A Christian denomination established in the USA in 1946 through the merger of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ and the Evangelical Church. Both Churches were similar in belief and practice, emphasizing the authority of scripture, justification, and regeneration. In 1968 it merged with the Methodist Church to form the United Methodist Church.
The Evangelical United Brethren Church was an American Protestant church which was formed in 1946 by the merger of the Evangelical Association with the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (not to be confused with the current Church of the United Brethren in Christ). The United Brethren and the Evangelical Association had considered merging since the early nineteenth century because of their common emphases on holiness and evangelism and German heritage.
The Evangelical United Brethren subsequently merged with The Methodist Church in 1968 to form the United Methodist Church. The EUB congregations in Canada joined into the United Church of Canada, a previous (1925) merger of Methodists, Congregationalists, and some Presbyterians.
United Brethren History
Though not organized until 1800, the roots of the church reach back to 1767. At that conference in 1800, they adopted a name, the United Brethren in Christ, and elected Boehm and Otterbein as bishops of the conference. The United Brethren Church claims this organization in 1800 as the first denomination to actually begin in the United States.
The United Brethren took a strong stand against slavery, beginning around 1820. After 1837, slave owners were no longer allowed to remain as members of the United Brethren Church. Expansion 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. 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. They believed that the other delegates had violated the Constitution (and, in effect, withdrawn from the denomination), and deemed themselves to be the true United Brethren Church.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). In 1946, the larger United Brethren branch merged with the Evangelical Church to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church. That body 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.
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