The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical confessional roots in the Congregational, Reformed, and Lutheran traditions, and with approximately 4,956 churches and 853,778 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 Reformed 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.
David Johannes du Plessis was a South African-born Pentecostal minister. He is considered one of the main founders of the charismatic movement, in which the Pentecostal experience of baptism with the Holy Spirit spread to non-Pentecostal churches worldwide.
The Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) is a Christian ecumenical American seminary located in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of several seminaries historically affiliated with the United Church of Christ. It is the oldest institution of higher education in Chicago, originally established in 1855 under the direction of the abolitionist Stephen Peet and the Congregational Church by charter of the Illinois legislature. In addition to being a seminary of the United Church of Christ, CTS offers students coursework necessary to be ordained by both the United Methodist Church and the Metropolitan Community Church denominations.
Lemuel Haynes was an American clergyman. A veteran of the American Revolution, Haynes was the first black man in the United States to be ordained as a minister.
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).
Edward Everett Nourse, D.D. was an American Congregational theologian.
Malcom Ollie "Mal" Couch, Jr. was the founder and first president of the Tyndale Theological Seminary. He was a pastor, an author of many books, and wrote 40 documentaries on Bible prophecies and biblical issues. While president of Tyndale Theological Seminary Couch recruited some very well known scholars and Bible teachers to teach the student body. Dr. Norman Geisler, Dr. Paige Patterson, Dr. Robert Lightner, Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, and Paul Enns were used in the educational endeavors at Tyndale Seminary. After Dr. Couch retired from Tyndale Seminary he became a Vice President of the Scofield Graduate School and Seminary located in Modesto, California.
Hartford Seminary is a non-denominational theological college in Hartford, Connecticut.
William Weston Patton, was an abolitionist, academic administrator, and scholar. He served as the 5th president of Howard University, and one of the contributors to the words of John Brown's Body. He was the son of Rev. William Patton and the grandson of Anglo-Irish Congregationalist immigrant and Revolutionary War Major Robert Patton.
Jeremiah Alvesta Wright Jr. is a pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, a congregation he led for 36 years, during which its membership grew to over 8,000 parishioners. Following retirement, his beliefs and preaching were scrutinized when segments of his sermons about terrorist attacks on the United States and government dishonesty were publicized in connection with the presidential campaign of Barack Obama.
Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary (APNTS) is a graduate-level theological institution located near Metro Manila in the Philippines. APNTS is a seminary in the Wesleyan theological tradition and affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene through its Division of World Mission. Its mission is to prepare "men and women for Christ-like leadership and excellence in ministries." Its institutional vision is: "Bridging cultures for Christ, APNTS equips each new generation of leaders to disseminate the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout Asia, the Pacific, and the world.
Biblical Witness Fellowship is an evangelical renewal movement composed of members of the United Church of Christ. Founded in 1978 as the United Church People for Biblical Witness, the movement reorganized as the Biblical Witness Fellowship at a national convocation in Byfield, Massachusetts in 1984, hosted by the current president of BWF, the Rev. Dr. William Boylan.
The Reverend Doctor William Lee Bradley, was a scholar of comparative religion, ethics, and theology, as well as a philanthropist.
Douglas Horton was an American Protestant clergyman and academic leader who was noted for his work in ecumenical relations among major Protestant bodies of his day. In his roles as a denominational executive, international ecclesiastical figure, and academic leader, Horton strongly advocated efforts undertaken by churches to unite organizationally with each other, even those of unlike theological and governmental persuasion.
The Reformed Episcopal Seminary is a theological seminary located in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1887 as the first seminary of the Reformed Episcopal Church.
Bethany Congregational Church is a United Church of Christ house of worship located in Thomasville, Georgia in south Georgia's Thomas County. It was founded on February 1, 1891, by the American Missionary Association as the chapel and worship center of the Allen Normal and Industrial School, an educational institution for African American students. The school operated from 1885 to 1933, and the church remained after the school property was razed in 1935.
Lewis Hodous was an American Board missionary to China, educator, Sinologist and Buddhologist.
The National Council of Congregational Churches of the United States was a mainline Protestant, Christian denomination in the United States. It was established in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1865 and existed until 1931. In 1928, there were 5,497 Congregational churches in the U.S. with a membership of 939,130. These churches were served by 5,648 ministers.
Brian A. Wren is an internationally published hymn-poet and writer. Wren's hymns appear in hymnals of all Christian traditions and have been influential in raising the awareness of theology in hymns. Brian Wren is married to Rev. Susan M. Heafield, a United Methodist pastor.
Jeffery Tribble is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and a professor of ministry with research interests in Practical Theology, Congregational Studies and Leadership, Ethnography, Evangelism and Church Planting, Black Church Studies, and Urban Church Ministry. Academics and professionals in these fields consider him a renowned thought leader. Tribble's experience in pastoral ministry allows for his work to bridge the gap between academic research and practical church leadership.
