UNITED EVANGELICAL CHURCH, THE. A religious o•ganization formed in IS94 as the result of a division which had occurred in the Evangelical Association (q.v.). A meeting at tended by delegates from six annual conferences was held at Naperville. November of that year, and constituted the first General Confer ence of the United Evangelical Church. The legis lation necessary to perfect the organization of an independent Church was enacted : a Book of Discipline was adopted, based upon the old Discipline of the Evangelical Association, with certain changes, such as the introduction of lay representation into the conferences.
in 1902 the United Evangelical Church had In conferences (including seven mission confer ences), 979 organized congregations, S20 church buildings, 2 bishops. 501 itinerant and 214 local 63.390 church members, and 83,381 pupils in Sunday-schools. Besides assisting the
seven mission conferences, the General Mission ary Society has a mission in Changsha, Honan, China ; and the Woman's Missionary Society co operates with it. A Church Extension Society was established in 1902. The educational insti tutions are Albright College, Sleyerstownn, Pa.; Dallas College and La Creole Academy, Dallas, Oregon; Western Union College, Lc Mars, Iowa. There is a publishing house at Harrisburg, Pa. Besides Sunday-school and similar publications the Church periodicals are The Evangelical (weekly), Die cranyclische Zeitschrift (weekly), and The Missionary Tidings, all issued at Har risburg. Consult Stapleton, Annals of the Evangelical Association of North America and History of the United Evangelical Church (Har risburg, l900).