The United Church of Canada is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholic Church in Canada.
Example of a United Church in a small community (West Montrose, Ontario; built c. 1907)
The Red Deer Industrial School, operated by the United Church of Canada, had one of the highest residential school mortality rates in Canada. Photo circa 1914.
The mainline Protestant churches are a group of Protestant denominations in the United States and in some cases in Canada largely of the theologically liberal or theologically progressive persuasion that contrast in history and practice with the largely theologically conservative Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Charismatic, Confessional, Confessing Movement, historically Black church, and Global South Protestant denominations and congregations. Some make a distinction between "mainline" and "oldline", with the former referring only to denominational ties and the latter referring to church lineage, prestige and influence. However, this distinction has largely been lost to history and the terms are now nearly synonymous.
Eucharist observed by a congregation of the United Methodist Church, a typical mainline Protestant denomination and one of the "Seven Sisters of American Protestantism".
Washington National Cathedral, an Episcopal cathedral in Washington, D.C.
A Congregational church of the United Church of Christ denomination in Farmington, Connecticut
Augustana Lutheran Church in Washington, D.C belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America