About Hiram Christian Church
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Hiram Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a historic congregation related to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Christian Church in Ohio (Disciples of Christ)
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant Denomination with international offices in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Our congregation has been in Hiram since 1835 and was one of the early congregations in the Campbell-Stone Movement that became the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The Hiram congregation and other northeast Ohio congregations partnered in 1850 to form the Hiram Eclectic Institute that later became Hiram College. President James A. Garfield was a regular preacher for the congregation when he was president of Hiram College in the 1850’s and 1860’s.
Our congregation includes about 250 members from a large variety of backgrounds and vocations, some with families dating back many generations in the area and some new to the area. Our average weekly worship attendance is about 115 and includes people of all ages.
The Lord’s Supper or Communion is celebrated in our weekly worship. It is open to all who are followers of Jesus Christ. The practice of Holy Communion has become the central element of worship within the Disciples tradition. Disciples’ observance of the Lord’s Supper emanates from the upper room, where Jesus shared bread and wine with his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the living Christ is met and received in the sharing of the bread and the cup, representative of the body and blood of Jesus. The presence of the living Lord is affirmed and he is proclaimed to be the dominant power in our lives.
Our congregation typically practices believers baptism by immersion of youth and adults. Those who founded the Disciples movement taught baptism by immersion as the accepted form. Baptism is a public act by which the church proclaims God’s grace, as revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, through the use of a visible sign of God’s gracious initiative and the human individual’s response in faith. With other Christians we affirm that baptism is at once a divine gift and a human response. While we practice baptism by immersion, BUT ACCEPT ALL FORMS OF BAPTISM OF INFANTS AND ADULTS AS LEGITIMATE.
