Origin from 1875
In July 1875, representatives of twenty one Presbyterian and Reformed church bodies from Europe and North America met at the English Presbyterian College in London and adopted the name the Alliance of Reformed Churches Throughout the World Holding the Presbyterian System. It was the first global confessional federation any Reformed tradition had formed, holding regular councils with moral rather than legislative authority, and it grew to represent roughly ninety member churches and twenty five million adherents by the century's end. Nearly a century later, in 1970, this Alliance united with the International Congregational Council at a Uniting General Council in Nairobi, Kenya, becoming the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the body already recorded on this timeline.
Facts
Dates
StatusEstablished marks the founding of the first global Reformed confessional federation, distinct from Calvinism's earlier national establishments in Geneva, the Netherlands and New England already on this timeline, and distinct from the 1970 Nairobi merger already recorded, which this body is the direct institutional predecessor of. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Americas directly: "In July 1875, representatives of twenty one Presbyterian and Reformed church bodies from Europe and North America met at the English Presbyterian College in London and adopted the name the Alliance..."
This source names Global directly: "It was the first global confessional federation any Reformed tradition had formed, holding regular councils with moral rather than legislative authority, and it grew to represent roughly ninety..."
Occurred In
Spread Event Of
Adds a specific, dated institutional milestone between Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches' 1970 formation already recorded here: the 1875 London founding of the first global confessional federation of Presbyterian and Reformed churches, the direct predecessor body that merger created.
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