United Ministries in Higher Education Records

United Ministries in Higher Education evolved out of several decades of ministry in non-church related institutions of higher education in the U.S. Organizationally, UMHE emerged out of the United Campus Christian Fellowship, which was a uniting in 1960 of the student Christian movements of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the United Church of Christ, and the United Presbyterian Church. These UCCF denominations formed UMHE in 1964 and by 1968 six more denominations had joined forces: the Moravian Church (1965), the Presbyterian Church, U.S. (1966), the Church of the Brethren (1967), the Episcopal Church (1968), the Reformed Church in America (1968), and the American Baptist Church (1968). The United Methodist Church became a member at its formation - the uniting of the Methodist Church with the Evangelical United Brethren church. In 1976, the Reformed Church in America restructured and withdrew from participation.

In 1966 the United Campus Christian Fellowship merged into the University Christian Movement in the United States, a body that was not integrally related to the institutional church in the same way that the UCCF had been. The UMHE continued to pursue its goal of developing strategy and recommending policy for ministries in higher education for the denominations it represented, striving to promote common initiatives rather than unilateral actions.

From 1964 to 1968 UMHE was governed by a Council for Policy and Strategy, a Committee of Administrators, and a Secretariat. In the fall of 1968, the National Commission for United Ministries in Higher Education was formed by the ten national denominational agencies that were supporting UMHE, a restructuring intended to place discussion and decision making in the hands of a more representative body of persons, to clarify staff accountability, and to improve the coordination of the campus ministries of the denominations. A Self-Study Committee was established in 1973 to oversee an extensive organizational analysis that led to the formation of a UMHE Policy Board in 1974.

The Policy Board of UMHE and the Program and Policy Committee of an organization called Ministries in Public Education created a Joint UMHE-MPE Committee in 1978 to investigate means for closer working and organizational relations between the two ministries. This Committee recommended the formation of United Ministries in Education as the successor to MPE and UHME. This change in the name and purpose of UMHE was consented to by the New York State Education Department on August 24, 1979.

The partnership between UMHE and MPE was dissolved in 1988 and The Higher Education Ministries Team of United Ministries in Higher Education was officially constituted on November 15, 1989 for a three-year period beginning January 1, 1990 (still operating under the corporate name of United Ministries in Education). UMHE was empowered to pursue an agenda in higher education ministries during this period of evaluation of both the program and the organization itself. Denominations supporting the Team included the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., the Moravian Church, and the Church of the Brethren. The role of UMHE in relation to denominational activities and the new Higher Education Ministries Arena of the National Council of Churches was evaluated.