The Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau (, EKHN) is a

United Protestant A united church, also called a uniting church, is a denomination formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations, a number of which come from separate and distinct denomination ...

church body A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity that comprises all church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadership, theological doctrine, worsh ...

in the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

federal states of

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

and

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

. There is no

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

and therefore no

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

. One of its most prominent churches is Katharinenkirche in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. Dating back to the union in the

Duchy of Nassau The Duchy of Nassau (German language, German: ''Herzogtum Nassau'') was an independent state between 1806 and 1866, located in what became the Germany, German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. It was a States of the Confederation of th ...

in August 1817, before the Prussian Union of September 1817, it is the first United and uniting church in the world. The EKHN is a full member of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD), and is based on the teachings brought forward 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 ...

during the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

. The Church President is Christiane Tietz. She succeeded (2009-2025). It is a

united church A united church, also called a uniting church, is a denomination formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestantism, Protestant Christian denominations, a number of which come from separate and distinc ...

, combining both

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

and

Lutheran 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 ...

traditions. Member of the Reformed Alliance in Germany. The Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau is one of 20 churches in the EKD, has 1,446,971 members in 1,184 parishes (December, 2020). The territory of the EKHN includes the territories of the former

People's State of Hesse The People's State of Hesse () was one of the constituent states of Weimar Republic, Germany from 1918 to 1945, as the successor to the Grand Duchy of Hesse () after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I, on the territory of the curren ...

and the Prussian Wiesbaden Region, which now form the southern and western part of the German federal state of

and portions of the German federal state of

(

Rhenish Hesse Rhenish Hesse or Rhine HesseDickinson, Robert E (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 542. . (, ) is a region and a former government district () in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is ...

). It's the most important Protestant denomination in this area. The church is a member of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe.

Management and Administration

Institutions of the EKHN are the Church Synod, the church leadership and the church president, who is elected by the General Synod for eight years.

Church Presidents

* 1947–1964:

Martin Niemöller Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller (; 14 January 1892 – 6 March 1984) was a German theologian and Lutheran pastor. He opposed the Nazi regime during the late 1930s, and was sent to a concentration camp for his affiliation with the Confes ...

* 1964–1968: * 1969–1985: * 1985–1992: * 1993–2008: * 2009–2025: * since 2025: Christiane Tietz

History

The Protestant Church of Hesse and Nassau was founded in 1946 and 1947 through a merger of three other formerly independent churches: Protestant Church in Hesse, Protestant Church in Nassau, Protestant Church in Frankfurt.

Academy

The church ran an Evangelical Academy in , which was moved to Frankfurt in 2013.

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 in 2013.

References

External links

*
The Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Protestant Church In Hesse And Nassau

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