Church union is the name given to a merger of two or moreChristiandenominations.[1][2] Such unions may take on many forms, including aunited church and afederation.
A united church is the result of a merger of churches of various denominations. One of the first of these occurred in 1817, whenLutheran andReformed churches inPrussia merged into thePrussian Union.[3]
The nineteenth century saw a number of unions between churches of the same tradition. For example, theUnited Secession Church in Scotland was formed in 1820 by a union of various churches which had seceded from the establishedChurch of Scotland. All these werePresbyterian in both doctrine and practice.[4]
In the twentieth century many churches merged as a result of theEcumenical movement. One of the earliest such unions was in 1925, and formed theUnited Church of Canada. Other examples include like-minded bodies with a common theological history such as theUnited Methodist Church - a merger of theEvangelical United Brethren Church andthe Methodist Church in theUnited States.[5]
A federation is a less centralized union.
One example includes thePresbyterian Churches of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia, which joined together to form thePresbyterian Church of Australia on July 24, 1901.[6] The structure was similar to theFederation which formed theCommonwealth of Australia on January 1 of that same year. In his inauguralmoderatorial address, John Meiklejohn made it clear that the ecclesiastical union consciously reflected the political union of the Australian colonies: "We have, by forming this Assembly, formed a Court whose jurisdiction is, as regards territory, equal to, and coterminous with that of the Federal Parliament, and like it, is representative in its character."
This union linked churches of the same denomination in different locations into one body without forming a monolithic national church. The individual state churches also kept their individual identities, rights, and privileges.
The term "union" (e.g., theUnion of Brest of 1596) is also used for the arrangement when a group ofOrthodox Christians enters communion with the Catholic Church'sPope of Rome, while wishing to maintain their Eastern rites. Such groups are known generically asEastern Catholic Churches. Their adherents are occasionally referred to as uniates.[7][8]
In a somewhat parallel way, but on a much smaller scale,Russian Orthodox Church has integrated certainOld Believer communities, allowing them to keep their rites while recognizing the authority of the national church. This arrangement is known asEdinoverie.[9][10]