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The Evangelical Association of Reformed and Congregational Christian Churches is a small fellowship of conservative evangelical Protestant Christian congregations in the United States that became disaffected from the United Church of Christ due to that denomination's national entities professing support for practices such as abortion and homosexuality. Unlike other more sectarian churches, the Evangelical Association does not forbid its member congregations to simultaneously belong to other denominations and fellowships, as the local churches continue to practice congregational polity. == History == The EA began in 1998 from meetings between the clergy of First Protestant Church in New Braunfels, Texas and St. John's Evangelical Protestant Church in Cullman, Alabama, two large UCC congregations of Evangelical and Reformed (German Protestant) heritage. A core group resulting from interested churches of like mind brought about this initiative to provide a more orthodox alternative fellowship to the UCC in particular matters such as ministerial placement and foreign missions work. Many of the founding churches had been active in the Biblical Witness Fellowship organization, a renewal group similar to others in connectional denominations such as the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA). The incident that caused many of the EA's current congregations to depart the UCC was that denomination's action at its 2005 General Synod to permit same-sex marriages. Some congregations that had been considering disaffiliation expedited the process in order to disassociate from national entities as quickly as possible. Nearly 300 churches withdrew from the UCC over a four-year period following the General Synod's measure. As of March 2013, the Association listed 74 congregations as members, with Pennsylvania and North Carolina having over half the total. All but 19 of the churches are from an E&R heritage, although a few congregations in North Carolina are predominantly African-American in membership. The latter churches are descended from the "Christian Connection"; these left due not only to theological disagreement with national entities, but also because they had been adversely affected by the UCC Eastern North Carolina Association's strict application of nationally-recommended seminary requirements for ordination. Unlike the UCC, the EA is a dues-paying organization, which means that it is not reliant on congregational benevolent support, as the UCC's conferences and national entities are; there is also no "free-riding," e.g., a congregation receiving services from the organization without paying for them. This, in turn, limits the size of the national staff, a decision valued by the politically conservative constituency of the EA, who frequently equate bureaucracy with liberalism. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Evangelical Association of Reformed and Congregational Christian Churches」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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