The Reformed and the UNEPREF

Families of churches

Understanding the Reformed family, its church life and its different unions, with a presentation of the Evangelical Reformed of the UNEPREF.

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Families of churches · convictions, congregational life and present-day diversity

Portrait of John Calvin

The Reformed — one family, several unions

  • Reformed churchesToday
  • French synod1559
  • Calvin in Geneva1536
  • Zwingli in Zurich1519
The life of a Reformed church is organised around listening to the Bible, preaching and shared responsibility. A local council guides the congregation; delegates meet in synod to take decisions together. In much of the English-speaking world, this tradition is known as “Presbyterian”.
In France, this same Huguenot heritage is shared by several bodies. Some Reformed churches belong to the EPUdF (United Protestant Church of France), others to the UEPAL in Alsace-Moselle, and others again to the UNEPREF. These names refer to different structures; on their own, they do not account for the whole Reformed family. Its roots go back largely to the French Reformation, but today’s congregations are also the result of more recent foundations, unions, migrations and conversions; their continuity is not an automatic institutional succession.
Key point · The Reformed family is wider than the Evangelical Reformed churches alone. A common root does not erase differences of conviction and affiliation.

Convictions and church life

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

Both infant and adult baptism are practised. For Calvin, the Lord’s Supper is a communion with Christ through the Spirit; other emphases exist within the Reformed tradition.

Councils and synods

Presbyterian-synodal government combines a local council and assemblies of delegates. Pastors and other church members take part in decisions.

Worship centred on the Word

Bible reading, preaching, prayer and singing shape the service. How plain the buildings and the gestures of worship are varies from country to country and from one congregation to another.

Further reading: Regards protestants — The Reformed (in French) · Musée protestant — The Lutheran and Reformed union in France (in French) · UNEPREF — Memento: church vision and synodal government (in French).

Within this family · a distinctive path

The Evangelical Reformed — the UNEPREF

The UNEPREF draws on the Huguenot heritage, the memory of the churches “of the Desert” and the piety of the Réveil (the 19th-century revival). At the Reformed reunification of 1938, some churches stayed out of the new union because they wished to keep an explicit confessional framework. The union now known as the UNEPREF continues that line.

It combines Reformed theology and evangelical convictions: the authority of the Bible, salvation in Jesus Christ and personal witness. Its organisation links local councils and synods. It is a union distinct from the EPUdF, within a wider Reformed family.

The churches of the Desert and Antoine Court · The 1938 reunification in the timeline

Online guide · church families and key points · 2026 edition24 / 49

Sources and key references

Bibliography of the journey

  • Sébastien Fath, Une autre manière d’être chrétien en France. Socio-histoire de l’implantation baptiste (1810-1950) [Another way of being Christian in France: a social history of the establishment of Baptist churches in France, 1810–1950], Labor et Fides.
  • Sébastien Fath and Jean-Paul Willaime (eds.), La nouvelle France protestante. Essor et recomposition au XXIe siècle [The new Protestant France: growth and reconfiguration in the 21st century], Labor et Fides.
  • André Encrevé (ed.), Les protestants [The Protestants] (Dictionnaire du monde religieux dans la France contemporaine), Beauchesne.
  • Patrick Cabanel, Histoire des protestants en France, XVIe-XXIe siècle [A history of Protestants in France, 16th–21st century], Fayard.
  • Jean Baubérot, Histoire du protestantisme [A history of Protestantism], PUF, “Que sais-je ?”.
  • Musée virtuel du protestantisme (Virtual Museum of Protestantism) — thematic and biographical entries (in French).

See all the sources of the journey