EVANGELICAL AND REFORMED CHURCH
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(Redirected from German Reformed Church)
The 'Evangelical and Reformed Church' was an American Protestant Christian denomination formed in 1934 by the merger of the 'Reformed Church in the United States' with the 'Evangelical Synod of North America.'
Both of these bodies had originated in the Reformation in Europe; almost all their churches in America were established by immigrants from Germany and Switzerland. The Reformed Church in the U.S., long known as the "German Reformed Church," organized its first synod in 1747 and adopted a constitution in 1793. The Evangelical Synod of North America (not to be confused with the Evangelical Church, which merged in 1946 with the United Brethren in Christ to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church, another chiefly German-American denomination) was founded in 1840 at Gravois Settlement, Mo., by a union of Reformed and Lutheran Christians similar to that instituted in Prussia in the early 19th century. In its early years it was known as the "German Evangelical Church Association of the West." Later, in the 1910s, a small group of immigrant Hungarian Reformed congregations joined the RCUS as a separate judicatory, the Magyar Synod.
The Evangelical and Reformed Church was generally presbyterian in organization, although it allowed for a greater deal of local congregational decision-making than more typical Reformed bodies such as Presbyterianism or the Reformed Church in America (Dutch) did. The church organized into some 30 or so regional synods, culminating in a national General Synod that met annually. These synods were a combination of the old Reformed classis (or presbytery)-based system of church courts and the Evangelicals' regional pastors' conferences.
The church used several creeds: the Reformed Heidelberg Catechism, Martin Luther’s catechisms, and the early Lutheran Augsburg Confession; Evangelical and Reformed leaders allowed great latitude in interpretation. In the main, Evangelical and Reformed congregations emphasized piety and service rather than legalistic soteriology or orthodox dogma. Styles of worship ranged from revivalism (especially in Ohio and North Carolina) to a Lutheran-like liturgicism (the "Mercersburg Movement," found primarily in central Pennsylvania parishes). Generally speaking, the theological outlook of most ministers was largely accepting of liberal trends in Protestant doctrine and higher Biblical criticism, although some pockets of conservative revivalistic Pietism and confessionalist Calvinism could be found.
The Reformed tradition centered in the state of Pennsylvania, particularly the eastern and central counties of that state, and extended westward toward Ohio and Indiana and southward toward Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina in the first generation of immigration. A later group, settling in the late 19th century, took root in Wisconsin and spread westward across the Great Plains region; this group spoke German for several generations after the "Pennsylvania Dutch" had thoroughly Americanized themselves, theologically as well as linguistically. Some churches in that group, most of which were in South Dakota, defected immediately prior to the 1934 merger, influenced by a scholastic interpretation of the Heidelberg Catechism and the rise of the American fundamentalist movement; that group retained the name Reformed Church in the United States for itself.
This schism aside, by the time of the merger talks, the RCUS had mostly joined the American Protestant mainline, sending missionaries overseas and operating health and welfare institutions (i.e., hospitals, orphanges, nursing homes) throughout much of the U.S. Further, the Reformed did some work among Native Americans in Wisconsin. The RCUS' constituency composed slightly over half of the membership of the new denomination in 1934.
As for the Evangelical tradition, its epicenter was (and is to this day) the city of St. Louis, with a particularly heavy concentration of parishes within a 75-mile radius, in Missouri and Illinois. Elsewhere, Evangelicals tended to settle in large cities of the Midwest, such as Cincinnati, Louisville, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Chicago. Rural Evangelical strongholds included southwestern Indiana, southern Michigan and Iowa. In the Southern U.S., the ESNA was found primarily in central Texas and New Orleans. These concentrations of German settlement also witnessed a large influx of orthodox Lutherans, who formed the current-day Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in opposition to the syncretism they believed the Evangelicals represented.
Most Evangelical parishes were founded by pastors trained in interdenominational missionary societies such as the one in Basel, Switzerland in the early 19th century; they immigrated to the U.S. to assist settlers fleeing the militarism of the Prussian Kaiser Wilhelm I, who, ironically enough, decreed the Evangelical union in the first place. Even to a greater degree than the Reformed, the Evangelicals became most noted among American Protestants for their establishment and stanuch support of hospitals, orphanages, and homes for the elderly. Probably most simliar in ethos (among English-speaking Protestant groups) to the Methodists, pastors emphasized pietist preaching and catechizing young people for the rite of confirmation, a rite still cherished highly to this day by congregations deriving from ESNA roots.
As with most Protestant denominations, the Evangelical and Reformed church maintained educational institutions and foreign missions. Affiliated educational institutions included the Lancaster Theological Seminary, Franklin and Marshall College, and Ursinus College in Pennsylvania, Elmhurst College in Illinois, Eden Theological Seminary in Missouri, and Heidelberg College in Ohio. An Evangelical and Reformed seminary, Mission House, previously located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, joined with the school of theology of South Dakota's Yankton College (a Congregational Christian institution) to form the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in the early 1960s; the school set up operations in New Brighton, Minnesota, outside St. Paul.
In 1957, the Evangelical and Reformed Church joined with the 'Congregational Christian Churches' to form the United Church of Christ. The Rev. James Wagner was the last president of the denomination; upon the union on June 25 of that year, he became, along with former Congregational Christian general minister Fred Hoskins, a co-president of the UCC, a position he and Hoskins held until 1961, when the UCC constitution was ratified by the Evangelical and Reformed synods and the requisite percentage of CC congregations.
★ John Dillinger--raised in an Indianapolis congregation
★ Leon Jaworski
★ David Letterman
★ Reinhold Niebuhr
★ Richard Schweiker
★ Bud Shuster
'''A History of the Evangelical and Reformed Church,''' David Dunn, et al.; Lowell H. Zuck, foreword. New York: Pilgrim Press, 1990.
'''The Shaping of the United Church of Christ: An Essay in the History of American Christianity,''' Louis H. Gunnemann; Charles Shelby Rooks, ed. Cleveland: United Church Press, 1999.
'''The Columbia Encyclopedia,''' Sixth Edition. 2001–2005.
The 'Evangelical and Reformed Church' was an American Protestant Christian denomination formed in 1934 by the merger of the 'Reformed Church in the United States' with the 'Evangelical Synod of North America.'
Origins/Backgrounds
Both of these bodies had originated in the Reformation in Europe; almost all their churches in America were established by immigrants from Germany and Switzerland. The Reformed Church in the U.S., long known as the "German Reformed Church," organized its first synod in 1747 and adopted a constitution in 1793. The Evangelical Synod of North America (not to be confused with the Evangelical Church, which merged in 1946 with the United Brethren in Christ to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church, another chiefly German-American denomination) was founded in 1840 at Gravois Settlement, Mo., by a union of Reformed and Lutheran Christians similar to that instituted in Prussia in the early 19th century. In its early years it was known as the "German Evangelical Church Association of the West." Later, in the 1910s, a small group of immigrant Hungarian Reformed congregations joined the RCUS as a separate judicatory, the Magyar Synod.
Organizational/Theological Characteristics
The Evangelical and Reformed Church was generally presbyterian in organization, although it allowed for a greater deal of local congregational decision-making than more typical Reformed bodies such as Presbyterianism or the Reformed Church in America (Dutch) did. The church organized into some 30 or so regional synods, culminating in a national General Synod that met annually. These synods were a combination of the old Reformed classis (or presbytery)-based system of church courts and the Evangelicals' regional pastors' conferences.
The church used several creeds: the Reformed Heidelberg Catechism, Martin Luther’s catechisms, and the early Lutheran Augsburg Confession; Evangelical and Reformed leaders allowed great latitude in interpretation. In the main, Evangelical and Reformed congregations emphasized piety and service rather than legalistic soteriology or orthodox dogma. Styles of worship ranged from revivalism (especially in Ohio and North Carolina) to a Lutheran-like liturgicism (the "Mercersburg Movement," found primarily in central Pennsylvania parishes). Generally speaking, the theological outlook of most ministers was largely accepting of liberal trends in Protestant doctrine and higher Biblical criticism, although some pockets of conservative revivalistic Pietism and confessionalist Calvinism could be found.
Reformed Church in the U.S.
The Reformed tradition centered in the state of Pennsylvania, particularly the eastern and central counties of that state, and extended westward toward Ohio and Indiana and southward toward Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina in the first generation of immigration. A later group, settling in the late 19th century, took root in Wisconsin and spread westward across the Great Plains region; this group spoke German for several generations after the "Pennsylvania Dutch" had thoroughly Americanized themselves, theologically as well as linguistically. Some churches in that group, most of which were in South Dakota, defected immediately prior to the 1934 merger, influenced by a scholastic interpretation of the Heidelberg Catechism and the rise of the American fundamentalist movement; that group retained the name Reformed Church in the United States for itself.
This schism aside, by the time of the merger talks, the RCUS had mostly joined the American Protestant mainline, sending missionaries overseas and operating health and welfare institutions (i.e., hospitals, orphanges, nursing homes) throughout much of the U.S. Further, the Reformed did some work among Native Americans in Wisconsin. The RCUS' constituency composed slightly over half of the membership of the new denomination in 1934.
Evangelical Synod of North America
As for the Evangelical tradition, its epicenter was (and is to this day) the city of St. Louis, with a particularly heavy concentration of parishes within a 75-mile radius, in Missouri and Illinois. Elsewhere, Evangelicals tended to settle in large cities of the Midwest, such as Cincinnati, Louisville, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Chicago. Rural Evangelical strongholds included southwestern Indiana, southern Michigan and Iowa. In the Southern U.S., the ESNA was found primarily in central Texas and New Orleans. These concentrations of German settlement also witnessed a large influx of orthodox Lutherans, who formed the current-day Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in opposition to the syncretism they believed the Evangelicals represented.
Most Evangelical parishes were founded by pastors trained in interdenominational missionary societies such as the one in Basel, Switzerland in the early 19th century; they immigrated to the U.S. to assist settlers fleeing the militarism of the Prussian Kaiser Wilhelm I, who, ironically enough, decreed the Evangelical union in the first place. Even to a greater degree than the Reformed, the Evangelicals became most noted among American Protestants for their establishment and stanuch support of hospitals, orphanages, and homes for the elderly. Probably most simliar in ethos (among English-speaking Protestant groups) to the Methodists, pastors emphasized pietist preaching and catechizing young people for the rite of confirmation, a rite still cherished highly to this day by congregations deriving from ESNA roots.
Educational/Welfare Institutions
As with most Protestant denominations, the Evangelical and Reformed church maintained educational institutions and foreign missions. Affiliated educational institutions included the Lancaster Theological Seminary, Franklin and Marshall College, and Ursinus College in Pennsylvania, Elmhurst College in Illinois, Eden Theological Seminary in Missouri, and Heidelberg College in Ohio. An Evangelical and Reformed seminary, Mission House, previously located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, joined with the school of theology of South Dakota's Yankton College (a Congregational Christian institution) to form the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in the early 1960s; the school set up operations in New Brighton, Minnesota, outside St. Paul.
Congregational Christian Merger/United Church of Christ
In 1957, the Evangelical and Reformed Church joined with the 'Congregational Christian Churches' to form the United Church of Christ. The Rev. James Wagner was the last president of the denomination; upon the union on June 25 of that year, he became, along with former Congregational Christian general minister Fred Hoskins, a co-president of the UCC, a position he and Hoskins held until 1961, when the UCC constitution was ratified by the Evangelical and Reformed synods and the requisite percentage of CC congregations.
Famous Evangelical and Reformed members (including UCC congregations of Evangelical and Reformed heritage)
★ John Dillinger--raised in an Indianapolis congregation
★ Leon Jaworski
★ David Letterman
★ Reinhold Niebuhr
★ Richard Schweiker
★ Bud Shuster
Sources
'''A History of the Evangelical and Reformed Church,''' David Dunn, et al.; Lowell H. Zuck, foreword. New York: Pilgrim Press, 1990.
'''The Shaping of the United Church of Christ: An Essay in the History of American Christianity,''' Louis H. Gunnemann; Charles Shelby Rooks, ed. Cleveland: United Church Press, 1999.
'''The Columbia Encyclopedia,''' Sixth Edition. 2001–2005.
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