Christ Community Church in Zion, Illinois, formerly the Christian Catholic Church or Christian Catholic Apostolic Church, is an evangelical Protestant church founded in 1896 by John Alexander Dowie. The city of Zion was founded by Dowie as a religious community to establish a society on the principles of the Kingdom of God. Members are sometimes called Zionites (not to be confused with the German Zionites).
Over the years there have been many changes to the church founded by John Alexander Dowie. He was a popular faith healer and started the church and the Zion community with utopian ideals. Under Wilbur Glenn Voliva, Dowie's successor, the church was noted for its adherence to a flat earth cosmology. The succession of pastors after Voliva moved the church back to mainstream Protestant doctrine.
In the early 20th century, the Christian Catholic Church had worldwide appeal. The church's magazine, The Leaves of Healing, was distributed in the U.S., Australia, Europe, and southern Africa. At its height, Dowie's movement had some 20,000 adherents. The Zionist Churches of southern Africa trace their spiritual heritage back to Dowie and the Christian Catholic Church. Because of Dowie's emphasis on faith healing and restorationism the church is considered a forerunner of Pentecostalism.
The name Christian Catholic Church is still used for Christ Community Church's worldwide fellowship of churches and mission work. As of 2008, it has about 3,000 members in the United States and Canada. Missionary work is conducted in Japan, Philippines, Guyana, Palestine, Indonesia, and the Navajo Nation. Missionary work continues among the African Zionists under the banner of Zion Evangelical Ministries of Africa (ZEMA). ZEMA's goal is to convert the African Zionists from syncretism to mainstream Christian theology.
Read more about Christian Catholic Apostolic Church: John Alexander Dowie, Wilbur Glenn Voliva
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