The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern) is a Protestant church in the German state of Bavaria. The seat of the church is in Munich.
It is a full member of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), and is a Lutheran Church. The Landesbischof (bishop) of the church is Johannes Friedrich (2006). There are several regional bishops (Regionalbischöfe).
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria is one of 22 Lutheran, united and reformed churches of the EKD. The church has 2,651,717 members (December 2005) in 1,531 parishes. It's the most important Protestant denomination in Bavaria.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria is a member church of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany, the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe and of the Lutheran World Federation. The Church runs a conference venue at Tutzing called Evangelische Akademie Tutzing[1].
The most prominent churches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria are St. Matthäus Church in Munich and St. Lorenz Church in Nuremberg where new state bishops get inaugurated. Munich is predominantly Catholic, whereas Nuremberg is a Lutheran stronghold.
The ordination of women has been allowed.
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During the Protestant Reformation, Bavaria (consisting at that point only of what is today called Altbayern) remained predominantly Roman Catholic. In the early 19th century, the largely Protestant Palatinate and Franconia were joined to the Kingdom of Bavaria, and all Protestant churches in the kingdom were united in 1806. At first, this united church consisted of both Lutherans and Calvinists, but in 1918 the Calvinist congregations seceded and formed their own church, the Evangelical Reformed Church in Bavaria (which merged with the Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany in 1989 to form the Evangelical Reformed Church – Synod of Reformed Churches in Bavaria and Northwestern Germany).
The election of the synod is for six years.
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