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The United Brethren In Christ emerged from various United Brethren churches that had not aligned themselves with the Church of the Brethren. Its roots were to be found in both the Eighteenth Century Mennonite and German Reformed denominations and it had close ties with Methodism. The denomination traces its beginnings circa 1752 with the immigration in that year to the British Colonies by a German Reformed preacher, Philip William Otterbein. After arriving in America, Otterbein experienced a mystical awakening and set about evangelizing to his neighbors at York, Pennsylvania.
Martin Boehm was a Mennonite preacher residing in eastern Pennsylvania. He spoke at various locations during the Great Awakening, an interdenominational revival that swept through the colonies in 1767. In May, Boehm was preaching at one such revival meeting that was being held in the barn of Isaac Long at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. After sharing how he had become a Christian, Otterbein rose from his seat, embraced Boehm and declared "Wir sind Bruder" meaning, "We Are Brethren." Over the next few years, Otterbein and Boehm would maintain a cooperative ministry.
In 1771, two Methodist preachers, Francis Asbury and ----- Wright, immigrated to the Colonies to minister to Pennsylvania Methodist congregations. Their preaching found mutual followers in the congregations being ministered to by Otterbein and Boehm and the four pastors entered into common ministry. The unity of faith between Asbury and Wright and Otterbein and Boehm led to their followers being sometimes referred to as German Methodists. Annual 'Great Meetings' between the collaborating German Reformed, Lutheran, Mennonite and Methodist congregations began to be held starting in 1789. At the 1789 meeting Otterbein presented a 'Confession of Faith.'
During the annual Great Meeting of 1800, thirteen ministers met at the home of Peter Kemp in Frederick, Maryland. At that meeting it was decided that a new denomination should be established; it was given the name United Brethren in Christ. Fifteen years later, the group accepted a Confession of Faith based on, or at least similar to the one presented by Otterbein in 1800. In 1841 a Constitution was adopted. With very few changes, the 1815 Confession of Faith and the 1841 Constitution have remained intact as statements of the church's doctrine.
A major conflict arose at the annual meeting held in 1889. The total membership throughout the United States at the time was more than 200,000. Congregational leaders became involved in discussions regarding changes to the church's governing rules. Membership in secret societies, such as the Freemasons, was one of those things being discussed. The 1841 Constitution prohibited membership in Freemasonry in particular. The discussions devolved into conflict and the church was split between two factions. Members of the leadership who advocated for the changes declared those changes in effect, but those who had objected to them claimed that the changes were unconstitutional. They claimed that the changes violated the church's Constitution because they had not obtained a majority vote of all the membership. Milton Wright was the only one of the church's six bishops to side with the minority who felt the changes were made against the church's Constitution. Wright and others left the meeting and declared themselves to be the true United Brethren Church since the changes had been made by the others in violation of the church's Constitution. The courts, though, ruled against Wright. In response the congregants who had followed Wright organized their own church under the name Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Old Constitution). The larger group, which had made the changes in 1889 retained the name of United Brethren in Christ and were commonly referred to as the UBC (New Constitution).
In 1946, the United Brethren in Christ (New Constitution) merged with the Evangelical Association to form the Evangelical United Brethren Church. The EUBC, in turn, merged with The Methodist Church in 1968, forming the United Methodist Church.
The Church of the United Brethren in Christ, presently known simply as the United Brethren Church, abides by the 1815 Confession of Faith and the Constitution adopted in 1841. But in an ironic twist of fate, two of the points of contention from 1889: that local conferences have proportional representation at the General Conference, and that half of the delegates be permitted to be laypersons were eventually adopted, but in agreement with constitutional principles.
It should be noted, before leaving the topic of the United Brethren Church, that as early as 1770, a group of Mennonites settled along the east side of the Susquehanna River in present-day York County. Their spiritual leader, at the beginning, was Martin Boehm. His preaching leaned toward evangelicalism, and for that reason was ousted from the congregation. Their later traditions were influenced by the Schwarzenau Brethren, or Dunkards, that had been established by Alexander Mack. As the congregation continued to grow in the 1780s, they became known as the 'River Brethren.' Although they practiced many of the things that the Dunkards did (such as trine immersion baptism, foot washing, etc.) they never affiliated themselves with the Dunkards. In 2010, there were four branches of the River Brethren (Brethren in Christ Church, Calvary Holiness Church, Old Order River Brethren and United Zion Church) comprised of roughly three hundred congregations and 11,000 members.
