United Free Churches

UNITED EVANGELICAL CHURCH: A religious body organized in Naperville, Ill., Nov. 30, 1894, with 55,000 members. Its constituency had been a part of the Evangelical Association (q.v.) and its separate organization was due to a "division brought about by an unwarranted assumption of power exercised by those in official position, in that they refused to submit to the findings of duly constituted trial conferences, assumed to expel ministers and members without trial, and refused to arbitrate the differences existing between the parties in the controversy." Its doctrine is similar to that of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Its conferences are general, annual, and quarterly. The annual conferences are the seat of authority. The general conference has only such powers as are conferred upon it by the discipline. Bishops and presiding elders are eligible for two consecutive terms of four years. Laymen are fully represented in all the conferences. No member can be deprived of his rights without due process. Local church property is held for the benefit of the congregation.

The church embraces 10 annual conferences, 997 organized congregations, 737 ministers, 69,066 members, 911 Sunday-schools with an enrolment of 106,934. Its property has a value of about $3,600,000. Its annual income is now over $700,000. Three educational institutions are maintained: Albright College at Myerstown, Penn., Western Union, at Le Mars, La., and Dallas, at Dallas, Ore. The publishing-house, located at Harrisburg, Penn., issues fourteen separate periodicals with a combined circulation of 147,632. Missionary operations are under the direction of the board of home and foreign missions. Auxiliary to the general board is the woman missionary society, with a membership of 6,685, and receipts amounting to $13,714.36 in 1905. The receipts of the general board in 1905 were $98,110.74, and its expenditures $96,323.69. It maintains three mission stations in Hunan, China, located at Changsha, Siangtan, and Liling.

W. F. Heil.

Bibliography: Consult the works mentioned in Evangelical Association, especially A. Stapleton's Annals, and the Evangelical, the Zeitschrift, and other periodicals of the denomination.