Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace and Lorraine

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The Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace and Lorraine ( French : Union des Églises protestantes d'Alsace et de Lorraine , abbreviated UEPAL ) is an amalgamation of the Protestant Church of the Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine ( Église protestante de la Confession d'Augsbourg d'Alsace et de Lorraine , EPCAAL) and the Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine ( Église protestante réformée d'Alsace et de Lorraine , EPRAL), both churches with the status of a public corporation (établissement public du culte) .

The organizational union was formally formed by government decree of April 18, 2006. On May 7, 2006, the foundation was celebrated with a festive service in the St. Thomas Church in Strasbourg . It is the task of the Union to assume responsibility for joint activities and to strengthen relations between the two Protestant churches in Alsace and in the Moselle department in Lorraine . The churches can decide to delegate some or all of their responsibilities to the Union. Both churches together have around 250,000 parishioners who are looked after by 250 clergy. Four fifths belong to the Lutheran EPCAAL, one fifth to the Calvinist EPRAL. There are no official religious statistics in secular France, but according to UEPAL data, around 17% of the population in these three departments profess Protestantism (compared to less than 1% in the rest of France).

The two churches will continue to maintain their own structures and will remain members of their respective international organizations. Both churches are members of the Fédération Protestante de France (FPF), the Protestant League of France .

At the first General Assembly in 2006, the former Dean of the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the University of Strasbourg and President of EPCAAL Jean-François Collange was elected as the first President of UEPAL. The term of office is three years, in 2009 Collange was confirmed in office. The current presidents of the two particular churches are Christian Albecker and Christian Krieger (EPRAL).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ UEPAL's own description
  2. ↑ UEPAL Qui sommes-nous? Presentons-nous. UEPAL, accessed on August 28, 2016 (French).