THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH OF THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Evangelická církev augsburského vyznání v České republice

Historie

The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession (ECAC) in the Czech Republic is a young church among the churches registered on the territory of the Czech Republic. It came to being after the splitting of the Federation in 1993 by the transformation of the Slovak Evangelical congregation of the Augsburg Confession in Prague, which was the only congregation on of the Slovak Evangelical Church in former Czechoslovakia on the territory of the Czech Lands. The home Evangelical church of the Augsburg Confession in the present Slovak Republic is the largest Protestant church among Slavs.

Martin Luther´s reformation teachings got to Slovakia very fast through students and the inhabitants of German nationality who lived in mining regions. By the end of the 16th century the whole territory of Slovakia was on the side of the Reformation. The articles of the faith were reformed the most quickly, followed by the adjustment of  God´s service and the church administration. These issues were dealt with at the Synods (in Žilina in 1610; in Spišské Podhradie in 1614, and in Ružomberok in 1707).The persecution of  Evangelicals, which followed, lasted until 1781, when the Toleration Act was issued in 1781. As a result of this hard counter-reformation the Evangelicals of the A. C. became a minority.

After the foundation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 Slovaks attained national freedom. The Synod in Trenčianské Teplice in 1921 adopted a new institution of the church. The Slovak clerical-fascist state (1939 – 1945) was not favourably inclined to Slovak Evangelicals. Members of churches and some ministers took part in the resistance movement against this state. The situation under the communists (1948 – 1989) was even worse. Forty-seven ministers were imprisoned and a hundred of them were suspended by the state from the ministry. Free development of the church began only after the revolution in November 1989.

The Slovak Evangelical congregation in Prague was established after the World War II in 1947. As early as the beginning of the existence of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 a  great number of Slovak Evangelicals settled in Prague or in other places of historical Czech lands. Before the foundation of their own congregation in Prague, Slovak Evangelicals used to worship in other congregations. A number of Slovaks in the Czech Lands increased after 1939, when many people in mixed marriages had to move out of Slovakia. A mighty stream of Slovaks arriving in Bohemia in order to live there was recorded after the World War II. They settled particularly in border areas. For their new Prague congregation they managed to get St. Michael´s church in Jircháře Street. The church was vacant as until 1945 it had been used by German Evangelicals.

In 1923 Albert Schweitzer gave a concert in that church. In 1997 the present congregation commemorated 50 years since its foundation.

Mission

The ECAC is a community of Christians, the Evangelicals of the Augsburg Confession, who respect as a source of faith and a rule of life only the Holy Scriptures interpreted in the spirit of its symbolic books and general Christian confessions. The church has supranational character. All the participants of the church, irrespective of their nationality, have the same rights. The main mission of the ECAC is:

a) to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, to confess and strengthen the faith in triune God, to witness about him and impress the faith in the hearts of all people, young generation in particular

b) to minister its members, particularly by God´s service, administration of sacraments, religious education, providing spiritual care and material aid, to lead people to mutual respect, support, tolerance and exemplary Christian and civil life

c) in cooperation with the other Christian churches and communities to contribute to the spreading and consolidating of Christianity

d) according to the gospel to strive with all people of good will to apply love, and establish justice and peace in social life.

Organisation

The basic unit of the church is a congregation, which is formed by its members, Evangelicals. At the head of the congregation is a presidium, which is formed by the pastor and the non-ordained congregation curator (overseer). The supreme body of the congregation is a convent, formed by the adult members of the congregation. In the period between the sessions of the convent the congregation is administered by the Board of Elders involving the pastor, the curator and elected presbyters. The supreme body of the Evangelical Church is the Church Convent. The Church Convent consists of the administrator of the church and the church overseer. The administrator of the church is the pastor of the church´s largest congregation. The seat of central bodies of the ECAC in the capital city of the Czech Republic, Prague.

The church has no theological facility of its own. It closely cooperates with the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. Some students study at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the Charles university in Prague.

The Evangelical Church issues a bimonthly “Evanjelík“ (An Evanlgelical). The Slovak weekly “Evanjelický posol“ (An Evangelical Messenger) and a monthly “Církevné listy“ (The Church Paper) is read as well. The ECAC is a member of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in the Czech Republic and it it in close labour contacts with its home church in Slovakia and with the other sisterly Lutheran Churches around the world.

Statistics

According to the census in 1991 the ECAC has 4,200 memebers. At present it has three congregations: Slovak and English in Prague and the Czech missionary congregation in Pilsen. It has two pastors, one from Slovakia, the other from the U. S. A., one retired minister and one deacon. Currently it has two students of theology.

Address:

The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in the Czech Republic

Evangelická církev a. v. v  ČR
Čajkovského 8
130 00 Praha 3

phone: 02-22 71 68 64
           0603-58 56 59

fax: 02-44 46  44 10
e-mail: ecav@ecav.cz

http://www.ecav.cz