page_title: Evangelical Church in Germany
section_title: Council of the EKD
hierarchical_section_title: Evangelical Church in Germany / Structure / Council of the EKD
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, deutscher evangelisch-lutherischer Theologe, seit dem 1. November 2011 Landesbischof der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche in Bayern
context_page_description: The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed and United Protestant regional churches and denominations in Germany, which collectively encompasses the vast majority of Protestants in that country. In 2019, the EKD had a membership of 20,713,000 members, or 24.9% of the German population. It constitutes one of the largest national Protestant bodies in the world. Church offices managing the federation are located in Hannover-Herrenhausen, Lower Saxony. Many of its members consider themselves Lutherans.
  Historically, the first formal attempt to unify German Protestantism occurred during the Weimar Republic era in the form of the German Evangelical Church Confederation, which existed from 1922 until 1933. Earlier, there had been successful royal efforts at unity in various German states, beginning with Prussia and several minor German states in 1817. These unions resulted in the first united and uniting churches, a new development within Protestantism which later spread to other parts of the world.
context_section_description: The EKD Council is the representative and governing body of the Evangelical Church in Germany. The Council of the EKD has 15 members jointly elected by the Synod and Church Conference who serve terms of six years.
caption: Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the Chairman of the Council of the EKD.
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