The NCAY version of the Christian Flag (2017)
The concept for a worldwide Christian Flag with which all Christians could identify was first conceived on 26 September 1897, at Brighton Chapel on Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. The superintendent of a Sunday school, Charles C. Overton, gave an impromptu lecture to the gathered students, because the scheduled speaker had failed to arrive for the event. He gave a speech asking the students what a flag representing Christianity would look like. In 1907, he and Ralph Diffendorfer, secretary of the Methodist Young People's Missionary Movement, designed and began promoting the flag (below):
The Overton & Diffendorfer Flag (1907)
The ground is white, representing peace, purity and innocence. In the upper corner is a blue square, the colour of the unclouded sky, emblematic of heaven, the home of the Christian; also a symbol of faith and trust. In the center of the blue is the cross, the ensign and chosen symbol of Christianity: the cross is red, typical of Christ's blood.
This flag is mostly accepted by mainline Protestant (Evangelical) denominations with whom Messianic Evangelicals have many things in common and for this reason has created its own version (see top) to reflext those areas of commonality. It is frequently seen in American churches alongside the US flag next to pulpits.
Outside of Protestantism only the Eastern Orthodox Church is known to have adopted this flag, adding, like NCAY, its own logo but also changing the Latin cross into a Greek one (below):
Orthodox version by Sdcheung (CC BY-SA 3.0)
NCAY also has a secondary ecumenical banner for use in Germany:
NCAY Evangelical Banner for Germany (2017)
This is modelled on the Scandinavian-type purple-and-white cruciform flag of the Evangelical Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland - EKD), a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and United (Prussian Union) Protestant regional churches and denominations in Germany, collectively encompassing the vast majority of Protestants in that country, second only in size to its Anglican equivalent.
The Evangelical Union in Germany
See the parallel NCAY Messianic Ecumenical Banner
This page was created on 9 March 2017
Updated on 9 March 2017
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