# National church

A national church is a Christian church associated with a specific ethnic group or nation state. The idea was notably discussed during the 19th century, during the emergence of modern nationalism.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in a draft discussing the question of church and state around 1828 wrote that
    "a National Church might exist, and has existed, without Christianity, because before the institution of the Christian Church – as [...] the Levitical Church in the Hebrew Constitution, [and] the Druidical in the Celtic, would suffice to prove".
John Wordsworth, Bishop of Salisbury, wrote about the National Church of Sweden in 1911, interpreting the Church of Sweden and the Church of England as national churches of the Swedish and the English peoples, respectively.
The concept of a national church remains alive in the Protestantism of United Kingdom and Scandinavia in particular. While, in a context of England, the national church remains a common denominator for the Church of England, some of the Lutheran "folk churches" of Scandinavia, characterized as national churches in the ethnic sense as opposed to the idea of a state church, emerged in the second half of the 19th century following the lead of Grundtvig. However, in countries in which the state church (also known as the established church) has the following of the majority of citizens, the state church may also be the national church, and may be declared as such by the government, e.g. Church of Denmark, Church of Greece, and Church of Iceland.

## Countries and regions with national churches

| Country | National church | Denomination | % |
| Armenia | Armenian Apostolic Church | Oriental Orthodox | 92.5% (2017) |
| Bulgaria | Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Sofia Patriarchate) Bulgarian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) | Eastern Orthodox | 62.7% (2021) |
| Cyprus | Church of Cyprus | Eastern Orthodox | 89.1% (2011; government-controlled territory) |
| Denmark | Church of Denmark | Lutheran | 74.3% (2020) |
| Estonia | Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church | Lutheran | 9.91% (2011) |
| Ethiopia | Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church | Oriental Orthodox | 43.5% (2007) |
| Eritrea | Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church | Oriental Orthodox |
| Faroe Islands | Church of the Faroe Islands | Lutheran | 79.7% (2019) |
| Finland | Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, Orthodox Church of Finland | Lutheran Eastern Orthodox | 65.2% (2022) 1.02% (2022) |
| France | Roman Catholic Church Evangelical Lutheran Church of France | Catholic Lutheran | |
| Georgia | Georgian Orthodox Church | Eastern Orthodox | 83.4% (2014) |
| Germany | Protestant Church in Germany Roman Catholic Church | Protestant Catholic | 23.7% (2021) 26% (2021) |
| Greece | Church of Greece | Eastern Orthodox | 90% (2017) |
| Iceland | Church of Iceland | Lutheran | 59% (2022) |
| Latvia | Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia | Lutheran | 34.2% (2011) |
| Liechtenstein | Catholic Church | Catholic | 75.9% (2010) |
| Malta | Catholic Church | Catholic | 83% (2019) |
| Montenegro | Serbian Orthodox Church | Eastern Orthodox | 71.1% (2023) |
| North Macedonia | Macedonian Orthodox Church | Eastern Orthodox | 64.4% (2011) |
| Norway | Church of Norway | Lutheran | 69.91% (2018) |
| Romania | Romanian Orthodox Church | Eastern Orthodox | 81.9% (2011) |
| Russia | Russian Orthodox Church | Eastern Orthodox | 71% (2017) |
| Serbia | Serbian Orthodox Church | Eastern Orthodox | 84.59% (2011) |
| Sweden | Church of Sweden | Lutheran | 53.9% (2021) |
| Tuvalu | Church of Tuvalu | Reformed | 91%+ (2012) |
| Ukraine | Ukrainian Orthodox Church | Eastern Orthodox | 52% (2021) |
| United Kingdom  England  Scotland | British Protestant Churches Church of England Church of Scotland | Protestant Anglican Calvinist | 69% 47.0% (2008; with Wales) 22% (2018) |

### Ethnic groups

| Country | Group | National church | Denomination |
| Egypt | Copts | Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria | Oriental Orthodox |
| Assyria | Assyrians | Assyrian Church of the East Chaldean Catholic Church Syriac Catholic Church Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch | Church of the East Eastern Catholic Oriental Orthodox |
| Syria | Aramaeans | Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch | Oriental Orthodox |
| Lebanon | Maronites | Maronite Catholic Church | Eastern Catholic |
| Syria- Lebanon- Turkey | Antiochian Greek Christians | Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch | Eastern Orthodox |
| Levant- Egypt | Antiochian Greek Christians | Melkite Greek Catholic Church | Eastern Catholic |
| Indonesia | Toba Batak | Batak Christian Protestant Church | Lutheran |

## Criticism

Karl Barth denounced as heretical the tendency of "nationalizing" the Christian God, especially in the context of national churches sanctioning warfare against other Christian nations during World War I.