TheKiribati Uniting Church (KUC) (until 2014 theKiribati Protestant Church and earlier, theGilbert Islands Protestant Church) is aunitedProtestantChristian denomination inKiribati. With approximately 25,000 members,^[1] and 136 congregations,^[1] the KUC is the second-largest religious group in Kiribati and accounts for approximately 21 percent of the population of the country.^[2]

Because of their remoteness and the few European presence, theGilbert and Ellice Islands were ignored by Christian missions until the latter half of the 19th century. Protestantmissionaries (e.g.,Hiram Bingham) sent by theAmerican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions first arrived in Kiribati in 1857, and missionaries from theLondon Missionary Society arrived in 1870. The Protestant converts were served bypastors fromHawaii,Samoa andTuvalu until the early 20th century, after which Tuvaluans andI-Kiribati, trained atRongorongo, onBeru Atoll, took on this role. In 1968, the first general assembly of theGilbert Islands Protestant Church met to organise an autonomous church. In 1979, when the Gilbert Islands was renamed Kiribati, the church changed its name to the Kiribati Protestant Church.^[1] The church was originally established as aCongregationalist denomination.

In 2014, after a Church Bi-annual Assembly (Maungatabu), which was held on the island ofArorae, the Kiribati Protestant Church changed its name to Kiribati Uniting Church. The word "uniting" reflects that the church is now a union of several Protestant denominations in Kiribati, including Congregationalists,Evangelicals,Anglicans, andPresbyterians.But 10,000 members, mainly Congregationalists, did not accept the move and recreated a separateKiribati Protestant Church.

The current head of KUC, called Moderator, is Reirei Kouraabi.

KUC has 209 pastors.^[1] The majority of church members are fisherman orcopra cutters. Membership is decreasing since the move of 2014.^[3]

The KUC is a member of theWorld Council of Churches, theWorld Communion of Reformed Churches,^[4] and theCouncil for World Mission.^[1] The pastors for the KUC are trained at Tangintebu Theological College, which is owned by the church.

• Bureieta Karaiti

• Alaima T., Mikaere B., Keina B., Meita B., Kunei E., Uentabo F., . . ., & Kumon U. (1979). Kiribati: Aspects of history. Suva, Fiji: University of the South Pacific, Institute of Pacific Studies.
• Garrett, J. (1992). Footsteps in the sea: Christianity in Oceania to World War II. Suva: University of the South Pacific.
• Goodall, N. (1954). A history of the London Missionary Society 1895-1945. London: Oxford University Press.
• Macdonald, B. K. (1982). Cinderellas of the empire: Towards a history of Kiribati and Tuvalu. Canberra: Australian National University Press.
• Nokise, U. F. (1983).The role of London Missionary Society Samoan missionaries in the evangelisation of the South West Pacific 1839-1930 (Doctoral dissertation, Australian National University).
• Porter, A. (1997). ‘Cultural imperialism’ and Protestant missionary enterprise, 1780–1914. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 25, 367-391.
• Sabatier, E. (1977). Astride the Equator: An account of the Gilbert Islands (U. Nixon, Trans.). Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

• Thomas Scarborough,Kiribati Protestant Church (K.P.C.): 2003 report on the church from a South African missionary from the London Missionary Society

• Congregationalist denominations
• Members of the World Communion of Reformed Churches
• Members of the World Council of Churches
• Members of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches
• Christian organizations established in 2014
• United and uniting churches
• Calvinist denominations established in the 21st century
• Churches in Kiribati
• Reformed denominations in Oceania

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata