Churches of Christ in Christian Union
| Churches of Christ in Christian Union (CCCU) | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Restorationist, Holiness, Evangelical |
| Polity | Congregationalist |
| Region | 15 U.S. states, with world missions |
| Headquarters | Circleville, Ohio |
| Founder | James H. McKibban |
| Origin | 1909 Columbus, Ohio |
| Separated from | The Christian Union |
| Merger of | Reformed Methodist Church |
| Separations | House of Prayer (1918) |
| Congregations | approx. 200 |
The Churches of Christ in Christian Union (CCCU) is a Wesleyan-Holiness and Restorationist Christian denomination.
The CCCU has a presence in 15 U.S. states and several nations, with about 200 churches in the United States.Ohio Christian University is its educational wing with denominational world headquarters nearby, just outside Circleville, Ohio.
The Churches of Christ in Christian Union became a separate denomination in 1909 when five ministers and about 60 lay people were separated from the steadily declining Christian Union headquartered in Ohio.
While the Christian Union was originally formed in 1864 to protest to the Methodist Episcopal Church's support of the American Civil War, the CCCU was forged by a dispute over doctrine in 1909. Those holding to a Wesleyan view on sanctification were censured by the leadership of the South Ohio Conference of the Christian Union during a period of time in which many other Holiness movement supporters were at loggerheads within established denominations.
Adherents of Holiness movement teachings contended that Christian Union was dedicated to unity on a few basic principles and should have been able to tolerate Holiness beliefs within its ranks as a matter of Christian liberty. Opponents of the Holiness teaching, however, saw it as a divisive movement that contradicted the Christian Union’s central commitment to harmony. In the Christian Union's development from Methodist dissenters to a Restorationist denomination, it picked up many Presbyterian traits (as did the Churches of Christ, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), etc.). The leadership of the Christian Union did not see things through the Wesleyan-Arminian theological prism but through a more Calvinist lens and, therefore, a non-Holiness perspective.
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