Unity and Communion in English Ecumenism, with Special Reference to the United Reformed Church

Abstract This article studies the diversity of English ecumenism from the perspective of a church historian who has been actively involved in the search for wider Christian unity since the 1960s. The perspective is that of a member of the Churches of Christ who was an observer at the Congregational-Presbyterian Conversations of 1963–1972 and Secretary of the United Reformed Church–Churches of Christ negotiations of 1972–1981. The first part examines the formation of the United Reformed Church; the second part looks at the relationship between the English Congregationalists and the Church of the Palatinate between 1945 and the present.