With a strong background in early Methodism, this church became a denomination in 1968. It was formed from the congregations of the Evangelical United Brethren Church that declined to join in the merger that formed the United Methodist Church. It is grouped into six conferences in the US and has missionaries in other countries. The name is shared with a former group in the history of the current Evangelical Church. The Evangelical United Brethren Church was formed in 1946 by the merger of two groups, one of which was also named the Evangelical Church. This group (originally known as the Evangelical Association) had its roots in the efforts of Jacob Albright, a Lutheran convert to Methodism, who preached among his fellow Pennsylvania Germans in the early 1800s. The related Canadian group (formed of those Evangelical United Brethren churches that declined to join the United Church of Canada in the 1960s) merged with that country's Missionary Church in 1996 to form the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada.
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