The Evangelical and Reformed Church in the Pacific Northwest 

Deeply pietistic, theologically Calvinist, Biblically grounded and pioneering in spirit, the Evangelical and Reformed Church in the Pacific Northwest at its beginnings set off a process of ferment that continues in the United Church of Christ today. The lost half of the 18th century found the Reformed Church in the East settling in on three centuries of growth, stability and effective mission. At that time, Indiana and Ohio represented the extreme western frontier, "the western wilderness". 

Pioneers whom Carl Sandberg called "wayshewers" ("Bahnbrecher" in German) pushed westward and by 1844 had penetrated into Wisconsin. These were solid German Reformed people armed with their Bibles, the Heidelberg Catechism and the hymnal. 

The General Synod of the Reformed Church was organized in 1863, and the Synod of the Northwest, approved by General Synod, held its first meeting in 1867. Continued westward expansion took the church to the West Coast and north into Canada. The Synod of the Northwest created two boards: the Board of Home Missions and the Board of Church Erection. These boards and the Synod served the vast territory west of Pennsylvania and into Western Canada. These boards were eventually absorbed into the Board of National Missions of the Evangelical and Reformed Church. 

Perhaps the outstanding personality in the founding of churches in Oregon was Pastor John Gantenbein, born in Werdberger, Switzerland in 1824, educated in Basel, migrated to America in 1851 and was ordained the following year. In addition to his theological studies, he studied medicine at Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia, earning his M.D. in 1868. Six years later he accepted the challenge of the Northwest to organize First Reformed Church in Portland. This congregation was enlarged by the Second, Third, and Hillsdale Churches growing out of the parent body. The piety and spirit of the congregation can be sensed in this tribute to it by one of its sons: 

"It was under the Bible‑centered ministry of First Church, emphasizing the verbal inspiration of the Bible, the deity of Christ and his blood atonement, that my childhood and youth were spent." 

A century after the migration of the Reformed people from Palatinate to the new land, the German Evangelicals came in flood tide. From 1830 to 1845, the average annual migration from Germany was 40,000 (not all Evangelicals, to be sure), and that number rose to 200,000 a year by 1880. The Basel Missionary Society in 1833 appointed Friederich Schmid as missionary to this area, the first of 288 such men from Basel Seminary to serve in America in the century to follow. Of these 158 served the Evangelical Synod and 18 served Reformed Churches. For the Evangelical Synod, the name of Rev. F. H. Freund is cherished. He was instrumental in establishing Zion Church in Gresham as well as other congregations in Oregon and Washington. 

Another stream in the flow of Evangelical and Reformed Churches to the United Church of Christ were the German Russians who settled in large numbers in the Dakotas and Colorado and then found their way into Idaho, Oregon and Washington. They found the Evangelical Synod more to their liking than others of the main line church bodies.  St. Paul's Evangelical in Portland was one of these congregations. 

The story of these mission churches had its stormy highs and equally stormy lows. With the formation of the Evangelical and Reformed Church in 1934, the Pacific Northwest Synod came into being. 

Bethany Church in Salem objected to this union and amicably withdrew from the denomination. In the way of the Salem mail, it dissolved and is no more. The Synod consisted of churches in Oregon, Washington and Payette, Idaho. Disaffection with the proposed United Church of Christ brought about the loss of some of these churches, notably First Church, Portland, now Grace Bible Church and Helvetia or Emanuel, Hillsboro. Other mission starts failed and folded like Carmel, Salem, and Bethel, Portland. Still others merged to form new congregations like Third, St. John's and Trinity, Portland, now Trinity. 

An effort at executive leadership for the Pacific Northwest began in 1948 with the election of the Rev. Theodore Van Dyck as President of the Synods serving California and Oregon, Washington and Payette, Idaho. The experiment was short‑lived and the Synods returned to their former boundaries and organization until the organization of the Oregon Conference of the United Church of Christ was completed in 1963. By that time the churches in Oregon to enter the union were Hillsdale Community, Trinity, St. Paul's and Second Churches, Portland; Meridian, Wilsonville; Zion, Gresham; St. John's, Tillamook; Carmel, Salem; of these six continue in strength. 

Thus the sturdy Swiss and German dairymen and farmers, pioneers all, made their enduring contribution to the vitality of the United Church in the Northwest, and to the "Beautiful, Heady, Exasperating Mix" that that church body is. 

Prepared by Rev. William H. Tempest

 Source: Eisenach, George J., Pietism and the Russian Germans in the United States