Origins
From 1870 until about 1902 America had a wave of German immigrants. These Germans came from the South of Russia where their ancestors had moved at the invitation of Catherine the Great. Many of these immigrants ended up the Dakotas. At this time the Reformed Church in the United States was also known as the German Reformed Church, so it was a logical denomination for the Reformed German-Russians to join. The RCUS at this time was in great turmoil on account of Mercersburg Theology and the liturgical controversy that arose out of that. The German-Russians were against the innovations of Mercersburg. Since these immigrants still spoke German as their primary language, they used a clause in the Constitution of the RCUS to organize based on language rather than the tradition geography. Yet, the real reason was to organize doctrinally.
On June 7, 1911, seven ministers and sixteen congregations organized to form the Eureka Classis. The name of the Classis came from the Greek word ‘eureka’ which means ‘I found it’ and not on the town Eureka, South Dakota, where the second meeting of the Classis would be held. The name was designed to mean that they had found a solution to their doctrinal problems with the rest of the denomination.
As the RCUS had talks with the Evangelical Synod of North America, the Eureka Classis protested. It opposed the union of the two churches officially in 1932. The Eureka Classis voted against the proposed constitution of the new church in 1936. In 1940 when the merger became official and the Evangelical and Reformed Church was formed (E&R), the Eureka Classis resolved to be the continuing RCUS. The Eureka Classis incorporated as the continuing Reformed Church in the United States in 1945 in the state of North Dakota. The Classis at that time consisted of ten pastors and twenty-eight churches.
Read more about this topic: Eureka Classis
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