- Evangelical Church in the Rhineland
Evangelical Church in the Rhineland is a united
Protestant church in parts of the German states ofNorth Rhine-Westphalia ,Rhineland-Palatinate ,Saarland andHesse (Wetzlar ). This is actually the area covered by the formerRhine Province until 1920. It is the most important Protestant denomination in this area. The seat of the church is inDüsseldorf . The church leader is not called "bishop" and there is nocathedral .It is a full member of the
Evangelical Church in Germany EKD , and is aunited Church. The current leader of the church isNikolaus Schneider . The Evangelical Church in the Rhineland is one of 23Lutheran ,united andreformed churches of the EKD. As of January 2006, the church has around 2,936,700 members in 809 parishes.The Evangelical Church in the Rhineland is a member of the
UEK and theCommunity of Protestant Churches in Europe . InBonn the church has its own evangelical academy in Bonn-Bad Godesberg .Some theological statements
The theological teaching goes back on
Martin Luther .The Ordination of women is allowed, theblessing of same-sex unions has been allowed by the synod and depends on the local church administration.Elected Leader
The election of the synod is for four years. The elected leader (=Präses) of the "Landessynode" is also leader of the church.
Leading persons in history
The leading organ of the church is the synod, which meats each year in January since 1975 in
Bad Neuenahr -Ahrweiler (before 1975 in Bad Godesberg).Leading person is the "Präses", which is elected from the synod.
* 1835 - 1846: Franz Friedrich Gräber
* 1847 - 1851: Georg August Ludwig Schmidtborn
* 1853 - 1860: Johann Heinrich Wiesmann
* 1862 - 1864: Johann Karl Friedrich Maaß
* 1865 - 1877: Friedrich Nieden
* 1877 - 1888: Stephan Friedrich Evertsbusch
* 1890 - 1893: Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Kirschstein
* 1893 - 1898: Valentin Umbeck
* 1899 - 1905: Friedrich Wilhelm Schürmann
* 1908 - 1912: Albert Hackenberg
* 1914 - 1917: Georg Hafner
* 1919 - 1932: Friedrich Walter Paul Wolff
* 1932 - 1934: Friedrich Schäfer
* 1934 - 1935: Paul Humburg
* 1935 - 1948: Friedrich Horn
* 1948 - 1957: Heinrich Karl Ewald Held
* 1958 - 1971: Joachim Wilhelm Beckmann
* 1971 - 1981: Karl Immer
* 1981 - 1989: Gerhard Brandt
* 1989 - 1996: Peter Beier
* 1996 - 1997: Hans Ulrich Stephan, Oberkirchenrat und amtierender Präses
* 1997 - 2003: Manfred Kock
* 2003 - today: Nikolaus SchneiderBooks
* Evangelisches Gesang-Buch
* Evangelisches Gesangbuch of Rhineland and Westfalia, Dortmund 1883
* Evangelisches Gesangbuch of Rhineland and Westfalia, Dortmund 1929
* Evangelisches Kirchengesangbuch, Edition of churches in Rhineland, Westfalia and Lippe, Bielefeld, 1969External links
* http://www.ekir.de/ (Evangelical Church in the Rhineland)
* http://www.ekd.de (Evangelical Church in Germany)
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