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Evangelical Church in Germany

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Evangelical Church in Germany
Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland
ClassificationProtestant
OrientationUnited (Prussian Union)
Lutheran
Reformed
PolityEpiscopal
Presbyterian
Congregationalist
Chair of the CouncilKirsten Fehrs[1]
AssociationsWorld Council of Churches
Conference of European Churches
Community of Protestant Churches in Europe
RegionGermany
Origin1948; 76 years ago (1948)[2]
Members2023 EKD data:
18.6 million
[3]
Official websitewww.ekd.de

The Evangelical Church in Germany (German: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD), also known as the Protestant Church in Germany, is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed, and United Protestant regional Churches in Germany, collectively encompassing the vast majority of the country's Protestants.[4] In 2022, the EKD had a membership of 19,153,000 members, or 22.7% of the German population.[5] It constitutes one of the largest Protestant bodies in the world. Church offices managing the federation are located in Herrenhausen, Hanover, Lower Saxony. Many of its members consider themselves Lutherans.

Historically, the first formal attempt to unify German Protestantism occurred during the Weimar Republic era in the form of the German Protestant Church Confederation, which existed from 1922 until 1933. Earlier, there had been successful royal efforts at unity in various German states, beginning with Prussia and several minor German states (e.g. Duchy of Nassau) in 1817. These unions resulted in the first united and uniting churches, a new development within Protestantism which later spread to other parts of the world. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, his administration tried to reorganize the old confederation into a unified German Evangelical Church as Hitler wanted to use a single Protestant church to further his own ambitions. However, a division emerged between the Reichskirche, led by the pro-government German Christians, and the Confessing Church, which opposed state control of the church. Other Protestant churches aligned themselves with one of these groups, or stayed neutral in this church strife. The postwar church council issued the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt on 19 October 1945, confessing guilt and declaring remorse for indifference and inaction of German Protestants in the face of atrocities committed by Hitler's regime. In 1948, the Protestant Church in Germany was organized in the aftermath of World War II to function as a new umbrella organization for German Protestant churches. As a result of tensions between West and East Germany, the regional churches in East Germany broke away from the EKD in 1969. In 1991, following German reunification, the East German churches re-joined the EKD.

The member churches (Gliedkirchen), while being independent and having their own theological and formal organisation, share full altar and pulpit fellowship, and are united in the EKD synod, but they act as individual members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE). Boundaries of EKD churches within Germany partially resemble those of the states of the Holy Roman Empire and successor forms of German statehood (to the most part 1815 borders), due to the historically close relationship between individual German states and churches. As for church governance, the Lutheran churches typically practise an episcopal polity, while the Reformed and the United ones a mixture of presbyterian and congregationalist polities. Most member churches are led by a (state) bishop. Only one member church, the Evangelical Reformed Church in Germany, is not restricted to a certain territory. In some ways, the other member churches resemble dioceses of the Catholic and Anglican churches, from an organisational point of view.

Name

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Etymologically, the German word evangelisch means "of the Gospel", denoting a Reformation emphasis on sola scriptura, "by scripture alone". Martin Luther encouraged the use of this term alongside Christian.

The German term evangelisch corresponds to the broad English category of Protestant[6] rather than to the narrower evangelical movement (in German called evangelikal), a subset of Protestantism distinct from the mainline. English speaking churches such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada likewise retain this use of the term.

History

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Front page of the Peace of Augsburg, which laid the legal groundwork for two co-existing religious confessions (Catholicism and Lutheranism) in the German-speaking states of the Holy Roman Empire.

From the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 to the end of the First World War and the collapse of the German Empire, some Protestant churches were state churches. Each Landeskirche[2] (state or regional church) was the official church of one of the states of Germany, while the respective ruler was the church's formal head (e.g. the King of Prussia headed the Evangelical Church of Prussia's older Provinces as supreme governor), similar to the British monarch's role as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

This changed somewhat with growing religious freedom in the 19th century, especially in the republican states of Bremen, Frankfurt (1857), Lübeck, and Hamburg (1860). The greatest change came after the German Revolution, with the formation of the Weimar Republic and the abdication of the princes of the German states. The system of state churches disappeared with the Weimar Constitution (1919), which brought about disestablishment by the separation of church and state, and there was a desire for the Protestant churches to merge. In fact, a merger was permanently under discussion but never materialised due to strong regional self-confidence and traditions as well as the denominational fragmentation into Lutheran, Reformed, and United and uniting churches.

During the Revolution, when the old church governments lost power, the People's Church Union (Volkskirchenbund) was formed and advocated unification without respect to theological tradition and also increasing input from laymen. However, the People's Church Union quickly split along territorial lines after the churches' relationship with the new governments improved.[7]

It was realised that one mainstream Protestant church for all of Germany was impossible and that any union would need a federal model. The churches met in Dresden in 1919 and created a plan for federation, and this plan was adopted in 1921 at Stuttgart. Then in 1922 the then 28 territorially defined Protestant churches founded the German Evangelical Church Confederation (Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchenbund, DEK). At the time, the federation was the largest Protestant church federation in Europe with around 40 million members.[7] Because it was a federation of independent bodies, the Church Union's work was limited to foreign missions and relations with Protestant churches outside Germany, especially German Protestants in other countries.

In July 1933, the German Evangelical Church (Deutsche Evangelische Kirche, DEK) was formed under the influence of the German Christians, a pro-Nazi religious movement. They had much influence over the decisions of the first National Synod, via their unambiguous partisanship in successfully backing Ludwig Müller for the office of Reich bishop. He did not manage, however, to prevail over the Landeskirchen in the long term. The Confessing Church arose in resistance to the Nazi regime's ideology. After the installation of Hanns Kerrl as minister for church matters in a Führer-directive of 16 July 1935 and the foundation of the – in the end not materialising – Protestant Reich Church, the DEK played more or less no further role.

Synodal elections 1933: German Christians and Confessing Church campaigners in Berlin.

In 1948, freed from the German Christians' influence, the Lutheran, Reformed (including the German Reformed Church / Reformierte Kirche) and United churches came together as the Protestant Church in Germany at the Conference of Eisenach. In 1969, the regional Protestant churches in East Germany and East Berlin[8] broke away from the EKD and formed the League of Evangelical Churches in the German Democratic Republic (German: Bund der Evangelischen Kirchen in der DDR, BEK), in 1970 also joined by the Moravian Herrnhut District. In June 1991, following German reunification, the BEK merged with the EKD.

While the members are no longer state churches, they enjoy constitutional protection as statutory corporations, and they are still called Landeskirchen, and some have this term in their official names. A modern English translation, however, would be regional church. Apart from some minor changes, the territories of the member churches today reflect Germany's political organisation in the year 1848, with regional churches for states or provinces that often no longer exist or whose borders changed since. For example, between 1945 and 1948, the remaining six ecclesiastical provinces (Kirchenprovinzen), each territorially comprising one of the Old Prussia provinces, within the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union assumed independence as a consequence of the estrangement among them during the Nazi struggle of the churches. This turned the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union into a mere umbrella, being itself a member of EKD (and the BEK, 1969–1991) but covering some regional church bodies, which were again themselves members of EKD (and the BEK, 1969–1991).

Since 1973, when many Protestant churches in Europe, including the EKD members, concluded the Leuenberg Agreement, also the then 21 EKD members[9] introduced full communion for their parishioners and ministry among each other.

Since also the regional Protestant churches in East Germany had signed the Leuenberg Agreement, thus the then ten members of the Federation of Protestant Churches in the German Democratic Republic practised full communion with the EKD members too. Ordination of women is practised in all 20 member churches with many women having been ordained in recent years. There are also several women serving as bishops. Margot Käßmann, former bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover and Chairperson of the Council of the EKD from 2009 until February 2010, was the first woman to head the EKD.[10] Blessings of same-sex marriages is practised and allowed in 14 of 20 and Blessing of same-sex unions are allowed in all other member churches.[11] [12] The EKD opposes abortion in most situations but believes it should remain legal.[13]

The EKD has undergone a split in the 20th century and lost a bulk of its adherents in East Germany due to state atheist policies of the former East German government. After 1990, membership was counted and amounted to around the same number as the Roman Catholic Church. In the 21st century, membership in both the Evangelical Church and the Roman Catholic Church stagnates as more people are becoming religious nones.

A 2019 study estimated that there were 114,000 unreported victims of sexual abuse in the EKD and the Catholic Church in Germany combined. The 95% confidence interval comprises 28,000 to 280,000 victims.[14][15] According to a study published in 2024, pedophilic members of the EKD have sexually abused at least 9,355 minors since 1946. Putting this figure into context, the coordinator of the study clarified that this number of cases was only the tip of the iceberg.[16] The average age of the victims is 11 years.[17]

Membership

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Confessions of EKD parishioners

  United (administratively or confessionally, both Lutheran and Reformed; Prussian Union) (57%)
  Lutheran (40%)
  Reformed (3%)
Member churches by confession

Protestantism is the major religion in Northern, Eastern and Middle Germany, with the Reformed branch predominating in the extreme northwest and Lippe, the Lutheran branch in the north and south, and the United branch in Middle and Western Germany. While the majority of Christians in Southern Germany are Catholic, some areas in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria are predominantly Protestant, e.g. Middle Franconia and the government region of Stuttgart. The vast majority of German Protestants belong to a member church of the EKD. With 20,236,000 members in 2020, around 24.3 percent of all Germans belong to a member church of the EKD.[18] Average church attendance is lower, however, with only around a million people (1.2 % of all Germans) attending a service on Sunday.[19]

The regional Protestant church bodies accept each other as equals, despite denominational differences. No member church runs congregations or churches in the area of another member church, thus preventing competing with each other for parishioners. The only exception is the Evangelical Reformed Church, which combines Reformed congregations within the ambits of usually Lutheran member churches, which themselves do not include the eventual local Reformed congregations. Thus, for example, a Lutheran moving from a place where their parish belongs to a Lutheran member church, would be accepted in their new place of domicile by the locally competent congregation within another member church, even if this church and its local parish are Reformed or of united Protestant confession, with Lutheran being exchangeable with the two other respective Protestant confessions within the EKD. This is due to full altar and pulpit fellowship between all EKD member churches.

In this the ambits of the member churches resemble dioceses of the Anglican or Roman Catholic churches, however, else there is no common hierarchy supervising the member churches, who are legally independent equals with the EKD being their umbrella. Members of congregations within the member churches – like those of parishes within Catholic dioceses and those enrolled in Jewish congregations also enjoying statutory corporation status – are required to pay a church tax, a surcharge on their normal income tax collected by the states of Germany and passed on to the respective religious body.

2011 census results by state

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State [20] Church membership (2011) Percentage of the population
 Schleswig-Holstein 1,550,200 55.7%
 Lower Saxony 3,976,430 51.5%
 Bremen 279,180 43.2%
 Hesse 2,426,990 40.8%
 Baden-Württemberg 3,552,450 34.1%
 Hamburg 573,960 33.9%
 Rhineland-Palatinate 1,260,720 31.8%
 Germany 24,552,110 30.8%
 North Rhine-Westphalia 4,974,240 28.5%
 Thuringia 529,010 24.3%
 Berlin 706,650 21.6%
 Saxony 856,340 21.4%
 Bavaria 2,592,550 21.1%
 Saarland 199,240 20.1%
 Brandenburg 448,970 18.4%
 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 280,500 17.7%
 Saxony-Anhalt 344,680 15.2%
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  • EKD Protestants according to the 2011 census.
    EKD Protestants according to the 2011 census.
  • Red denotes states in which EKD Protestants outnumber Catholics.
    Red denotes states in which EKD Protestants outnumber Catholics.
  • Flag of the Protestant Church in Germany.
    Flag of the Protestant Church in Germany.
  • Another version, as used by German Protestants.
    Another version, as used by German Protestants.
  • EKD church office in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany.
    EKD church office in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany.
  • EKD's internal organization.
    EKD's internal organization.

Structure

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The structure of the EKD is based on federal principles. Each regional church is responsible for Christian life in its own area while each regional church has its own special characteristics and retains its independence. The EKD carries out joint tasks with which its members have entrusted it. For the execution of these tasks, the Church has the following governing bodies, all organised and elected on democratic lines:

Synod

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The Synod is the legislature of the EKD. It has 126 members: 106 elected by Landeskirchen synods and 20 appointed by the council.[21] These 20 are appointed for their importance in the life of the Church and its agencies. Members serve six year terms and the synod meets annually.

Praesides of the Synod

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Irmgard Schwaetzer, praeses of the synod till 2021

Council of the EKD

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The EKD Council is the representative and governing body of the Protestant Church in Germany. The Council of the EKD has 15 members jointly elected by the Synod and Church Conference who serve terms of six years.[22]

Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, former chairman of the Council of the EKD.

Chairperson of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany

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The chairperson of the Council is the church's highest representative.[23]

Church Conference (permanent body)

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The Church Conference is where member churches, through the representatives of their governing boards, can directly participate in the work of the EKD.[25]

Church Office of the EKD

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The Church Office is the administration of the EKD and shall the business of the Synod, Council and Conference of the EKD.[26]

Main divisions:

President

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The EKD Church Office has approximately 200 employees.

International activities

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The EKD holds various charities ("Hilfswerke") under its auspices. The Gustav-Adolf-Werk (GAW) (Gustaphus Adolphus Union formerly) was founded 1832 in Leipzig as the first and eldest such organization and is responsible to aid feeble sister churches, especially in Roman Catholic countries and the Protestant diaspora. It has separate branches internationally, the organization in Austria is still called the Gustav-Adolf-Verein.[27] Brot für die Welt is responsible for international development aid.

Member churches (since 2012)

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Member churches of the Protestant Church in Germany (after the fusion of the Evangelical churches of Mecklenburg, North Elbia and Pomerania in 2012).

The umbrella of the Protestant Church in Germany comprises 20 regional churches:

These bodies are termed Landeskirchen ("Regional Churches")[28] though in most cases, their territories do not correspond to the current federal states, but rather to former duchies, electorates and provinces or mergers thereof.

  1. Protestant Church of Anhalt (Evangelische Landeskirche Anhalts), a united church body in Anhalt
  2. Protestant Church in Baden (Evangelische Landeskirche in Baden), a united church body in Baden
  3. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern), a Lutheran church body in Bavaria
  4. Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (Evangelische Kirche in Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz), a united church body in Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia merged in 2004 from:
  5. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick (Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche in Braunschweig), a Lutheran church body in Brunswick
  6. Evangelical Church of Bremen (Bremische Evangelische Kirche), a united church body in Bremen
  7. Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover (Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche Hannovers), a Lutheran church body in the former Province of Hanover
  8. Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau (Evangelische Kirche in Hessen und Nassau), a united church body in the former People's State of Hesse and Nassau
  9. Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck (Evangelische Kirche von Kurhessen-Waldeck), a united church body in former Hesse-Cassel and Waldeck
  10. Church of Lippe (Lippische Landeskirche), a Reformed church body of Lippe
  11. Evangelical Church in Central Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Mitteldeutschland), a united church body that was created in 2009 from the merger of:
  12. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Norddeutschland), a Lutheran church body that was created in 2012 from the merger of:
  13. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg (Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Oldenburg), a Lutheran church body in Oldenburg
  14. Evangelical Church of the Palatinate (Evangelische Kirche der Pfalz) or Protestantische Landeskirche, a united church body in Palatinate
  15. Evangelical Church in the Rhineland (Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland), a united church body in the Rhineland, formed out of the Prussian Union of Churches in 1948
  16. Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony (Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche Sachsens), a Lutheran church body in Saxony
  17. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schaumburg-Lippe (Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche Schaumburg-Lippe), a Lutheran church body in Schaumburg-Lippe
  18. Evangelical Church of Westphalia (Evangelische Kirche von Westfalen), a united church body in Westphalia, formed out of the Prussian Union of Churches in 1945
  19. Lutheran Church in Württemberg (Evangelische Landeskirche in Württemberg), a Lutheran church body in Württemberg
  20. Evangelical Reformed Church (Regional Church) Evangelisch-reformierte Kirche (Landeskirche), a Reformed church body, covering the territories of No. 3, 5, 7, 12, 16, 17, and 19

The Moravian Church ("Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine") and the Federation of Evangelical Reformed Congregations are associate members.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Kirsten Fehrs, amtierende Ratsvorsitzende der EKD [Kirsten Fehrs, present chair of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany]" (in German). Hanover: Protestant Church in Germany. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  2. ^ a b EKD-Internearbeit (5 May 2015). "Short History". Archived from the original on 9 July 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  3. ^ "Mitgliederverlust der Evangelischen Kirche erreicht neuen Rekordwert". welt.de. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
  4. ^ "Protestant Church in Germany". Hanover. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  5. ^ "Christinnen und Christen in Deutschland". www.ekd.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-01-27.
  6. ^ Peter Terrell, Harper Collins German Unabridged Dictionary, 4th ed., (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1999), 273 sub loco.
  7. ^ a b D. Karl Bornhausen, "The Present Status of the Protestant Churches in Germany," The Journal of Religion, Vol. 3, No. 5 (Sep. 1923), 501–524.
  8. ^ The Eastern churches were the Evangelical Church of Anhalt, Evangelical Church in Berlin, Brandenburg and Silesian Upper Lusatia#Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg (EKiBB, East Ambit, for East Berlin and Brandenburg), Evangelical Church of the Görlitz Ecclesiastical Region, Evangelical Church in Greifswald, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg, Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony, Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony (KPS), Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia and Evangelical Church of the Union (East Region, for EKiBB-East Ambit, Görlitz, Greifswald and KPS, and since 1970 for Anhalt too).
  9. ^ The Western churches were the Evangelical Church of Baden, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Evangelical Church in Berlin, Brandenburg and Silesian Upper Lusatia#Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg (EKiBB, West Ambit, for West Berlin), Bremian Evangelical Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eutin, Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Hamburg State, Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover, Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau, Evangelical Church of Hesse Electorate-Waldeck, Church of Lippe, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lübeck, Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwestern Germany, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg, Evangelical Church of the Palatinate, Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schaumburg-Lippe, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Schleswig-Holstein, Evangelical Church of the Union (West Region, for EKiBB-West Ambit, Rhineland, and Westphalia), Evangelical Church of Westphalia, and Lutheran Church in Württemberg.
  10. ^ Deutsche Welle, 2009-10-28. German Protestant Church elects first woman as its leader. Retrieved 2009-10-29.
  11. ^ Ökumenische Arbeitsgruppe Homosexuelle und Kirche (HuK) e. V.: Möglichkeiten der kirchlichen Segnung gleichgeschlechtlicher Paare Archived 2017-06-17 at the Wayback Machine, 25 April 2016.
  12. ^ Johannes Süßmann, Anne Kampf: Segnung Homosexueller: Bunt wie ein Regenbogen. Evangelisch.de, 14 January 2016.
  13. ^ "Gott ist ein Freund des Lebens".
  14. ^ "Ulmer Studie: 114.000 Menschen wurden Opfer sexueller Gewalt durch katholische Priester". www.schwaebische.de (in German). 2019-03-13. Retrieved 2024-01-27.
  15. ^ Fegert, Jörg M. (2019-03-19). Sexueller Missbrauch – Einblicke in ein erschütterndes Thema (PDF). Universitätsklinikum Ulm. p. 143.
  16. ^ "9355 Missbrauchsopfer seit 1946".
  17. ^ Redaktion (2024-01-26). "Missbrauch bei der evangelischen Kirche: Opfer im Schnitt elf Jahre alt". News4teachers (in German). Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  18. ^ "Gezählt 2021 – Zahlen und Fakten zum kirchlichen Leben" (PDF). ekd.de. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  19. ^ EKD: Services of Worship and Holy Communion 2006 Archived 2011-06-17 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 16 March 2010.
  20. ^ "Zensusdatenbank – Ergebnisse des Zensus 2011". Archived from the original on 5 June 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
  21. ^ § 24 of the Basic Order (Grundordnung) of the Evangelical Church (http://www.kirchenrecht-ekd.de/showdocument/id/3435#s1.100042)
  22. ^ § 29, §30 of the Basic Order (Grundordnung) of the Evangelical Church (http://www.kirchenrecht-ekd.de/showdocument/id/3435#s1.100049)
  23. ^ "Rat der EKD [Council of the Protestant Church in Germany]". EKD Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (in German). Hanover: Protestant Church in Germany. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  24. ^ Splitt, Carsten. "Annette Kurschus als EKD-Ratsvorsitzende zurückgetreten [Annette Kurschus has stepped down as Chair of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany]". EKD Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (in German). Hanover: Press Office of the Protestant Church in Germany. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
  25. ^ § 28 of the Basic Order (Grundordnung) of the Evangelical Church (http://www.kirchenrecht-ekd.de/showdocument/id/3435#s1.100049)
  26. ^ § 31 of the Basic Order (Grundordnung) of the Evangelical Church (http://www.kirchenrecht-ekd.de/showdocument/id/3435#s1.100049)
  27. ^ "Startseite – Gustav-Adolf-Werk e.V." (in German). Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  28. ^ EKD-Internearbeit (24 March 2015). "Regional Churches". Archived from the original on 2015-07-09. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
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