Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brethren

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The Evangelical Salvator Church in Prague's Old Town - the main church of the ECCB
St. Martin in der Mauer - Church of the German-speaking congregation in Prague of the EKBB. It was here in 1414 that the communion chalice was given to lay people for the first time, an important site of the Reformation.

The Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brethren (EKBB , Czech Českobratrská církev evangelická, ČCE) is a Uniate Church in the Czech Republic .

history

The EKBB was formed in December 1918 just a few weeks after the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic and independence from Vienna through the unification of the Reformed and Lutheran Czech communities in Bohemia and Moravia . The Lutheran Silesian Evangelical Church AB in the Czech part of Austrian Silesia , however, remained independent. By naming the church, it followed the tradition of the Hussites and the Bohemian Brethren , which had remained illegal in the Habsburg Empire even after the tolerance patent of 1781 . Many of the congregations that were merged to form the EKBB in 1918 had their historical roots in the Church of the Bohemian Brothers , but after 1781 could initially only be legalized as Reformed or Lutheran congregations.

The first parish of the new church was formed in Svébohov near Šumperk. 126,000 Reformed and 34,000 Lutherans joined together to form the EKBB, and there was also a wave of 100,000 Catholics converting because the state church of the Habsburg monarchy was no longer available. In the first decade the ECCB grew to 250,000 believers in 120 congregations. A variety of new job opportunities opened up. 100 churches were new or rebuilt. The number of believers grew to 325,000 by 1938.

During the time of the German occupation in 1938 / 39-1945, the EKBB was exposed to severe persecution just like the population. The Evangelical Theological Faculty founded in 1919 was also closed. The theology of the EKBB was strongly influenced by Josef Hromádka (1889–1969) during this period .

After the February revolution in 1948, the communist party took control of all areas of life. The clergy of all churches were paid by the state, which allowed for even greater surveillance. In the 1950s, women's ordination was introduced. The first four women were ordained pastors on December 13, 1953. The Prague spring in 1968 raised new hopes. But the normalization process was followed by an even tougher course of totalitarian power politics. Nineteen pastors and vicars of the ECCB were among the first to sign the petition against human rights violations Charter 77 .

Today (2019) it comprises around 69,715 church members in around 260 parishes.

Organization and Confessions

The local parishes are administered by church elders, who are represented by a pastor. Several congregations form a seniorate with a senior at the head. The highest decision-making body is the approximately 80-member Synod. The church is led by the Synodal Council, which consists of three spiritual and three lay people. The highest representative is the synodal senior.

The ECCB is synodal-presbyterial and refers to the early church confessions as well as the Four Prague Articles (1421), the Confessio Augustana (1530), the Brethren Confession (1535/1662), the Second Helvetic Confession and the Confessio Bohemica (1575) . The training of theological offspring takes place at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague .

Ecumenism

The ECCB belongs to the World Council of Churches (WCC), the World Fellowship of Reformed Churches (WRK), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Community of Evangelical Churches in Europe (CPCE).

literature

  • Ferdinand Hrejsa: The Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brothers. Prague 1928.
  • Sigrid Tröger, Karl-Wolfgang Tröger (Ed.): Church Lexicon. Christian churches, free churches and communities at a glance. Union, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-372-00302-0 , pp. 71-73.
  • Jiří Otter : The first united church in the heart of Europe. The Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brethren. Church publishing house ENA, Prague 1991.
  • Jiří Otter: Five tours through Prague on the trail of the Bohemian Reformation. Kalich, Prague 2002, ISBN 80-7017-565-6 .

Web links

Commons : Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brethren  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jiří Otter: The first united church in the heart of Europe. The Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brethren. Kirchenverlag ENA, Praha 1991, p. 52
  2. ^ Jiří Otter: The first united church in the heart of Europe. The Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brethren. Kirchenverlag ENA, Praha 1991, p. 71
  3. ^ Jiří Otter: The first united church in the heart of Europe. The Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brethren. Kirchenverlag ENA, Praha 1991, p. 73.
  4. ↑ 60 years of ordination of women in the Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brothers
  5. ^ Jiří Otter: The first united church in the heart of Europe. The Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brethren. Kirchenverlag ENA, Praha 1991, p. 85.
  6. ^ LWF Statistics - Czech-republic The Lutheran World Federation
  7. ↑ Evangelical Church of the Bohemian Brethren. Structure. Online at: www.e-cirkev.cz/