L A N C I N G at the history of this body of professing christians, we must speak of them as one of the very few ecclesiastical communities which are purely of American origin. Though originally composed of seceders,--they seceded from different bodies, in very different parts of the country, not at one time, but presenting a separation which covered several years; we may add that their conduct in doing all this, was unknown to each other, and that several years elapsed before the facts relating to the separation of each party were at all known to the rest.

      In 1793, a secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church took place in North Carolina, known at the time as the "O'Kelly Secession." The seceding party first took the name of Republican Methodists, but after a while resolved to be known only as Christ-ians, the first syllable pronounced as in Christ, and avowed their only code of doctrine and discipline to be the New Testament. In the year 1800, Dr. Abner Jones, a member of a Baptist church at Hartland, Vermont, became dissatisfied with the theological views of that church, and lamenting the prevalence of sectarianism, resolved on the establishment of a new sect to destroy it. He succeeded in forming, several new church organizations in that State, all of whom also professed to draw their creed solely from the New Testament. In the year 1800, also, and the year following, an extensive revival of religion took place among the Presbyterians of Kentucky and Tennessee, during which some of the ministers renounced their Calvinism, and leaving their former connections, with many of their people, formed a new body, called also by the name of Christ-ians. From these different bodies did the denomination first emanate, and after the lapse of some years they became organized in one body, called, as we have said, Christ-ians, or sometimes as "The Christian Connexion."

      In DOCTRINE it is more than possible that they are not entirely uniform; generally speaking, however, they deny the doctrine of the Trinity, and of the atonement by the vicarious sacrifice of Christ; in a word, they may be described, to be what Mr. Gorrie calls them--Unitarian Baptists. Their GOVERNMENT is Congregational; every separate [779] church being independent of all others, and every way competent for the management of its own concerns. They have, however, Annual Conferences, for the transaction of business common to the whole, and as advisory councils in matters of difficulty.

      The Christ-ians are neither indifferent to the claims of education, nor to the power of the press. They have several highly respectable institutions of learning, especially Antioch College, recently instituted, under the Presidency of the Hon. Horace Mann, at Yellow Springs, Ohio. They also issue several weekly and other periodical publications, and have, we believe, a flourishing book concern in the city of Albany, New York.

      This denomination is not classed among the Orthodox sects. They do not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, nor in a vicarious atonement, in the full acceptation of that term. They have a weekly journal called the "Christian Palladium," published at Albany, New York, and an interest in the Theological Seminary, conducted by the Unitarians at Meadville, Pa. Their statistics are as follows : two thousand preachers, twenty-one hundred congregations, one hundred and eighty thousand communicants, with about one thousand church edifices. [780]

      Joseph Belcher's "Christ-ians" appears in his Religious Denominations in the United States (Philadelphia, PA: John E. Potter, 1861), pp. 779-780. The electronic version of the article has been produced from a copy of the book held by St. Vincent College Library.

      Pagination in the electronic version has been represented by placing the page number in brackets following the last complete word on the printed page. Inconsistencies in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and typography have been retained.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
373 Wilson Street
Derry, PA 15627-9770
724.694.8602
stefanik@westol.com

Created 28 November 1998.