The Christian Church is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening,first existing during the 19th century as a loose association of churches working towards Christian unity,then slowly forming quasi-denominational structures through missionary societies,regional associations,and an international convention. In 1968,the Disciples of Christ officially adopted a denominational structure at which time a group of churches left to remain nondenominational.
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination,and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States,smaller than the Roman Catholic Church,according to self-reported membership statistics.
The American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) is a mainline Baptist Christian denomination within the United States. The denomination maintains headquarters in Valley Forge,Pennsylvania. The organization is usually considered mainline,although varying theological and mission emphases may be found among its congregations,including modernist,charismatic and evangelical orientations. It traces its history to the First Baptist Church in America (1638) and the Baptist congregational associations which organized the Triennial Convention in 1814. From 1907 to 1950,it was known as the Northern Baptist Convention, and from 1950 to 1972 as the American Baptist Convention.
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States,with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational,Calvinist,Lutheran,and Anabaptist traditions,and with approximately 4,794 churches and 773,539 members. The United Church of Christ is a historical continuation of the General Council of Congregational Christian churches founded under the influence of New England Pilgrims and Puritans. Moreover,it also subsumed the third largest Calvinist group in the country,the German Reformed. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC. These two denominations,which were themselves the result of earlier unions,had their roots in Congregational,Lutheran,Evangelical,and Reformed denominations. At the end of 2014,the UCC's 5,116 congregations claimed 979,239 members,primarily in the U.S. In 2015,Pew Research estimated that 0.4 percent,or 1 million adult adherents,of the U.S. population self-identify with the United Church of Christ.
The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA,usually identified as the National Council of Churches (NCC),is the largest ecumenical body in the United States. NCC is an ecumenical partnership of 38 Christian faith groups in the United States. Its member communions include mainline Protestant,Eastern Orthodox,African-American,evangelical,and historic peace churches. Together,it encompasses more than 100,000 local congregations and 40 million adherents. It began as the Federal Council of Churches in 1908,and expanded through merger with several other ecumenical organizations to become the National Council of Churches in 1950.
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (UTS) is a ecumenical Christian liberal seminary in Morningside Heights,Manhattan,New York City. It is affiliated with neighboring Columbia University. Since 1928,the seminary has served as Columbia's constituent faculty of theology. In 1964,UTS also established an affiliation with the neighboring Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Founded in 1855,the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) is the oldest higher education institution in the City of Chicago and was established with two principal goals:first,to educate pastors who would minister to people living on the new western frontier of the United States and second,to train ministers who would advance the movement to abolish slavery. Originally started under the direction of the abolitionist Stephen Peet and the Congregational Church by charter of the Illinois legislature,CTS has retained its forward-looking activist outlook throughout its history,graduating alumni who include civil rights activists Jesse Jackson Sr. and Howard Schomer,social reformer Graham Taylor,and anti-Apartheid activist John W. de Gruchy. It is one of six seminaries affiliated with the United Church of Christ and follows an ecumenical tradition that stresses cooperation between different Christian denominations as well as interfaith understanding.
James Petigru Boyce (1827–1888) served as a Southern Baptist pastor,theologian,author,seminary professor,and founder and first president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) is a Baptist seminary in Louisville,Kentucky. It is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). The seminary was founded in 1859 in Greenville,South Carolina,where it was at first housed on the campus of Furman University. After being closed during the Civil War,it moved in 1877 to a newly built campus in downtown Louisville and moved to its current location in 1926 in the Crescent Hill neighborhood. For more than fifty years Southern has been one of the world's largest theological seminaries,with an FTE enrollment of over 3,300 students in 2015.
Clementa Carlos "Clem" Pinckney was an American politician and pastor who served as a Democratic member of the South Carolina Senate,representing the 45th District from 2000 until his death in 2015. He was previously a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1997 through 2000.
Moses William Howard Jr. is an American cleric,former college president,community and business leader. He is known for his involvement in ecumenical organizations domestically and internationally and in international affairs,especially within the Middle East and Southern Africa. He is the son of the late Laura Turner Howard and the late Moses William Howard Sr. He attended public schools in Americus before enrolling in Morehouse College,where he graduated in 1968. He earned a Master of Divinity degree at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1972. His worldview was shaped initially in response to the racial segregation he experienced in his hometown,where he participated in voter registration drives in the early 1960s. He studied Philosophy and Psychology at Morehouse and was heavily influenced by Professors Samuel Williams and Lucius Tobin. His principal academic advisor at Princeton was Professor Edward Jurgi.
Otis Moss III is the pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. He espouses black theology and speaks about reaching inner-city black youth.
James David "J.D." Greear is an evangelical American religious leader who is the pastor of The Summit Church in Durham,North Carolina. He served as the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2018 to 2021.
Fred J. Luter Jr. is a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). He was elected on 2012 June 19,and was SBC's first African-American president. According to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary president Daniel L. Akin,".. . the most significant event to happen in our [SBC's] history since our formation" is Luter's election.
The Nineteenth Street Baptist Church,located on 16th Street,NW,is considered to be the first and oldest black Baptist congregation in Washington,D.C. Since its founding in 1839,the church has figured prominently within the historical and social fabric of Washington,D.C.'s African American community.
John C. Dorhauer is an American Protestant clergy member,author,and theologian. He currently serves as the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ (UCC),a Mainline Protestant denomination.
James Alfred Smith Senior is the Pastor Emeritus of the Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland,California. Ebony Magazine chose Smith to be one of the "Most Influential Black Americans" and was one of the magazine's Top 15 Greatest Black Preachers of 1993.
Wilmer Clemont Fields was an American Southern Baptist minister,public relations executive,newspaper editor,and the (co-)author or editor of 30 books. He was a pastor in Louisiana,Kentucky and Mississippi. He was the editor of The Baptist Record and Baptist Program,a director of the Baptist Press,and the vice president for public relations for the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was a defender of the freedom of the press.
Harry Edward Litton Jr. is an American evangelical pastor who is the 63rd president of the Southern Baptist Convention,elected in June 2021. He also serves as the senior pastor of Redemption Church in Saraland,Alabama.
Cynthia Clark Wedel was an Episcopal leader and educator. Wedel was the first woman to be named president of the National Council of Churches. She was elected one of the presidents of the World Council of Churches in 1975.
