The denominations featured in American Denominations represent only those that reported data to the National Council of Churches’ Yearbook between 1925 and 2005. Though this includes over 400 denominations, there are many American denominations that are not represented. Listed below are the sources we used for assembling information on each denomination.
Denominational Family Trees
The family trees were created using the following sources:
| Daniel G. Reid, Robert D. Linder, Bruce L. Shelley, Harry S. Stout, Editors. Dictionary of Christianity in America. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990. | J. Gordon Melton. Encyclopedia of American Religions. Seventh Edition. Farmington Hills, MI: The Gale Group, Inc., 2003. | Frank S. Mead, Samuel S. Hill, Craig D. Atwood. Handbook of Denominations in the United States. Twelfth Edition. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2005. | Robert C. Wiederaenders, Editor. Historical Guide to Lutheran Church Bodies in North America. St. Louis, MO: Lutheran Historical Conference, 1998. |
Family trees presented in the Dictionary of Christianity in America provided the initial templates for our diagrams and the remaining references served to verify, supplement, and update these trees.
Denominational Data
All data on clergy, members, and churches are taken from the National Council of Churches’ Historic Archive CD and recent print editions of the Council’s Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. The CD archives all 68 editions of the Yearbook (formerly called Yearbook of the Churches and Yearbook of American Churches) from 1916 to 2000. Read more information on the Historic Archive CD and the Yearbook.
Membership figures are "inclusive." According to the Yearbook, this includes "those who are full communicant or confirmed members plus other members baptized, non-confirmed or non-communicant." Each denomination has its own criteria for membership.
When a denomination listed on the Historic Archive CD was difficult to identify, particularly in early editions of the Yearbook, the ARDA staff consulted numerous sources, including Melton’s Encyclopedia of American Religions and the Handbook of Denominations in the United States. In some cases, ARDA staff consulted the denomination’s website or contacted its offices by phone. When a denomination could not be positively identified, its data were omitted.
Denominational Histories
Most denominational descriptions were provided by J. Gordon Melton. The remaining descriptions were written by Stephen Merino using the Encyclopedia of American Religions and Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches as references. The diagrams displaying denominational mergers, schisms, and name changes were created using the same sources used for creating the family trees.
The ARDA would also like to thank the following individuals for their personal assistance in improving the accuracy of American Denominations:
| Dr. J. Gordon Melton, Director, Institute for the Study of American Religion (ISAR) | Joel Thoreson, Archivist for Reference Services, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America | Anne Leveque, Research Specialist in Religion, Congressional Research Service. |
ARDA research associates Stephen Merino, Heather Kindell, and Phil Schwadel were primarily responsible for the development of this project. We would also like to thank Kristy Kaptur, Stacey Christensen, and Jason Thompson for tireless assistance in entering data and tracing denominational histories and Neil Luft for his graphic and design work. If you have questions or suggestions, please send them to Stephen Merino at arda@pop.psu.edu.
