often very different from those of its predecessors.
The Confessing Movement is a largely lay-led theologically conservative Christian movement that opposes the influence of theological liberalism and theological progressivism currently within several mainline Protestant denominations and seeks to return them to its view of orthodox doctrine, or form a new denomination and disfellowship (excommunicate) them if the situation becomes untenable. Those who eventually deem dealing with theological liberalism and theological progressivism within their churches and denominations as not being tenable anymore would later join or start Confessional Churches and/or Evangelical Churches that continue with the traditions of their respective denominations and maintaining orthodox doctrine while being ecclesiastically separate from the Mainline Protestant denominations.
Eden Theological Seminary is a Christian seminary based in Webster Groves, Missouri. It is one of the six official seminaries of the United Church of Christ.
The Evangelical and Reformed Church (E&R) was a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. It was formed in 1934 by the merger of the Reformed Church in the United States (RCUS) with the Evangelical Synod of North America (ESNA). A minority within the RCUS remained out of the merger in order to continue the name Reformed Church in the United States. In 1957, the Evangelical and Reformed Church merged with the majority of the Congregational Christian Churches (CC) to form the United Church of Christ (UCC).
The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the U.S. state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas.
The Evangelical Synod of North America, before 1927 German Evangelical Synod of North America, in German (Deutsche) Evangelische Synode von Nord-Amerika, was a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States existing from the mid-19th century until its 1934 merger with the Reformed Church in the United States to form the Evangelical and Reformed Church. This church merged with the Congregational Christian Churches in 1957 to create the United Church of Christ.
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John Christian Frederick Heyer was the first missionary sent abroad by Lutherans in the United States. He founded the Guntur Mission in Andhra Pradesh, India. "Father Heyer" is commemorated as a missionary in the Calendar of Saints of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on November 7, along with Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg and Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen.
The Evangelical Association of Reformed and Congregational Christian Churches is an evangelical protestant denomination in the United States. It began as a fellowship of churches disaffected from the United Church of Christ due to that denomination's liberal theology. Churches of the Evangelical Association are free to hold dual affiliation with another denomination, as local churches observe congregational polity.
The Calvin Synod is an acting conference of the United Church of Christ, composed entirely of Reformed, or Calvinist congregations of Hungarian descent. Unlike much of the UCC, the Synod is strongly conservative on doctrinal and social matters, and many members of the "Faithful and Welcoming Movement," a renewal group acting to move the UCC in a more orthodox direction, belong to this body.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Kimble County, Texas.
The following is a list of state or nationally designated historic sites and buildings in Wood County, Texas.
William Penn is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 100 in 2000. It is located within the Greater Houston metropolitan area.
Following the vote, a motion was made from the floor to exit the South Central Conference of the United Church of Christ. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of exiting and through that action, we effectively became a non-denominational church.