Evangelical United Brethren Church

This American Protestant denomination was formed in 1946 by the union of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ* with the Evangelical Church.* Both these churches originated among the German-speaking people of Pennsylvania and Maryland during the Second Great Awakening.* Both groups had their roots in German Evangelical Pietism, were Arminian in theology, and had an episcopal form of polity similar to that of Methodism. The Church of the United Brethren in Christ arose in 1800 from the impact of the revivalist preaching of P.W. Otterbein* and Martin Boehm.* The Evangelical Church was founded in 1807 by Jacob Albright.* Only their usage of the German language kept these two groups from joining with the Methodist Church during the nineteenth century. In 1968 the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged with the Methodist Church to form the United Methodist Church.*