The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2570 page)

United Church of Christ
.

The body formed in the USA by the union of the Congregational Christian churches with the Evangelical and Reformed in 1961.

 
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United Reformed Church
.

The body formed by the union of the
Congregational Church
of England with the
Presbyterian
Church of England, which came into being in Oct. 1972. Negotiations with the
Churches of Christ
resulted in the majority of its churches joining the URC in 1981.

 
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United Synagogue
.

Association of Ashkenazi Jewish congregations in Great Britain. The organization was established by Act of Parliament in 1870. It supports the British
Chief Rabbinate
, the London
Bet Din
, and all the
synagogues
which accept the authority of the Chief Rabbi.

 
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United Synagogue of America
.

Association of
Conservative Jewish
synagogues
in the USA and Canada. The organization was founded by Solomon
Schechter
in 1913.

 
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Unitive Way
.

Third and last of the
Three Ways
in prayer. In this, after experiencing the
purgative
and
illuminative ways
, the soul is united with God by love: hence the imagery of spiritual betrothal and marriage, which itself suggests the indefectible state of cleaving to God characteristic of this way.

 
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Universal Church of the Kingdom of God
.

An evangelistic church founded in Brazil in 1977 by Edir Macedo, called
bishop
. The church emphasizes faith healing, and evokes generous giving on the part of the faithful (estimated in 1995 at about $15 million a week). The church became publicly controversial in 1995 when, after a television attack was made on the Virgin
Mary
, the attorney-general in Brazil ordered an investigation of the church for alleged tax fraud and for alleged links with drug cartels.

 
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