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The Evangelical Church in Germany ((ドイツ語:Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland), abbreviated EKD) is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and United (Prussian Union) Protestant regional and denominational churches in Germany, collectively encompassing the majority of Protestants in that country. The EKD is not a church in a theological understanding, because of its denominational differences. In 2012, the EKD had a membership of 23,356,096 church-goers, or 29.0% of the German population.〔("Kirchenmitgliederzahlen Stand 31.12.2012 ) Evangelische Kirche in Deutchland〕 It constitutes one of the largest national Protestant bodies in the world, behind the Church of England and Church of Christ in Congo. Formed in 1948, the Evangelical Church has undergone a split as a result of tensions between West and East Germany in 1969. The EKD did not merge back until 1991. The member churches (''Gliedkirchen''), while being independent and having their own theological and formal organisation, share full pulpit and altar fellowship, are united in the EKD synod, and are individual members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE). Boundaries of EKD churches within Germany partially resemble those of the states of the Holy Roman Empire and successor forms of German statehood, due to the historical close relationship between individual German states and churches. As for church governance, the Lutheran churches typically practise an Episcopal polity, while the Reformed and the United ones a mixture of Presbyterian and Congregationalist polities. Most member churches are led by a (state) bishop. Only one member church, the Evangelical Reformed Church, is not restricted to a certain territory. In some ways, the other member churches resemble dioceses of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, from an organisational point of view. ==Name== The German term ドイツ語:''evangelisch'' here more accurately corresponds to the broad English term ''Protestant''〔Peter Terrell, ''Harper Collins German Unabridged Dictionary'', 4th ed., (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1999), 273 ''sub loco''.〕 rather than to the narrower ''evangelical'' (in German called ドイツ語:''evangelikal''), although the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England use the term in the same way as the German church. Literally, ドイツ語:''evangelisch'' means "of the Gospel", denoting a Protestant Reformation emphasis on ラテン語:''sola scriptura'', "by scripture alone". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Evangelical Church in Germany」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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