Mainstream and Merger
For the second half of the nineteenth-century, leaders of the Connexion pursued a policy of alignment with the mainstream. What had been birthed as a strident protest against staid religiosity was drifting back in that direction. The temperance movement, the Sunday School movement and the Bible societies all served as avenues of service through which Connexion members could demonstrate to other denominations the many similarities this cluster of once fringe bodies now shared with the major religious organizations.
The Christian Church merged with the Congregational Churches in 1931 to form the Congregational Christian Churches. In 1957 after twenty years of discussion and work, the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church, itself the product of the merger of two German-American denominations, forged the United Church of Christ. In 1989, the UCC and Disciples of Christ agreed to participate in full communion with each other, while remaining separate denominations.
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Famous quotes containing the word mainstream:
“At times it seems that the media have become the mainstream culture in children’s lives. Parents have become the alternative. Americans once expected parents to raise their children in accordance with the dominant cultural messages. Today they are expected to raise their children in opposition to it.”
—Ellen Goodman (20th century)