Iglesia Evangelica Dominicana Puerta Plata 2009

The Evangelical Church of the Dominican Republic (''Iglesia Evangélica Dominicana'') is one of the largest

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

denominations in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

with approximately 10,000 members in 55 congregations.

History

The Evangelical Church of the Dominican Republic was founded in 1922 as an ecumenical project by three denominations from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

: the Methodist Episcopal Church, the United Brethren (both now the

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelic ...

), and the Presbyterian Church (USA). Previously in 1919 these three denominations created the Alliance for Christian Service in Santo Domingo. Later with 29 members the Evangelical Church was founded, and the work spread rapidly. In 1960 the church united with the

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

Methodists, and in 1960 with the Moravians. By the time of the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

it had more than 1,000 members. Today it is the second largest

church in the country. In 1978, the Evangelical Church of the Dominican Republic, together with Dominican Episcopal Church founded the Center for Theological Studies of Santo Domingo, a Protestant seminary.

Memberships

The Evangelical Church of the Dominican Republic is a member of the

World Communion of Reformed Churches The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) is the largest association of Calvinist churches in the world. It has 230 member denominations in 108 countries, together claiming an estimated 80 million people, thus being the fourth-largest Chris ...

,{{cite web, url=http://www.wcrc.ch/node/164 , title=Member churches | Bringing together 80 million Reformed Christians worldwide , accessdate=August 18, 2013 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120808192417/http://www.wcrc.ch/node/164 , archivedate=August 8, 2012

World Methodist Council The World Methodist Council (WMC), founded in 1881, is a consultative body and association of churches in the Methodist tradition. It comprises 80 member denominations in 138 countries which together represent an estimated 80 million people; this ...

and the

Latin American Council of Churches The Latin American Council of Churches (Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias) is a regional ecumenical body with 139 member churches and organizations in 19 countries, representing some two million Christians. The head office of the organization is ...

(''Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias'').

Notes

External links

Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias
United and uniting churches Methodist denominations Protestantism in the Dominican Republic Christian organizations established in 1922 Christian denominations in the Caribbean Reformed denominations in the Caribbean Evangelical denominations in North America