Church of Christ in Thailand

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The Church of Christ in Thailand (C.C.T.) is a Protestant Christian association, considered to be the largest by number of Protestants in Thailand.^[1]

It was founded in 1934 as the Church in Siam with the intent of forming a single ecumenical denomination to include all Protestant churches in Thailand. Other than a small number of American Baptist and British Churches of Christ congregations, all of the original member churches were originally Presbyterian congregations. The merger also included Lutherans from the German Marburger Mission. The C.C.T. originally had seven districts, six geographical and one ethnic Chinese. Except for a brief period during World War II, Presbyterian missionary influence remained predominant in the C.C.T. until the late-1970s.

Since 1990, the denomination has experienced a major demographic shift. Tribal churches, mostly Baptist in origin, now account for about half of its total number of roughly 100,000 communicant members. The C.C.T. is a member of the World Council of Churches and the Christian Conference of Asia and is generally recognized to be a "mainline" ecumenical denomination. Its church government is a relatively centralized mixture of Presbyterian, Disciples, and Baptist polities.

CCT is considered to be the largest Protestant church in Thailand, consists of Thai, Chinese, Karen, and English-speaking congregations. It is a member of the World Council of Churches and has about 60,000 members.^[2]

The Church of Christ in Thailand is engaged in active social efforts (health care, education) and ecumenical movements in local society.^[3]

In 2004 - 2005 the association took active part in relief efforts after the natural disaster of boxing day tsunami.^[4]