| Table of contents |
|
2 Faith and Practice 3 Status 4 Other 5 External links 6 References |
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. In 1853, the Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society was organized. 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. 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, 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 They believed that the other delegates had violated the Constitution (and, in effect, withdrawn from the denomination), and deemed themselves to be the true United Brethren Church.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. In 1946, the larger "United Brethren" church merged with the Evangelical Association 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. They eventually adopted two of the changes that led to the division of 1889 - local conferences have proportional representation at General Conference, and half of the delegates are laypersons. They believe they adopted them constitutionally. In 1897, denominational headquarters, a college and a publishing house were established in Huntington, Indiana.
William Otterbein retained a connection with the Reformed Church, pastoring a Reformed Church in Baltimore, Maryland from 1774 until his death in 1813. Martin Boehm was excluded by the Mennonites in 1775. He joined the Methodist Church in 1802, while remaining bishop of the United Brethren until his death in 1812. Francis Asbury, bishop of the Methodist Church in America, spoke at the memorial services of both of these United Brethren bishops. Otterbein had assisted in Asbury's ordination.
The total number of United Brethren churches is 600, with a membership of 47,300. In 2000, membership in the United States was 24,603 in 253 congregations. The majority of United Brethren churches are located in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. Outside the United States, there are churches in Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Macau, Mexico, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, and Thailand.
On October 14, 2003 the Executive Leadership Team of the United Brethren Church voted to pursue joining with the Missionary Church. The merger is tentatively scheduled to occur in 2005.
The United Christian Church was created by members that withdrew from the Church of the United Brethren around the middle of the 19th century.