EKD - Evangelische Kirche von Kurhessen-Waldeck

The church traces its origin to the mission of Boniface in the 8th century. In 1524 the Reformation was introduced. A confessional contrast has been expressed by the fact that an Upper-Hessian Lutheranism around the city of Marburg acknowledged the Confessio Augustana and not the Formula of Concord. The Lower-Hessian Reformed region around Kassel adopted the Confessio Augustana. The ecumenical openness of the Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck goes back to the time when Waldensian and Huguenot refugees asked for asylum. Today it is in continuous dialogue with the Roman Catholic bishopric of Fulda in its territory. In 1934 the Evangelical Church of Hessen-Kassel and the former principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont were united in the Evangelical Church of KurhessenWaldeck. Its primary objective is the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Its further emphases are pastoral care, education, mission and diakonia. The church struggles to find the right answers to problems of political and social peace, overcoming violence, ecology and issues of economy and technology.

Particular contacts are maintained with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in South Africa (Western Diocese), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia, the Estonian Evangelical-Lutheran Church, the diocese of North-Karnataka of the Church of South India, the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and All the East, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in the Republic of Kyrgyztan, the synod of North Brabant of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands and the Roman Catholic bishopric in the same territory of the Netherlands.