Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren

The Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB, Czech Českobratrská církev evangelická, ECCB ) is an Eastern Catholic Church in the Czech Republic.

History

The ECCB was formed in December 1918 just weeks after the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic and the independence of Vienna by the union of the Reformed and Lutheran congregations in Czech Bohemia and Moravia. The Silesian Evangelical Church of Lutheran in the Czech part of Austrian Silesia, however, remained independent. By calling her, the church presented in the tradition of the Hussites and the Bohemian Brethren, which had remained illegally in the Habsburg Empire after the Edict of Toleration of 1781. Many of the 1918 combined for ECCB congregations had their historical roots in the Church of the Brethren, could by 1781 but initially legalize only as Reformed or Lutheran congregations.

The first congregation of the new church was formed in Svébohov at Šumperk. For the ECCB to 126,000 and 34,000 Reformed Lutheran joined together, also there was a crossing wave of 100,000 Catholics as the state church of the Habsburg monarchy was omitted. Thus, the ECCB grew in the first decade to 250,000 believers in 120 municipalities. It opened up many new job opportunities. 100 churches were new or rebuilt. The number of believers grew to 325,000 in 1938.

During the period of German occupation 1938/39-1945 the ECCB was the same as the population exposed to severe persecution. The Faculty of Protestant Theology, founded in 1919 has been closed. The theology of the ECCB was coined during this period greatly from Josef Hromádka ( 1889-1969 ).

After the February revolution of 1948, the Communist Party took over all areas of life under their control. The clergy of all the churches were paid by the state, making an even stronger monitoring was possible. The Prague Spring of 1968 aroused new hopes. But it was followed by the normalization process an even harder course of totalitarian power politics. Among the first signatories of the petition against the human rights violations of Charter 77 were 19 pastors and vicars of the ECCB.

Today ( 2010), it comprises about 115,000 church members in some 260 congregations.

Organization and confessions

The ECCB is written synodical- Presbyterian and refers to the ancient church creeds and the Four Articles of Prague ( 1421 ), the Augsburg Confession (1530), the Brüderische Confession ( 1535/1662 ), the Second Helvetic Confession and the Confessio Bohemica ( 1575). The train prospective theologians will take place at the Faculty of Charles University in Prague Protestant Theology.

Ecumenism

The ECCB is owned by the World Council of Churches ( WCC ), the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC ), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE ) to.