Evangelical Church in Central Germany
The Evangelical Church in Central Germany (EKM ) is one of 20 member churches (local churches) of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD ). She is like all country churches, a public corporation. The country church office is located in Erfurt, the seat of the bishop is Magdeburg. The EKM was formed on 1 January 2009 by the union of the Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia. Both national churches from 1 July 2004 were already the Federation of Protestant Churches in Central Germany.
The new Lutheran Church is a member of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany ( VELKD ) and the Union of Evangelical Churches ( ICE). The EKM has about 840,000 parishioners in 3,251 churches and has 4,031 churches and chapels. Thus, the EKM has the most churches of all regional churches in Germany. Every fifth Protestant church stands on the field of EKM. At the same time Gemeinedemitglieder represent only four percent of German Protestants dar.
- 4.1 Praesides of the synod
- 5.1 parishes
- 5.2 Church circles
- 5.3 provost Sprengel
- 5.4 Regional Church Office 5.4.1 President of the Regional Church Office
Territory of the state church
The area of the EKM is located mainly in the states of Saxony -Anhalt and Thuringia. In addition, include smaller parts of the states of Brandenburg and Saxony to the territory of the state church. Some areas in Saxony -Anhalt belong to the Evangelical Church of Anhalt or the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick ( Calvörde, Blankenburg ). Parts of Thuringia belong to the Evangelical Church of Hesse Electorate - Waldeck. Thus, the field of EKM essentially corresponds to the state of Thuringia, founded in 1920, and the former Prussian province of Saxony.
History
The Evangelical Church in Central Germany was founded on 1 January 2009 after the synods of the Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia had decided the union of their two national churches in 2007 and on 5 July 2008, a common constitution tasks.
For the history prior to the unification of the two churches:
Spiritual Direction of the National Church
At the top of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany is the Regional Bishop. The first joint Lutheran Bishop was elected 21 March 2009 Ilse Junker man of the Synod in the third ballot and introduced 29 August 2009 in Magdeburg Cathedral in the office.
Country's bishops
Synod
As a "parliament " has the national church a church synod. Its members, the 84 members of the synod, to be elected or appointed for five years or you are an ex-officio. The Synod normally meets once a year to a multi-day session. The meeting will be chaired by the Bureau, which includes the Church President and two deputies. The tasks of the Synod heard, inter alia, the choice of the bishop, the regional bishops and the department heads of the Church Office.
Praesides of the synod
Outline of the National Church
The country church is structured as follows:
Parishes
At the base are currently 3,315 parishes as public bodies with elected municipal councils of churches. The members of these bodies are called church elders.
Church circles
Several parishes together form a church circle. The 38 church districts, as a body, the Synod circle with a Presidium of the district synod. The members of the district synod shall be elected by the respective municipal councils of churches. The presiding pastor of a church district bears the official title of superintendent, in the parish of Erfurt he leads traditionally the senior titles.
Propst Sprengel
Several church groups together form a provost Sprengel, which is headed by a Regional Bishop.
Has a special status of the Reformed Church District, based in Halle. It does not consist of a contiguous territory, but from the five reformed individual communities in Aschersleben, castle, Halberstadt, Halle and Magdeburg. The presiding minister of the Reformed Church District bears the official title of senior.
The individual Probst parish church circles consist of the following:
- Propst Sprengel Stendal Magdeburg with regional episcopal see in Stendal leeches
- Elbe -Flaming
- Halberstadt
- Haldensleben - Wolmirstedt
- Magdeburg
- Salzwedel
- Stendal
- Eisleben - Sömmerda
- Halle Saale district
- Merseburg
- Bad Liebenswerda
- Naumburg - Zeitz
- Torgau- Delitzsch
- Wittenberg
- Altenburger Land
- Apolda - Buttstädt
- Eisenberg
- Gera
- Greiz
- Jena
- Schleiz
- Weimar
- Walter Hausen- Ohrdruf
- Bad Frankenhausen -Sondershausen
- Eisenach- Gerstungen
- Erfurt
- Gotha
- Mühlhausen
- Suedharz
- Arnstadt - Ilmenau
- Bad Salzungen - Dermbach
- Henneberger country
- Meiningen
- Sonnenberg
- Hildburghausen Icefield
- Rudolstadt -Saalfeld
Regional Church Office
As chief administrative authority of the national church is the national church office, which since May 2011 at the Collegium Maius in Erfurt is located. However bishop seat of the national church is Magdeburg. At the head of the regional church office is the President, currently Brigitte Andrae. At her side is a Vice President, currently Chief Financial Councillor Stefan Große. The Regional Church Office is divided into five departments, 17 departments and other offices and associated services.
President of the Regional Church Office
- Since 1 January 2009: Brigitte Andrae
Hymnals
The congregations of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany sing from the Evangelical Hymns - output for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria and Thuringia, and output for the Evangelical Church of Anhalt, the Evangelical Church in Berlin- Brandenburg, the Evangelical Church of Silesian Upper Lusatia, the Pomeranian Evangelical Church, the Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony.