- Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria is a
Protestant church in the German state ofBavaria . The seat of the church is inMunich .It is a full member of the
Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), and is a Lutheran Church. The state bishop (Landesbischof) of the church is Johannes Friedrich (2006). There are several regional bishops (Regionalbischöfe).The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria is one of 23 Lutheran, united and
reformed church es of the EKD. The church has 2,651,717 members (December 2005) in 1,531 parishes. It's the most important Protestant denomination inBavaria .The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria is a member church of the
United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany , theCommunity of Protestant Churches in Europe and of theLutheran World Federation . In Tutzing the church has its own evangelical academy.The most prominent churches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria are St. Matthäus Church in
Munich and St. Lorenz Church inNuremberg where new state bishops get introduced. Munich is predominantlyCatholic , whereas Nuremburg is aLutheran stronghold.The
ordination of women has been allowed.History
During the
Protestant Reformation , Bavaria (consisting at that point only of what is today called "Altbayern ") remained predominantly Roman Catholic. In the early 19th century, the largely Protestant Palatinate andFranconia were joined to the Kingdom of Bavaria, and all Protestant churches in the kingdom were united in 1806. At first, this united church consisted of both Lutherans andCalvinist s, but in 1918 the Calvinist congregations seceded and formed their own church, the Evangelical Reformed Church in Bavaria (which merged with the Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany in 1989 to form theEvangelical Reformed Church – Synod of Reformed Churches in Bavaria and Northwestern Germany ).Leading persons and bishops in history
* 1883 - 1897: Adolf von Stählin, president
* 1897 - 1909: Alexander von Schneider, president
* 1909 - 1917: Hermann von Bezzel, president
* 1917 - 1933: Friedrich Veit, president
* 1933 - 1955: Dr. Hans Meiser, bishop
* 1955 - 1975: Dr. Hermann Dietzfelbinger, bishop
* 1975 - 1994: Dr. Johannes Hanselmann, bishop
* 1994 - 1999: Dr.Hermann von Loewenich , bishop
* 1999 - today: Dr.Johannes Friedrich , bishopSynod
The election of the synod is for six years.
External links
* http://www.bayern-evangelisch.de/
* http://www.ekd.de (Evangelical Church in Germany)
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