James O'Kelly

I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading about the Christian Connexion. As mentioned previously, I read Barton Stone’s memoirs, then moved on to Abner Jones, and then Elias Smith. I am currently reading Milo T. Morrill’s History of the Christian Denomination.

The Christian Connexion united themselves out of existence in 1931 when they merged with the Congregational Church in 1931, becoming the Congregation Christian Churches. Those churches merged with the Evangelical and Reformed Churches in 1961 to become the United Church of Christ. I recently read in Paul Conkin’s book that the former Christian Connexion churches are now virtually unidentifiable within the UCC.

However, that got me thinking and started on a small research project. When I was doing some research on the merger with the UCC, I found that some of the Congregational Christian Churches did not agree to the UCC merger. The congregations that refused to merge generally ended up in three groups. The smallest group repudiated all denominational membership, one group of churches became the Conservative Congregational Christian Churches, and the other group formed the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches.

I searched through the congregation list of the Conservative Congregation Christian Churches (called the 4 C’s by many), and found several congregations that just called themselves “Christian Church.” These congregations are all quite old. I did a little digging and finally found one that could trace its history all the way back to James O’Kelly and the Republican Methodists. The Cypress Chapel Christian Church was originally an Anglican Church, founded before the Revolution. During the war, the congregation became Methodist, and in 1794, they joined O’Kelly’s group of “Christians.” They joined the Congregational Christian Churches in 1931, but refused to join with the UCC in 1961, and were an independent church until they joined the Conservative Congregational Christian Churches several years ago.

I’ve sent this church an email to see if they have a written church history.

One thing I found interesting. On their “beliefs page” I found this statement:

We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Considering that most Christian Connexion congregations were very much anti-trinitarian, this is a very orthodox statement on the three persons of God.

Josh