National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States

National Council of Congregational Churches of the United States
Orientation	Mainline Protestant
Theology	Reformed Congregationalist
Polity	Congregational
Associations	Federal Council of Churches (1908)
Origin	1865 Boston, Massachusetts
Absorbed	Evangelical Protestant Church of North America (1927)
Merged into	Congregational Christian Churches (1931)
Defunct	1931
Congregations	5,497 in 1928
Members	939,130 in 1928

The National Council of Congregational Churches of the United States was a mainline Protestant, Christian denomination in the United States. Its organization as a denomination was delayed by the Civil War. Congregational leaders met again in Boston, Massachusetts in 1865, where they began to hammer out standards of church procedures (polity) and adopted a statement of faith, known as the Burial Hill Declaration. Denominational organization came in 1871 with formation of the National Council of Congregational Churches, which existed until its merger in 1931.^[1] In 1928, there were 5,497 Congregational churches in the U.S. with a membership of 939,130. These churches were served by 5,648 ministers.^[2]

The Congregational churches originated from the Puritans of colonial New England. Congregationalists were traditionally Calvinists strongly committed to congregational polity, from which the denomination took its name.^[3]

In 1931, the Congregationalists merged with the Christian Connection to form the Congregational Christian Churches.^[4] The National Council is a predecessor body to several American denominations, including the United Church of Christ, the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches, and the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference.