The Christian Holiness Partnership (CHP) is the cooperative fellowship of Holiness churches and organizations. The Holiness movement, which had developed in the early 19th century, enjoyed a period of heightened growth following the Civil War. It found its primary organizational expression in a set of camp meetings that operated independently of the Methodist church groups to which most Holiness people belonged. In the meetings, Methodists mingled with Holiness people from across the American denominational spectrum. The National Camp Meeting Association for the Promotion of Holiness was founded in 1867 to coordinate the work. By the 1880s, Methodist bishops and district superintendents were beginning to look askance at the movement.
By 1894, the first Holiness denominations had been formed, and numerous independent Holiness churches had come into existence.The words Camp Meeting were dropped from the name, and the organization became known as the National Holiness Association. To accommodate Canadian members, in 1971 it became the Christian Holiness Association. Its present name, reflecting the changing relationship between North American churches and their many mission churches around the world, was adopted in 1997.
The partnership, headquartered in Clinton, Tennessee, includes 21 member denominations, three missionary agencies, 48 colleges and seminaries, six Holiness publishing houses, and some 2,000 camp meetings. The CHP also allows local churches (many from non-Holiness denominations) to affiliate. Approximately 10 percent of these local churches are from the United Methodist Church.
Further reading:
■ Myron E Boyd and Merne A. Harris, compilers, Projecting Our Heritage: Papers and Messages Delivered at the Centennial Convention of the National Holiness Association (Kansas City, Mo.: Beacon Hill Press, 1969)
■ Charles Edwin Jones, A Guide to the Study of the Holiness Movement (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1974)
■ ----, Perfectionist Persuasion: The Holiness Movement and American Methodism, 1867-1936 (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1974).