Our Beginnings
History is important. It is the legacy we create.
OUR HISTORY
UNITED Church also known as United Church of Jesus Christ For All People, had its beginning in 1959. The church was officially founded in August 1962 as a non-denominational charismatic community under the leadership of the Rev. Frederick J. Eierkerenkoetter, better known as Rev. Ike, and 13 founding members at the Mattress Factory located at the corner of Duke Street and Wilmington Street.
OUR FOUNDER
Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, better known as “Reverend Ike” (June 1, 1935 – July 28, 2009) was a Minister and Evangelist based in New York City. He was known for the slogan "You can't lose with the stuff I use!” His preaching is and was considered a form of prosperity and Mind Science theology.
Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II was born in Ridgeland, SC. He began his career as a teenage preacher and became the Assistant Pastor at Bible Way Church in Ridgeland. He later embraced the life of an evangelist and traveled throughout the Lowcountry area of South Carolina preaching, teaching, and conducting healing services.
In 1962, he founded United Church of Jesus Christ for All People aka UNITED Church in Beaufort, SC. His unique and progressive approach to ministry attracted hundreds of young adults and families on a weekly basis to hear and experience the power that emanated from the services, healing prayer treatments, and sermons.
With a growing popularity and ministry support base, Rev. Ike expanded his ministry to include the United Christian Evangelistic Association in Boston, MA as his main corporate entity, and the daughter church, Christ Community United Church, in New York City, NY.
In 1967, Rev. Ike’s ministry purchased and restored the “Palace Cathedral” aka “United Palace”, the fourth largest theatre in Manhattan located at the corner of Broadway and 175th Street. The facility was built in 1927 as one of the five Loew’s “Wonder Theatres” across the boroughs and New Jersey and designed by noted architect Thomas Lamb (Cort Theatre, the former Ziegfeld Theatre) with interiors overseen by decorative specialist Harold Rambusch (Waldorf Astoria, Radio City Music Hall). It was one of the region’s premier vaudeville and movie houses.
For more than fifty (50) years, United Palace served as the home base for Rev. Ike’s congregation, weekly “Healing and Blessing Services” and television ministry. Known as the “Longest running show on Broadway” Rev. Ike’s ministry at United Palace served as a spiritual vortex which attracted tens of thousands weekly to hear the message “You can be what you want to be, do what you want to do, have what you want to have through the Presence and Power of GOD-in-you.”
Reverend Ike’s weekly radio sermons were carried by hundreds of stations across the United States. He would often say, "This is the do-it-yourself church. The only savior in this philosophy is GOD in you.”
FOUNDING MEMBERS
Rev. Frederick Eikerenkoetter, Deacon Joseph Holmes, Sister Lousa Reynolds, Rev. Richard Bostick, Mother Josephine Bostick, Rev. Edward Mack, Mother Shirley Mack, Deacon Monford Smith, Harry Sumpter, Josephine Sumpter, Rosalee Stevenson