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Disciples of Christ
We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.
As part of the one body of Christ, we welcome all to the Lord's Table as God has welcomed us.
--Disciples Identity Statement
Learn more about the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) here. For more information about our regional ministry, please visit the Christian Church in North Carolina.
Disciples and UCC Partnership
July 9, 2013 by
In 1989 the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) approved a historic partnership of full communion. The two churches proclaimed mutual recognition of their sacraments and ordained ministry.
Though remaining two distinct denominations, the UCC and Disciples have committed through their partnership to seek opportunities for common ministry, especially where work together will enhance the mission of the church.
The partnership is a unique experiment in U.S. ecumenism. In every setting of the two churches, UCC members and Disciples are serving Christ side by side. There are now more than 30 “federated” congregations affiliated with both denominations, and it is now common for Disciples and UCC ministers to serve congregations of the other denomination. The Common Global Ministries Board, formed by the UCC’s Wider Church Ministries and the Disciples’ Division of Overseas Ministries, unites the international mission work of the two churches.
Important Disciples Links
May 16, 2013 by
Denominational History
December 12, 2012 by
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) grew out of two movements seeking Christian unity that sprang up almost simultaneously in western Pennsylvania and Kentucky—movements that were backlashes against the rigid denominationalism of the early 1800s.
Thomas and Alexander Campbell, a Scottish Presbyterian father and son in Pennsylvania, rebelled against the dogmatic sectarianism that kept members of different denominations from partaking of the Lord’s Supper together. Barton W. Stone in Kentucky, also a Presbyterian minister, objected to the use of creeds as tests of “fellowship” within the church, which were a cause of disunity, especially at the Lord’s Table.
“Christians,” the name adopted by Stone’s movement, represented what he felt to be a shedding of denominational labels in favor of a scriptural and inclusive term. Campbell had similar reasons for settling on “Disciples of Christ” but he felt the term “Disciples” less presumptuous than “Christians.”
The aims and practices of the two groups were similar, and the Campbell and Stone movements united in 1832 after about a quarter of a century of separate development.
The Disciples (as we call ourselves) have a long heritage of openness to other Christian traditions—having come into existence as sort of a 19th-century protest movement against denominational exclusiveness. At the local level and beyond, Disciples are frequently involved in cooperative and ecumenical work.