Congregational Christian Churches

rdf:langString Congregational Christian Churches

rdf:langString The Congregational Christian Churches were a Protestant Christian denomination that operated in the U.S. from 1931 through 1957. On the latter date, most of its churches joined the Evangelical and Reformed Church in a merger to become the United Church of Christ. Others created the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches or joined the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference that formed earlier in 1945. During the forementioned period, its churches were organized nationally into a General Council, with parallel state conferences, sectional associations, and missionary instrumentalities. Congregations, however, retained their local autonomy and these groups were legally separate from the congregations. The body came into being in Seattle, Washington in 1931 by the merger of two American bodies that practiced congregational church governance, the National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States and the General Convention of the Christian Church. Initially using the word "and" between the words "Congregational" and "Christian," the new denomination decided to combine the predecessor churches' identities into one nationally, while its constituent churches remained free to either retain their original names or adopt the new usage.