Editing United and uniting churches (section)

{{Short description|Union of Protestant churches of different creeds}}
{{Distinguish|Unification movement}}
{{redirect|Union church|nondenominational churches in Australia|Union Church (Australia)}}
{{about||churches within the Unitarianism movement|Unitarianism|unions within Eastern and Catholic Christianity|Eastern Catholic Churches|the more general concept|Church union}}
[[File:Union luthercalvin.jpg|thumb|Glass window in the town church of [[Wiesloch]] (''Stadtkirche Wiesloch'') with [[Martin Luther]] and [[John Calvin]] commemorating the 1821 union of Lutheran and Reformed churches in the [[Grand Duchy of Baden]]]]
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A '''united church''', also called a '''uniting church''', is a denomination formed from the merger or other form of [[church union]] of two or more different [[Protestantism|Protestant]] Christian denominations, a number of which come from separate and distinct denominational orientations or traditions.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=United and Uniting churches — World Council of Churches|url=https://www.oikoumene.org/en/church-families/united-and-uniting-churches|access-date=2020-09-04|website=www.oikoumene.org|language=en|archive-date=2019-08-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190820211159/https://www.oikoumene.org/en/church-families/united-and-uniting-churches|url-status=live}}</ref> '''Multi-denominationalism''', or a multi-denominational church or organization, is a [[Church (congregation)|congregation]] or organization that is affiliated with two or more [[Christian denomination]]s, whether they be part of the same tradition or from separate and distinct traditions.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=What it means to be multidenominational – The Refuge Place |url=https://therefuge.place/about/what-it-means-to-be-multidenominational/ |access-date=2023-05-10 |website=therefuge.place |archive-date=2023-05-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230510152730/https://therefuge.place/about/what-it-means-to-be-multidenominational/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Multi-Denomination Congregations in the U.S. and Canada |url=https://paulist.org/the-conversation/multi-denomination-congregations-in-the-u-s-and-canada/ |access-date=2023-05-10 |website=Paulist Fathers |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-05-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230510152725/https://paulist.org/the-conversation/multi-denomination-congregations-in-the-u-s-and-canada/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Historically, unions of Protestant churches were enforced by the state, usually in order to have a stricter control over the religious sphere of its people, but also for other organizational reasons. As modern Christian [[ecumenism]] progresses, unions between various Protestant traditions are becoming more and more common,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Haire|first=James|editor1-first=Geoffrey|editor1-last=Wainwright|editor2-first=Paul|editor2-last=McPartlan|date=2017-03-06|title=United and Uniting Churches|url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199600847.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199600847-e-30|access-date=2020-09-04|website=The Oxford Handbook of Ecumenical Studies|pages=431–440|language=en|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199600847.013.30|isbn=978-0-19-960084-7|archive-date=2021-06-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210626200302/https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199600847.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199600847-e-30|url-status=live}}</ref> resulting in a growing number of united and uniting churches. Examples include the [[United Church of Canada]] (1925), the  [[Church of South India]] (1947), the [[Uniting Church in Australia]] (1977), the [[Protestant Church in the Netherlands]] (2004), and the [[United Protestant Church of France]] (2013).<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=France|first=Eglise protestante unie de|title=La création de l'Église protestante unie de France|url=https://www.eglise-protestante-unie.fr/histoire/la-creation-de-l-eglise-protestante-unie-de-france-1|access-date=2020-09-04|website=Eglise protestante unie de France|language=fr|archive-date=2021-05-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517090348/https://www.eglise-protestante-unie.fr/histoire/la-creation-de-l-eglise-protestante-unie-de-france-1|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=United Protestant Church of France — World Council of Churches|url=https://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/united-protestant-church-of-france|access-date=2020-09-04|website=www.oikoumene.org|language=en|archive-date=2020-07-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200717232643/https://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/united-protestant-church-of-france/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Three-way PKN union drastically changes Dutch denominational landscape » The Windmill news articles » goDutch|url=http://www.godutch.com/newspaper/index.php?id=571|access-date=2020-09-04|website=www.godutch.com|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304193600/http://www.godutch.com/newspaper/index.php?id=571|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Protestant Church in the Netherlands — World Council of Churches|url=https://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/protestant-church-in-the-netherlands|access-date=2020-09-04|website=www.oikoumene.org|language=en|archive-date=2020-07-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719042421/https://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/protestant-church-in-the-netherlands/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the developing world, this model has been attractive in countries where Protestants are a small minority of the population; by pooling resources and endorsing cross-attendance between denominations, churches can serve a wider geographical area. In the developed world, since the mid-20th century, and the rise of [[secularism]] worldwide, [[mainline Protestant]]ism has shrunk, reducing the viability of many individual denominations maintaining parallel administrative structures.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mainline Protestants make up shrinking number of U.S. adults|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/18/mainline-protestants-make-up-shrinking-number-of-u-s-adults/|access-date=2020-09-04|website=Pew Research Center|language=en-US|archive-date=2020-09-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200912080550/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/18/mainline-protestants-make-up-shrinking-number-of-u-s-adults/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2015-05-12|title=American Religion Statistics: Trends in U.S. Religious Affiliations|url=https://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/chapter-1-the-changing-religious-composition-of-the-u-s/|access-date=2020-09-04|website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project|language=en-US|archive-date=2020-09-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200904140026/https://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/chapter-1-the-changing-religious-composition-of-the-u-s/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2017-10-10|title=Amid Evangelical decline, growing split between young Christians and church elders|work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]]|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2017/1010/Amid-Evangelical-decline-growing-split-between-young-Christians-and-church-elders|access-date=2020-09-04|issn=0882-7729|archive-date=2020-09-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200911135613/https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2017/1010/Amid-Evangelical-decline-growing-split-between-young-Christians-and-church-elders|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Burge|first=Ryan P.|title=Evangelicals Show No Decline, Despite Trump and Nones|url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/march/evangelical-nones-mainline-us-general-social-survey-gss.html|access-date=2020-09-04|website=News & Reporting|language=en|archive-date=2020-08-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200830125208/https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/march/evangelical-nones-mainline-us-general-social-survey-gss.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Among others, [[Calvinism|Reformed]] (Calvinist), [[Anglicanism|Anglican]], and [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] churches have merged, often creating large nationwide denominations.<ref name=":0" /> In some countries, [[Methodist]] and [[Congregational]] denominations have also merged. The phenomenon is much less common among [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]], [[Nondenominational Christianity|nondenominational]] and [[Charismatic Christianity|charismatic]] churches as new ones arise and many of them remain independent of each other, although in some cases instances of evangelical church congregations joining multiple denominations in a phenomenon known as "multi-denominationalism" does occur; but in most cases Evangelicals cooperate with each other through [[Ecumenism|interdenominationalism]] while still maintaining denominational distinctions.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" />

Perhaps the oldest official united church is found in Germany, where the [[Protestant Church in Germany]] is a federation of Lutheran, United ([[Prussian Union of Churches|Prussian Union]]) and [[Continental Reformed church|Reformed churches]], a union dating back to 1817. The first of the series of unions was at a synod in [[Idstein]] to form the [[Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau]] in August 1817, commemorated in naming the church of Idstein [[Unionskirche, Idstein|Unionskirche]] one hundred years later.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nassau-info.de/geschichte-jb-kirche.htm |title=Staatlicher Dirigismus und neue Gläubigkeit (Die Kirche im Herzogtum Nassau) |publisher=Nassau-info.de |language=de |access-date=2011-06-10 |archive-date=2016-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234050/http://www.nassau-info.de/geschichte-jb-kirche.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Block|first=Mathew|date=2017-10-05|title=Remembering the 200th anniversary of the forced union of Lutheran and Reformed churches in Prussia|url=https://ilc-online.org/2017/10/05/remembering-200th-anniversary-forced-union-lutheran-reformed-churches-prussia/|access-date=2020-09-04|website=International Lutheran Council|language=en-US|archive-date=2020-11-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112012551/https://ilc-online.org/2017/10/05/remembering-200th-anniversary-forced-union-lutheran-reformed-churches-prussia/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Around the world, each united or uniting church comprises a different mix of predecessor Protestant denominations.<ref name=":0" /> Trends are visible, however, as most united and uniting churches have one or more predecessors with heritage in the Reformed tradition and many are members of the [[World Alliance of Reformed Churches]].