Evangelical Church in Germany

The Evangelical Church in Germany (German: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, abbreviated EKD) is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and United (Prussian Union) Protestant regional and denominational churches in Germany, collectively encompassing the vast majority of Protestants in that country. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding, because of its denominational differences.

In 2012, the EKD had a membership of 23,356,096 church-goers, or 29.0% of the German population. It constitutes one of the largest national Protestant bodies in the world, behind the Church of England and Church of Christ in Congo.

Formed in 1948, the Evangelical Church has undergone a split as a result of tensions between West and East Germany in 1969. The EKD did not merge back until 1991.

The member churches (Gliedkirchen), while being independent and having their own theological and formal organisation, share full pulpit and altar fellowship, are united in the EKD synod, and are 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 historical close relationship between individual German states and churches.

Protestantism

Protestantism is a form of Christian faith and practice which originated with the Protestant Reformation, a movement against what its followers considered to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church. It is one of the three major divisions of Christendom, together with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.Anglicanism is sometimes considered to be independent from Protestantism. The term derives from the letter of protestation from Lutheran princes in 1529 against an edict condemning the teachings of Martin Luther as heretical.

With its origins in Germany, the modern movement is popularly considered to have begun in 1517 when Luther published The Ninety-Five Theses as a reaction against abuses in the sale of indulgences, which purported to offer remission of sin to their purchasers. Although there were earlier breaks from or attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church—notably by Peter Waldo, Arnold of Brescia,Girolamo Savonarola, John Wycliffe, and Jan Hus—only Luther succeeded in sparking a wider, lasting movement.