"UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST. G12 UNITED IRISH LEAGUE OF AMERICA. The larger division of the Church, which ac- cepted the new Constitution, had in 1902 47 an- nual conferences and mission districts, including those in Germany, Japan, Ontario, and West Africa, four bishops, 19G7 itinerant ministers, 434 local preachers, 249.314 members, 263,041 pupils in the Sunday-schools, 3358 church houses, and 827 parsonages, and it contributed for all pur- poses $1,661,524. it has a theological seminary at Dayton, Ohio, eight colleges, and four acad- emics. It has a publishing house at Dayton, and issues from its presses 16 difl'erent publications aggregating 10,000.000 cofiies annually. There is a Board of Education; a Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society sustaining missions in Africa, Japan, Germany, Porto Rico, Ontario, and the United States; a Woman's Missionary Association, conducting missions in Africa, China, and the Philippines; a Church Erection Society; a Young People's Christian Union, with 63,846 members; and an Historical Society. The branch which retains the old Constitution had in 1902 32 annual conferences, 4 bishops, 766 societies, 281 active itinerant and 133 local preachers, 25.670 members. 28.293 pupils in the Sunday-schools, 523 church houses, 88 parson- ages, and aggregate contributions amounting to $144,624. There is a Home. Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society, sustaining missions in 16 conferences and mission districts, including ^'est Africa, and a Woman's ilissionary Association, a Board of Education, a publishing house in Hunt- ington, Ind., and colleges at Huntington, Ind., Albion, Wash., and in Oregon. The Reliyious Telescope (weekly). The Watch- word (weekly), The United Brethren Reiicw (bi-monthly), and The Year Book of the United Brethren in Christ, besides missionary and Sun- day-school publications, are issued by the New Constitution branch at Dayton, Ohio. The Old Constitution Church issues The Christian Con- servator (weeklj-). The Missionary Monthly, and a Year Book at Huntington. Ind. For the history of the Church, consult Berger, History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ (Day- ton. 1897) ; consult also biographies of Bishops Otterbein (ib.. 1884) and J. J. Glossbrenner (ib., 1889). by A. W. Drury: Jonathan Weaver (ib., 1901). bV H. A. Thompson; and James W'. Hott (ib., 1902), by M. R. Drury. UNITED EVANGELICAL CHURCH, The. A religious organization formed in 1894 as the resvilt of a division which had occurred in the Evivngelical Association (q.v. ). A meeting at- tended by delegates from six annual conferences was held at Naperville. 111.. 'in November of that year, and constituted the first General Confer- ence of the United Evangelical Church. The legis- lation necessary to perfect the organization of an independent Church was enacted ; a Book of Discipline was adopted, based upon the old Discipline of the Evangelical Association, with certain changes, such as the introduction of lay representation into the conferences. In 1902 the United Evangelical Church had 10 conferences (including seven mission confer- ences), 979 organized congregations, 820 church buildings, 2 bishops. 501 itinerant and 214 local preachers, 63.390 church members, and 83.381 pupils in Sunday-schools. Besides assisting the seven mission conferences, the General Mission- ary Society has a mission in Changsha. Honan, China; and the Woman's Missionary Society co- operates with it. A Church E.xtension Society was established in 1902. The educational insti- tutions are Albright College, Mej'crstown, Pa.; Dallas College and La Creole Academy, Dallas, Oregon ; 'estern Union College, Le JIars, Iowa. There is a publishing house at Harrisburg, Pa. Besides Sunday-school and similar publications the Church periodicals are The Evanyetical (weekly). Die cvangelische Zeitschrift (weekly), and The Missionary Tidings, all issued at Har- risburg. Consult Stapleton, Annals of the Evangelical Association of North America and History of the United Evangelical Church (Har- risburg, 1900). UNITED EVANGELICAL CHURCH, The (in Germany). A Church established in Ger- many in 1817 by the union of portions of the Lutheran and Reformed churches. Such a union had been attempted without .success in 1529, 1G31, 1661, and by Frederick I. of Prussia (1703-22). Frederick William I. published sev- eral decrees having the same object in view. It was favored also toward the end of the eighteenth century by the progress of theological thought. Schleiermaclier proposed to establish an outward Church unity, leaving disputed points in scientific theology still open for discussion. At the ter- centenary of the Reformation in 1817 a visible luiion was established, limited, however, at first, as many of its advocates supposed, to a common Church government, and a common celebration of the Lord's Supper. In this movement the Gov- ernment of Prussia has always been the leader, and the United Evangelical Church is the State Chtirch there, although dissensions have arisen at various times. A similar tinion of Lutherans with the Reformed Church has been accomplished in several other of the German States; while of the rest some arc too exclusively Lutheran, and some too exclusively Reformed to w'arrant the attempt. In the United States a branch of the United Evangelical Church was established near Saint Louis in 1840. See German Evangelical Synod of North America : see also German Evangelical Prote.stant Church. UNITED FREE CHURCH OF SCOT- LAND. See Presbyterianism. UNITED IRISH LEAGUE OF AMERICA. An association of Irish-Americans which is prac- tically the successor of the Parnell Land League and of the Irish Federated Societies in sympathy with the Land League ^Movement. It was pro- visionally established in New York. December 4, 1901. and was ratified at the first National Con- vention of the United Irish League held at Bos- ton, October 20-21, 1902. The" purpose of the league is to act as an auxiliary in America to the national organization in Ireland in the achievement of its aims. These include self- government for Ireland, the abolition of land- lordism there, and other reforms of political and economic conditions in the country. Jlem- bership in the league is open to all Irish-Ameri- can Nationalists without distinction of class or creed, and to all STOipathizers with the national claims of Ireland. The general management of the league when not in convention is vested in a national committee, consisting of the president, two vice-presidents, treasurer and secretary, and
