EKD - Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg

Mecklenburg - the name means "the great fortress" - is located on the eastern side of the River Elbe and close to the Baltic. Mecklenburg was Christianized during the 12th century. In 1549, after a period of dual confessionalism, at a meeting of the state parliament in Sternberg the Reformation was accepted for the country. A Lutheran church constitution was introduced in 1552. In 1919-20 a republican constitution led to the setting up of a synodal system of church government. In 1994 the relationship between the state and the Lutheran Church was laid out in the Güstrow Agreement.

Besides 50 Roman Catholic congregations there are some smaller churches like the Methodists and Baptists, and one Reformed congregation in the territory. A particular concern of the church is evangelism and outreach in this part of Germany, where only about 20 percent of the population belong to a Christian church. A new approach to youth, care for the elderly, social and diaconal services to the underprivileged and the disabled (migrant workers, the sick, the handicapped and the unemployed) are high on the agenda. Ecumenical relationships with other churches give ideas and inputs. Especially after the end of the communist era it became possible to develop special relations with the Pare Diocese in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, the Lutheran Church in Kazakhstan and the Hungarian-speaking Lutheran Church in Romania. There are other close ties to the Southern Ohio synod in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the diocese of Lichfield in the Anglican Church of England.

Since 2007 discussions are in progress about a merger of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg, the Pomeranian Evangelical Church  and the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Foto: Rainer Neumann/Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche Mecklenburgs