United Brethren In Christ

An American denomination, organized in 1800, which developed out of the activities of P.W. Otterbein* and Martin Boehm* among German settlements, chiefly in Pennsylvania, and out of conferences they held with other “United ministers.” The new Methodist-type denomination was evangelical, Arminian, and perfectionist in doctrine, and episcopal in government. Otterbein and Boehm were the first bishops. When a new constitution was adopted in 1889, a group separated as the United Brethren in Christ (Old Constitution). In 1946 the parent body merged with the Evangelical Church, with which it had much in common, forming the Evangelical United Brethren.* The latter united with the Methodist Church in 1968 to create the United Methodist Church.*