Purpose/Activities

The Church Office is divided into four main departments:

Administration and Church Life

Legal Matters and Finance

Public Responsibility and Education

Ecumenical relations and ministry Abroad

The department of ecumenical and foreign relations amongst others is responsible for:

pastoral services to Germans and German-speaking people abroad (parishes outside Germany) as well as to tourists, holiday-makers and seamen,

analysis of basic ecumenical issues,

development of ecumenical educational and scholarship programmes,

human rights,

development policy, 

foundations based in the Holy Land.

EKD's pastoral services comprise the deployment of 141 parish priests - including 30 honorary priests in their retirement age. 68 parish priests are working in German-speaking Protestant communities in major cities and areas of tourism all over Europe. The German-speaking communities provide both, a religious home as well as a room of ecumenical openness encouraging people to form a community for a life in justice, peace and the integrity of creation in their responsibility as Christians.

The Department for Europe of the Evangelical Church in Germany operates on behalf of its subordinate federal and regional sections to further ecumenical contacts to Christian churches all over Europe of each denomination. It promotes ecumenical dialogue and provides a platform for discussion of theological issues.

The Overseas-Department of the Protestant Church in Germany is in charge of ecumenical work abroad and supports ecumenical contacts to Christian churches and Christian communities in all continents except for Europe.

Periodical Publications

Jahrbuch Ökumene und Auslandsarbeit (Annual)

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