Lutheran Evangelical Church in Italy

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy ( ELKI short, Italian: Chiesa Evangelica Luterana in Italia, CELI ) is an association of fifteen of Evangelical Lutheran congregations in Italy. She is a member of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe ( CPCE), the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy ( FCEI ). The church has about 7,000 members and 18 pastors. It is based in Rome. Head of the church is Rev. Holger Milkau.

History

The fifteen communities of ELKI are partly much older than the church itself: the oldest community is Venice, which was founded in 1650 at the time of the Reformation of German merchants. The community was founded in Trieste in 1778. It was followed by the creation of municipalities in Rome (1819, Christ Church ( Rome) ), Naples ( 1826), Milan ( 1850), Meran (1861 ), San Remo (1870 ), Bolzano ( 1889), Genoa (1896) and Florence ( 1899). With the exception of Merano occurred in all branches of the Church in establishing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Italy in October 1949. 1952 occurred in three located on the Gulf of Naples communities of ELKI: Torre del Greco, Santa Maria la Bruna and Torre Annunziata, who together formed later under the name of the latter. In 1966, the municipality of Ispra Varese was founded in connection with the establishment of the European School as a second Lutheran congregation in Lombardy. In 1991, a community association for Sicily and the parish office at Catania and in the years 2008 and 2009, it was finally established and candidate communities Verona - Gardone, Meran and Turin.

The municipality of Naples was from 1826 until the last joint General Assembly on January 24, 1866 German and French. The German and French community were institutionally separated at this meeting. A minority of German speakers wanted the community to connect to the Uniate Prussian state church, which did not succeed. 1871 demanded a Swiss member of the German-speaking community that the general church prayer must be defined such that it did not fit only for German Empire.

Church building

Lutheran Church, Florence

Evangelical Church A. B., Trieste

Christ Evangelical Church, Bolzano

Christ Church, Merano