Baptist Evangelical Christian Union of Italy

The history of the Baptists in Italy dates back to the sixties of the 19th century. Its official name is Unione Cristiana Evangelica Battista today d' Italia ( German: Federation of Evangelical Christian- Baptists of Italy ).

History

First, there were British missionaries who laid the foundations for the Baptist movement in Italy in 1863. Only a few years later, American missionaries came to Italy. In some major cities and surrounding villages emerged in the period following the first Baptist churches in Italy. 1905 began with the establishment of a theological school for full-time and volunteer staff. However, this was closed in 1932 by the fascist rulers.

1921, drew the British Baptist Missionary Society back from the Italy mission and put the responsibility for the communities founded by her in the hands of the external mission of the American Southern Baptist Convention. This prompted the founding in 1939 of the Opera Battista, a forerunner of twenty years later launched the Federal evangelical Christian Baptist Churches of Italy. From the beginning, sought the Italian Baptist Union in contact with related denominational churches and communities, which resulted in 1990 between Baptists, Waldensians and Methodists an important agreement was reached. Today there is full communion between those denominations. Also, a common weekly magazine that published riforma. Recently, also performed convergence talks between Italian Baptists and Pentecostals.

Organization, ecumenism, Statistics

The combined Unione Cristiana Evangelica Battista in the d'Italia autonomous local congregations belong to the European Baptist Federation and the Baptist World Alliance. Other memberships are made at the World Council of Churches / WCC ( World Council of Churches ) and the Conference of Evangelical Churches ( CEC). The Italian Baptists are also the founders of the Italian Federation of Protestant Churches.

In 2009, there were 116 Baptist congregations in Italy with about 7,200 baptized members who were cared for by 43 full-time clergy.