Evangelical Church in Germany

Overview

The Evangelical Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD) is the federation of twenty regional Lutheran, Reformed, and United Protestant churches established after the Second World War. The EKD ordains women, has in recent decades authorized the blessing of same-sex unions, and has become doctrinally latitudinarian across its member churches. Its confessional heritage — Augsburg, Heidelberg, Leuenberg — remains formally in place but is not enforced at the federation level. AskCredo places the EKD in the C-tier as a mainline Protestant federation whose public teaching has departed from historic Reformational confessions on marriage, biblical authority, and in progressive territorial churches on Christological substance.

Confession / Standard

Augsburg Confession (nominally); broad umbrella

Governance

episcopal-synodical

Soteriology

mixed

Key Beliefs

• Lutheran and Reformed heritage
• Inclusive theology
• LGBTQ unions affirmed

Distinctives

• Extremely broad theological diversity — liberal and conservative coexist
• LGBTQ blessing of same-sex marriages (2021)
• Rapidly declining membership
• Liberal historical-critical scholarship dominant

Background

Europe · Founded 1948

Official Website

https://ekd.de