On June 25, 1957, at Cleveland, Ohio, representatives of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and of the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches declared themselves "to be one body and our union consummated in this act establishing two communions belonging to historically divergent confessional traditions. One had its roots in the English Reformation, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and a congregation form of church polity. The other was rooted in the Continental Reformation under the combined influence of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin, who recognized the Heidelberg Catechism, Luther's Catechism, and the Augsburg Confession as "doctrinal standards," and was characterized by a presbyterial form of church polity. Both shared the Protestant heritage which accepts the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God and the ultimate rule of Christian faith and practice; and each, taking at full value the promise of the Holy Spirit, vested in its ministers and lay members that liberty of conscience which is inherent in the Gospel.