The United Brethren in Christ Church was founded in 1800 by Philip Otterbein, who came to America in 1752 as a missionary of the German Reformed Church, and Martin Boehm, a former bishop of the Mennonite Church in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who had been excommunicated in 1777 because of teaching Methodistic doctrine. Otterbein and Boehm were elected the first bishops of the church. Boehm took a considerable group of Mennonites with him into the new church, and others joined the church later at various places. Christian Newcomer, an early prominent leader in the United Brethren church, was one of the Mennonite ministers to transfer. In 1941, when it had a membership of about 381,000, it merged with the Evangelical Church to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 1131. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

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