- Evangelical United Brethren Church
The Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB) was an American
Protestant church which was formed in1946 by the merger of theEvangelical Church with theChurch of the United Brethren in Christ (not to be confused with the currentChurch of the United Brethren in Christ (Old Constitution) ). The United Brethren and the Evangelical Association had considered merging since the early nineteenth century because of their common emphasis on holiness and evangelism and German heritage.The Evangelical United Brethren subsequently merged with The Methodist Church on the 23rd of April
1968 to form theUnited Methodist Church . The EUB congregations in Canada joined into theUnited Church of Canada , a previous (1925) merger of Methodists, Congregationalists, and some Presbyterians. In the Philippines, the EUB congregations joined the Philippine Methodist Church, Christian Church (Disciples), Presbyterian Church, Congregational Church, Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Cristo, Iglesia Evangelica Nacional and some segments of the Iglesia Evangelica Metodista En Las Islas Filipinas (IEMELIF) to formed the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.United Brethren History
Though not organized until
1800 , the roots of the church reach back to1767 . In May of that year, a Great Meeting (part of aninterdenominational revival movement) was held at a barn belonging to Isaac Long inLancaster, Pennsylvania .Martin Boehm (1725-1812), aMennonite 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 atYork, 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 , andOhio . In 1800, they began a yearly conference. Thirteen ministers attended the first conference at the home of Peter Kemp inFrederick, Maryland . At that conference in 1800, they adopted a name, theUnited Brethren in Christ , and elected Boehm and Otterbein asbishop s of the conference. TheUnited 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. In1841 , 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 . After1837 , slave owners were no longer allowed to remain as members of the United Brethren Church. In1853 , the Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society was organized.United MethodismExpansion 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 pioneersWilbur Wright andOrville 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, though the minority was known as the
Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Old Constitution) . In1946 , the larger United Brethren branch merged with the Evangelical Church to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church. In the same year, with cooperation of three other denominations, it formed theUnited Andean Indian Mission , an agency that sent missionaries to Ecuador. The Evangelical United Brethren Church 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.See also
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