Evangelical Alliance

Evangelical Alliance , an association of Evangelical Christians in a union, not of churches, but of individuals belonging to different denominations and different countries. It was formed to give evidence of the unity existing among Evangelical believers and to advance such unity. The Alliance was founded in 1846 in London, at a conference in which some 50 denominations were represented by several hundred clergymen and laymen, gathered from many parts of the world. Branches have been organized in various countries. An American branch was established in 1867. In 1908 the American Alliance was replaced by the Federal Council of Churches, which was superseded in 1950 by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America . The largest association is the one first formed in Great Britain, which in 1923 became known as the World's Evangelical Alliance.

Bibliography: See A. J. Arnold, History of the Evangelical Alliance (1897); J. W. Ewing, Goodly Fellowship: A Centenary Tribute to the Life and Work of the World's Evangelical Alliance, 1846-1946 (1946).

Evangelical Alliance. An interdenominational body formed in London in 1846 to ‘associate and concentrate the strength of an enlightened Protestantism against the encroachments of Popery and Puseyism, and to promote the interests of a Scriptural Christianity’. In 1951, at a joint meeting of the American National Association of Evangelicals and the British Evangelical Alliance, the World Evangelical Fellowship was founded on similar principles.

Evangelical Alliance. An interdenominational body formed in 1846 as a response to Tractarianism and as an expression of unity ‘on the basis of great evangelical principles’. The Alliance's 20th-cent. work in England was given more vigorous expression after the Second World War by promoting evangelistic crusades, conferences for ministers, accommodation for overseas students, and active co-operation among interdenominational missionary societies. Prominent amongst its more recent achievements was the formation of TEAR Fund which raises money for relief work throughout the world.