Christian Connection
The Christian Connection was a Christian movement in the United States of America that developed in several places during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, composed of members who withdrew from other Christian denominations. It was influenced by settling the frontier as well as the formation of the new United States and its separation from Great Britain. The Christian Connection professed no creed, instead relying strictly on the Bible.
| Christian Connection | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Protestant, Restorationist |
| Orientation | Evangelical, Unitarian |
| Polity | Connectionalism |
| Founder | Abner Jones, Elias Smith, James O'Kelly and Barton Stone |
| Origin | 1792 as Republican Methodist Church 1810 as Christian Connection |
| Separated from | Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Methodists |
| Merger of | Merged with the National Council of the Congregational Churches, to become the Congregational Christian Church. They then merged with the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and became the United Church of Christ. |
In practice, members coalesced around shared theological concepts such as an Arminian theological anthropology (doctrine of human nature), a rejection of the Calvinist doctrine of election, and an autonomous church government. The Connection's periodical, the Herald of Gospel Liberty (first published on September 1, 1808), was among the first religious journals published in the United States.