Federated Church Information

First, it must be pointed out, there is no denomination or association of Federated Churches. Wherever one finds a Federated Church, two or more local churches have merged. In our case, it was a merger between the Congregationalists and the Disciples of Christ. The Congregational Church in Chagrin Falls was organized in 1835. Four years earlier the Disciples Church had been organized in Bentleyville. Later it was moved to Chagrin Falls. In 1884, an English church known as the Bible Christian Church, located on the Bell Street site of our present building, voted to disband and become a part of the Congregational Church. Then in 1919, our present Federated Church was born as a result of the federation of the Congregational and Disciples of Christ churches. At the national level in 1957, the Congregational Christian Churches voted to merge with the Evangelical and Reformed Church, the result of which was the formation of the United Church of Christ (UCC). The Federated Church in Chagrin Falls, at a special congregational meeting on March 5, 1961, voted to become a full member of the United Church of Christ. With our history of uniting to work together, we feel very much at home in the present-day ecumenical movement. By far the largest number of our present members have transferred to us from other denominations, bringing with them much of the richness of their traditions and working easily within the framework of our own.