The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony () is one of 20 member Churches of the

Protestant Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany (, EKD), also known as the Protestant Church in Germany, is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed, and United Protestant regional Churches in Germany, collectively encompassing the vast majority of the count ...

(EKD), covering most of the state of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

. Its headquarters are in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, and the seat of the bishop (styled Bishop of Saxony) is at

Meissen Cathedral Meissen Cathedral or the Church of St John and St Donatus () is a Gothic church in Meissen in Saxony. It is situated on the castle hill of Meissen, adjacent to the Albrechtsburg castle and forms a critical centrepiece of the iconic Meissen skyli ...

. Prior to the propagation of

state atheism State atheism or atheist state is the incorporation of hard atheism or non-theism into Forms of government, political regimes. It is considered the opposite of theocracy and may also refer to large-scale secularization attempts by governments ...

in the

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

(East Germany), it was the largest Evangelical Lutheran church in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

.Sebastian Müller-Rolli in collaboration with Reiner Anselm: ''Evangelische Schulpolitik in Deutschland 1918–1958: Dokumente und Darstellung'' (Eine Veröffentlichung des Comenius-Instituts Münster). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, , S. 29. The church has 610,503 parishioners in 319 parishes (as of December 31, 2022).

History

Historically, the church's organisation became an example for other

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

churches to be founded throughout

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, the so-called "Saxon model" of a church as introduced by

Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...

. It was closely tied to the state, whereby the

Elector of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony ( or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356 to 1806 initially centred on Wittenberg that came to include areas around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. It was a ...

protected the evangelical faith in his jurisdiction. Since the Reformation, the

Lutheran orthodoxy Lutheran orthodoxy was an era in the history of Lutheranism, which began in 1580 from the writing of the ''Book of Concord'' and ended at the Age of Enlightenment. Lutheran orthodoxy was paralleled by similar eras in Calvinism and tridentine Roma ...

(the "purest form" of

Lutheranism Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

) prevailed among the general population in Saxony and was secured first by its

Ernestine Ernestine is a feminine given name. Ernest is the male counterpart of this name. Notable people with the name include: * Ernestine Anderson (1928–2016), American jazz and blues singer * Ernestine Bayer (1909–2006), American athlete * Ernestin ...

and later Albertine Wettin rulers. Beginning in the 17th century,

Pietism Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christianity, Christian life. Although the movement is ali ...

also gained a significant following, especially among the working class. In 2019, Carsten Rentzing, bishop of the church since 2015, resigned his position after controversy arose about his connections to far-right parties and groups.

Bishops

* 1922–1933:

Ludwig Heinrich Ihmels Ludwig may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ludwig (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Ludwig (surname), including a list of people * Ludwig von Koopa, a character in Mario (the game) Arts and entertai ...

* 1933–1945:

Friedrich Otto Coch Friedrich may refer to: Names *Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' *Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' Other *Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...

* 1945–1947:

Franz Lau Franz may refer to: People * Franz (given name) * Franz (surname) Places * Franz (crater), a lunar crater * Franz, Ontario, a railway junction and unorganized town in Canada * Franz Lake, in the state of Washington, United States – see Fran ...

* 1947–1953: Hugo Hahn * 1953–1971:

Gottfried Noth Gottfried is a masculine German given name. It is derived from the Old High German name , recorded since the 7th century, and composed of the elements (conflated from the etyma for "God" and "good", and possibly further conflated with ) and ("pe ...

* 1971–1994:

Johannes Hempel Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, '' Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Ye ...

* 1994–2004:

Volker Kreß Volker may refer to: * Volker (name), including a list of people with the given name or surname * Volker, Kansas City, a historic neighborhood in Kansas City * Volker Boulevard, Kansas City * ''Alien Nations'' (German: ''Die Völker''), a real-time ...

* 2004–2015:

Jochen Bohl Jochen Bohl (born 19 April 1950 in Lüdenscheid) is the bishop of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony having been in office since 2004. One of his most memorable moments was the reconsecration of the rebuilt Frauenkirche in Dresden in Octo ...

* 2015–2019: Carsten Rentzing * since 2020:

Tobias Bilz Tobias is the transliteration of the , which is a Graecisation of the Hebrew biblical name . With the biblical Book of Tobit being present in the Deuterocanonical books and Biblical apocrypha, Tobias is a popular male given name for both Christi ...

Parishioners

* 1922: 4,509,000,Sebastian Müller-Rolli in collaboration with Reiner Anselm, ''Evangelische Schulpolitik in Deutschland 1918–1958: Dokumente und Darstellung'', Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999, (=Eine Veröffentlichung des Comenius-Instituts Münster), p. 29. . the largest Lutheran church in Germany at that time * 2012: 764,000 * 2013: 754,451 * 2015: 713,648 * 2017: 689,858 * 2018: 677,064 * 2019: 663,525 * 2020: 647,238

Practices

Ordination of women The ordination of women to Minister of religion, ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain religious groups in which ordination ...

and

blessing of same-sex unions The blessing or wedding of same-sex marriages and same-sex unions is an issue about which leaders of Christian churches are in ongoing disagreement. Traditionally, Christianity teaches that sexual practices between men and sexual practices bet ...

were allowed.Evlks.de:„Segnung von Paaren in Eingetragener Lebenspartnerschaft“ in Sachsen möglich (German)
, 18 October 2016

Notes

External links

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony
(English) * German

Christianity in Saxony Lutheran World Federation members {{Germany-stub