The Hansa city of Lemgo opened itself to the Reformation in 1533. But only after the Religious Peace of Augsburg in 1555 did the synod of Cappel (1556) openly embrace the Lutheran Reformation. In 1571, the consistory of the Church of Lippe was established. Count Simon VI helped to confirm the Reformation in the spirit of Melanchthon’s theology. In 1605 in Detmold the last supper was for the first time celebrated in the Reformed way. From then on the Lutheran and Reformed confessional streams developed in the church. In 1931 a new presby-terian-synodal constitution was given to the Church of Lippe which has proved adequate to this day.

The small Church of Lippe attaches great importance to a renewed partnership with Presbyterian churches in Ghana and Togo. This solidarity, a result of the missionary efforts of the last century, is now being cultivated through an exchange of delegates and theological ideas through the Northern German Mission. After the end of the cold war the Church of Lippe strengthened its relations by signing an official partnership contract with the Evangelical Reformed Church in the Republic of Poland (1997), the Reformed Church of Hungary (1999) and with the Reformed Church of Romania, Transylvanian district (1999). Intensive contacts are also maintained with the Reformed and the Lutheran churches in Lithuania. Together with the Evangelical Reformed Church and the Reformed Alliance in Germany it maintains a partnership with the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) since 1998. The Church of Lippe continues to stress the missionary structure of the congregation and is engaged in the search for world peace.