Église Évangélique Réformée du canton de Vaud

The Église Évangélique Réformée du canton de Vaud (Ger. Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Vaud ) is the Reformed cantonal church in the Swiss canton of Vaud . It was created in 1966 through the merger of the Église libre and the Église nationale . She is a member of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Switzerland .

history

The Reformation was able to gain a foothold in the then Savoyard Waadtland as early as 1526 through the work of Guillaume Farel and Pierre Viret . With the conquest of Vaud by Bern in 1536, the church became closely tied to the state and this close connection was maintained even after the canton of Vaud was founded in 1803.

Alexandre Vinet

In 1847 there was a split in the church. In the referendum on the constitution, pastors had to read out a government proclamation. Not all clergymen obeyed this order, and they were suspended. Thereupon 184 pastors resigned and founded, under the direction of Alexandre Vinet and Charles Monnard, a free church separate from the state, the Église évangélique libre du Canton de Vaud .

It was not until 1863 that the respective parish council (fr. Conseil paroissial ) was elected by the faithful in the Église nationale . The synod as the legislative branch and the synodal council as the executive branch were only occupied democratically from 1863 onwards. In 1966, the two churches, which had been separate since 1847, merged to form today's cantonal church.

organization

Parishes and regions

The parishes of Vaud are territorially organized. The executive branch is the parish council, the legislative branch is the parish assembly. The parishes are grouped into 18 regions, each of which is led by a regional council as the executive and a regional assembly as the legislative. In addition, there are regional assemblies for pastors, catechists and others.

Web links

• official homepage

Individual evidence

1. ↑ History of the Vaudois Church ( Memento from April 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )