The United Church of Christ was formed June 25, 1957 by the union of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches of the United States. This union was effected to express more fully the oneness in Christ of the churches composing it, to make more effective their common witness in Him, and to serve His kingdom in the world.

Both of the uniting fellowships were the result of former unions. The Evangelical and Reformed Church was formed in 1934 by the union of the Evangelical Synod of North America and the Reformed Church in the United States. The roots of both are deep in the life of America and in the Reformation movement on the continent of Europe.

The Evangelical Synod had its beginnings in Missouri in 1840 and the Reformed Church in the United States began in Pennsylvania in 1725. These groups traced their lineage to Calvin, Luther, Melanchthon and Zwingli as their fathers. The Congregational and Christian Churches united through the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches in 1931. Both of these groups had been enriched through several previous unions. Congregationalism in America stems from the founding in the 1620s of Plymouth Colony by the Pilgrims and of Massachusetts Bay Colony by the Puritans. Congregationalists were joined by the Congregational Methodists in 1892, Evangelical Protestants in 1923 and German Congregationalists in 1925. The Christian Church in 1820 united Methodists from North Carolina, Baptists from Vermont and Presbyterians from Kentucky. The Congregational Christian Churches, for the most part, trace their ancestry to Reformation movements in England.

The United Church of Christ at the end of 2006 is composed of  5,633 local congregations with a total membership of  1,229,953. Church school enrollment for the denomination at the end of 2005 was 262,162.

The United Church of Christ website is: http://www.ucc.org