| abstract | - Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs.
- Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs. Many Congregational churches claim their descent from the original Congregational churches, a family of Protestant denominations formed on a theory of union published by the theologian Robert Browne in 1592. They arose from the Nonconformist religious movement in England during the Puritan reformation of the Church of England. In Great Britain, the early congregationalists were called separatists or independents to distinguish themselves from the similarly Calvinistic Presbyterians. Some congregationalists there still call themselves "Independents". Congregational churches became widely established in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, later New England. The model of Congregational churches was carried by migrating settlers from New England into New York and the Old Northwest: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois. With their insistence on the independence of local bodies, they became important in many reform movements, including those for abolition of slavery, and women's suffrage. As of the early 21st century, Congregationalism in the U.S. had split into three major bodies: the United Church of Christ, which most local Congregational churches affiliated with, the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches, a fellowship of churches and individuals formed to continue and foster classic Congregationalism as the merger that created the UCC was being debated, and the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, an evangelical group.
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