The Seven Sisters of American Protestantism Quiz

Answer: United Church of Christ

The United Church of Christ (UCC) grew out of the Congregational tradition and formed in 1957 through the merger of two denominations: the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches. In 1959, Everett Parker of the UCC Office of Communication worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. to organized UCC churches to protest television stations in the South that were imposing blackouts on coverage of the developing Civil Rights Movement.

In the 21st century, the UCC began to participate in the LGBT civil rights movement, and as of 2019, it had the largest LGBT-welcoming-church program in the world, the Open and Affirming movement, with over 1,000 congregations. The UCC's national body has also been active in supporting abortion rights.

As of 2018, the United Church of Christ had just over 800,000 members throughout the United States.

Answer: United Methodist Church

Methodism grew out of Anglicanism through the revival and reform movements of the Wesleys. In the U.S., the United Methodist Church (UMC) was preceded by the Methodist Episcopal Church. The UMC was formed in Dallas, Texas in 1968 through the merging of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

The "Seven Sisters of American Protestantism" refers to what is sometimes called "the mainline" Protestant churches. They include the United Church of Christ (UCC), the Episcopal Church (TEC), the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), the United Methodist Church (UMC), the American Baptist Churches U.S.A. (ABCUSA), and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The mainline churches tend to be liberal to moderate, and it is a subject of debate as to whether they still truly constitute the "mainline" of American Protestantism given their shrinking numbers and the growth of other evangelical churches and denominations.

Answer: The Episcopal Church

The first Anglican parish was founded in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia. The Anglican church was the established church in Virginia, New York, Maryland, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia and was supported by tax dollars. Eventually, however, the constitutions of these states did not allow for established churches.

The Episcopal Church became separate from the Church of England after the American Revolution. Today, the Episcopal Church (TEC) is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion. As of 2019, the church had over 1.8 million baptized members and over 1.4 million communicants.

Answer: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) formed in 1988 by merging the Lutheran Church in America, the American Lutheran Church, and the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches. It is the largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S., next to the more conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS).

The ELCA is in full communion with several of its sister churches: the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church.

As of 2018, the ELCA had over 3.3 million baptized members in the U.S.

Answer: American Baptist Churches USA

In 1638, the Puritan minister and religious separatist Roger Williams established the First Baptist Church in Providence, which is now called the First Baptist Church in America. The American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA), which is headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, traces its history to the First Baptist Church in America as well as the Baptist congregational associations that were organized at the 1814 Triennial Convention. ABCUSA was known as the Northern Baptist Convention from 1907 to 1950, wen it became the American Baptist Convention.

As of 2018, the denomination had over one million members in the United States.

Answer: The Episcopal Church

The "Book of Common Prayer" contains prayers and liturgies for numerous occasions, including baptisms, confirmations, Eucharist, and weddings. It also contains the historical documents of the Anglican church, such as the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (doctrines). The original version was published in 1549, but it has been revised many times since.

Answer: United Methodist Church

In 2019, the UMC had over 6.6 million members in the U.S. at over 32,000 congregations. It had over 12.7 million members worldwide. It is also the largest denomination within the wider worldwide Methodist movement and the second largest American Protestant Church after the Southern Baptist Convention, which is not included on this quiz because it is not one of the "Seven Sisters".

Answer: The Presbyterian Church (USA)

The Presbyterian Church USA was formed in 1983 as a merger of The Presbyterian Church in the United States and the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. As of 2019, the PC(USA) had over 1.3 million active members in the United States.

Its Constitution is composed of the "Book of Confessions", which outlines the beliefs of the denomination, and the "Book of Order", which dictates the organization of the denomination.

Answer: Disciples of Christ

The Christian Church, also known as the Disciples of Christ or D.O.C., traces its origins to the Second Great Awakening. It began as a loose association of churches and gradually began to form a denominational structures through regional associations, missionary societies, and an international convention, which became an official structure in 1968.

The Christian Church follows a congregational model in which each local church is governed by its own congregation. In 2019, it had fewer than 400,000 members.

Answer: United Church of Christ

Obama joined Trinity United Church of Christ in 1992. He resigned his membership in May of 2008, however, when controversial statements by the church's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, were subject to intense media scrutiny.

As a Democratic Presidential candidate, in 2007, Obama spoke at the United Church of Christ's Iowa Conference meeting and at the General Synod, which resulted in a complaint being filed with the Internal Revenue Service alleging that the denomination was promoting Obama's candidacy. In February 2008, the IRS investigated the matter and concluded that the UCC's tax status was not in jeopardy.