FOUNDED: 1957 C.E.
RELIGION AS A PERCENTAGE OF WORLD POPULATION: .02 percent

Overview

The United Church of Christ (UCC), founded in the United States in 1957, was the product of four preexisting religious groups: the Congregational Church, the Christian Churches (or Christian Connexion), the German Reformed Church, and the German Evangelical Church. With common commitments to Christian unity and theological openness, these groups went through several mergers prior to the 1957 creation of the United Church of Christ. The UCC is recognized as one of the most theologically and socially progressive of the mainline American Protestant denominations.

With membership only in the United States (with the exception of four congregations in Canada that are part of the church's North Dakota Conference), the UCC is not a global church. It is, however, one of several merged Christian communions internationally that share the name "United Church."

History