Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren
The Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB) (Czech: Českobratrská církev evangelická; ČCE) is the largest Czech Protestant church and the second-largest church in the Czech Republic after the Catholic Church. It was formed in 1918 in Czechoslovakia through the unification of the Protestant churches of the Lutheran and Calvinist confessions.
| Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | United Lutheran Reformed Bohemian |
| Polity | Presbyterian |
| Associations | World Council of Churches Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe Conference of European Churches Lutheran World Federation World Communion of Reformed Churches. |
| Region | Czech Republic |
| Origin | 17 December 1918 |
| Official website | www |
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In 2019, the church reported 69,715 baptized members[1] in more than 260 local congregations, which are broken down into 14 seniorates (presbyteries) throughout the Czech Republic. Its membership peaked in 1950 with 402,000 members.[2] Since the end of Communist rule, the Czech Republic's censuses have recorded 203,996 members in 1991,[2] 117,212 in 2001,[3] and 51,936 in 2011.[4]
In May 2023, the Church synod voted to allow blessing of same-sex couples.[5]
Origins
editReformation in the Czech lands started already in the 15th century, one century before the great Luther's Reformation. At that time, most Czechs (~85%) were Protestant; there were two Protestant churches: the Utraquist Hussite Church (1431–1620) and the Unity of the Brethren (1457–1620). (The latter was in the 1720s partially renewed outside of Czech territory as the Moravian Church.) However, non-Catholic churches were forbidden in 1620 when the Bohemian Revolt was decisively defeated and victorious Habsburg rulers imposed harsh Counter-Reformation measures on the Bohemian Crown. This ban was mitigated in 1781 by issuing the Patent of Toleration that permitted Lutheran and Calvinist churches in the Habsburg monarchy but Protestants obtained full equality with the Catholic church legally only as late as in 1867, when Austria-Hungary was created. Nevertheless, other minor churches were still forbidden until the founding of Czechoslovakia in 1918.[6]
The ECCB was established in 1918 by the unification of all Lutheran and Calvinist churches in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. It was intended to be a successor of the Unity of the Brethren (and the Bohemian Reformation in general).
The ECCB is a member of the World Council of Churches, the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe, the Conference of European Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, and the World Communion of Reformed Churches.[7]
References
edit- ^ LWF Statistics - Czech-republic Archived 2020-07-23 at the Wayback Machine The Lutheran World Federation
- ^ a b "Tisíc let obyvatelstva v českých zemích". Snem.cirkev.cz. 2009-06-12. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
- ^ "Katalog produktů | ČSÚ". Czso.cz. 2014-10-24. Archived from the original on 2016-03-10. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
- ^ "Úvodní stránka | SLDB 2011" (PDF). Czso.cz. 2014-11-14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-11-04. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
- ^ Postoj. "Českobratrská církev evangelická bude požehnávať páry rovnakého pohlavia". svetkrestanstva.postoj.sk (in Slovak). Archived from the original on 2023-06-02. Retrieved 2023-06-02.
- ^ Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren. "Od vzniku církve" (in Czech). e-cirkev.cz. Archived from the original on 14 February 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
- ^ Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren. "Ecumenical relations". e-cirkev.cz. Archived from the original on 14 February 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
Further reading
edit- Abrams, Bradley F. (2004). "Socialism and Protestant Intellectuals: The "Kingdom of God on Earth"?". The Struggle for the Soul of the Nation: Czech Culture and the Rise of Communism. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-3023-2.
- Cameron, Helen (1989). "Seventy Years of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (1918-88)" (PDF). Religion in Communist Lands. 17 (3): 230–246. doi:10.1080/09637498908431429.
- Matějka, Ondřej (2022). ""The 'Proton Pseudos' of Our Life After May 1945": Czech Protestants and the Expulsion of Sudeten Germans". Collective Identities and Post-War Violence in Europe, 1944–48: Reshaping the Nation. Springer International Publishing. pp. 165–194. ISBN 978-3-030-78386-0.
- Nešpor, Zdeněk R.; Vojtíšek, Zdeněk (2016). Encyklopedie menších křesťanských církví v České republice [Encyclopedia of smaller Christian churches in the Czech Republic] (in Czech). Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press. ISBN 978-80-246-3315-2.
- Závorková, Petra (2008). "Dvě církve, dva sbory a život v nich: českobratrská církev evangelická a církev bratrská v sociologické komparaci" [Two churches, two congregations and life in them: the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren and the Fraternal Church in a sociological comparison]. Sacra (in Czech). 6 (1): 41–57. ISSN 1214-5351.
External links
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