Evangelical Alliance

(ēvănjĕl`ĭkəl), an association of Evangelical Christians in a union, not of churches, but of individuals belonging to different denominations and different countries. It was formed to give evidence of the unity existing among Evangelical believers and to advance such unity. The Alliance was founded in 1846 in London, at a conference in which some 50 denominations were represented by several hundred clergymen and laymen, gathered from many parts of the world. Branches have been organized in various countries. An American branch was established in 1867. In 1908 the American Alliance was replaced by the Federal Council of Churches, which was superseded in 1950 by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America The largest association is the one first formed in Great Britain, which in 1923 became known as the World's Evangelical Alliance.

Bibliography

See A. J. Arnold, History of the Evangelical Alliance (1897); J. W. Ewing, Goodly Fellowship: A Centenary Tribute to the Life and Work of the World's Evangelical Alliance, 1846–1946 (1946).