| Evangelical Church of the Palatinate | |
|---|---|
| Evangelische Kirche der Pfalz (Protestantische Landeskirche) | |
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| Type | Landeskirche, member of theEvangelical Church in Germany |
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | United Protestant (Lutheran &Reformed) |
| Director | Kirchenpräsidentin Dorothee Wüst |
| Associations | Union Evangelischer Kirchen |
| Region | 5.928 km² inPalatinate (in today'sRhineland-Palatinate, parts ofSaarland) |
| Headquarters | Speyer,Germany |
| Origin | 1818; 1848 |
| Members | 429.934 (2024) 27,1% of total population[1][2] |
| Official website | https://www.evkirchepfalz.de |
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TheEvangelical Church of the Palatinate (Protestant Regional Church) (Evangelische Kirche der Pfalz (Protestantische Landeskirche)) is aUnitedProtestant church in parts of theGerman states ofRhineland-Palatinate andSaarland, endorsing bothLutheran andCalvinist orientations.[3]
The seat of the church is inSpeyer, where theProtestation at Speyer took place. During this historical event, German Lutheran princes protested theReichsacht againstMartin Luther and called for unhindered spread of the Protestant faith. As theRoman Catholic party urged for religious unity in theHoly Roman Empire, it dismissed all those participants who argued against an Imperial Ban on Luther as "Protestants"; it has since entered various other languages besideGerman language, and became a dominant term to describe churches coming out of theReformation, as well as all these derived from them. It is the only EKD member church to formally use the wordProtestant (protestantisch in German language) in its name, since most EKD member churches call themselvesEvangelical (evangelisch in German language).
It is a full member of theEvangelical Church in Germany (EKD). The current president of the Church ("Kirchenpräsident") is Dorothee Wüst. The Evangelical Church of the Palatinate is one of 20Lutheran,United Protestant andReformed churches of the EKD. As of December 2024, theregional church had 429,934 members in 385 parishes.[1]
The Evangelical Church of the Palatinate is a member of theUEK and of theCommunion of Protestant Churches in Europe. InSpeyer, the church has its own Protestant academy. The principal church is theGedächtniskirche in Speyer. Because the church has nobishop, it is not acathedral.
Since 1816, the Palatine Reformed and Lutheran congregations were subordinate to the Evangelical Church administration of theKingdom of Bavaria, of which the thenGovernorate of the Palatinate formed a part. Following the parishioners' plebiscite in 1817, all Palatine Lutheran and Reformed congregations merged into confessionallyunited Protestant congregations. In 1848, the Palatine Protestant congregations formed a regional church, then calledVereinigte protestantisch-evangelisch-christliche Kirche der Pfalz (Pfälzische Landeskirche) (i.e. United Protestant Evangelical Christian Church of the Palatinate [Palatine State Church]), independent of that regional church in the rest of Bavaria. In 1922, the United Church of the Palatinate counted 506,000 parishioners.[4]
The official Palatine church body became adestroyed church (German:zerstörte Kirche) since it was taken over by Nazi-submissiveGerman Christians, who gained a majority in the synod by the unconstitutional election imposed byAdolf Hitler on 23 July 1933. Nazi opponents then formed theConfessing Church of the Palatinate. In 1976, the Palatine church renamed intoEvangelische Kirche der Pfalz (Protestantische Landeskirche) (i.e. Evangelical Church of the Palatinate [Evangelical State Church]). In 1941 the commander of theCdZ-Gebiet Lothringen subjected the Protestant congregations in that occupation zone of France to the jurisdiction of the United Church of the Palatinate.[5] In 1944 they returned to their previous umbrellas theReformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine and theProtestant Church of Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine.
Ordination of women andblessing of same-sex marriages were allowed.[6][7]
The leading person is the "Kirchenpräsident" (Church President), until 1921 titled Konsistorialdirektor (consistorial director), which is elected from the synod for seven years.
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