Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe on arvau

Wikipedia / Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe

The Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE; German: Gemeinschaft Evangelischer Kirchen in Europa, GEKE) is a fellowship of over 100 Protestant churches which have signed the Leuenberg Agreement. Together they strive for realizing church communion, especially by cooperation in witness and service to the world. Prior to 2003 the CPCE was known as the "Leuenberg Church Fellowship".

In membership are most Lutheran and Reformed churches in Europe, the united churches that originated from mergers of those churches, and such pre-Reformation churches as the Waldensians. The European Methodist churches joined the CPCE by a common declaration of church fellowship in 1997.

The General Secretary of the CPCE is . The Community's offices are located in Vienna, Austria, and are shared with those of the Protestant Church of the Augsburg Confession in Austria.

History

In 1973, theologians from major European Lutheran and Reformed churches met at the Swiss conference centre Leuenberg (near Basel) and finalized the Leuenberg Agreement or Leuenberg Concord, an ecumenical document declaring unity through Jesus Christ. Under this agreement the churches agree on a common understanding of the Gospel, including elementary agreement on important doctrines including christology, predestination, Eucharist and justification. They declare church fellowship, understood as pulpit and table fellowship as well as full communion in witness and service.

The churches involved were originally joined by an organization called the "Leuenberg Church Fellowship". In 2003 this was renamed the "Community (since 2020: "Communion") of Protestant Churches in Europe" as a sign of growing beyond the Lutheran and Reformed traditions, and now includes several Methodist churches. Since then, the CPCE has started ecumenical dialogue with Anglican, Baptist, and Orthodox churches.

In 2006, the CPCE published a statute of church constitution, and in 2011 published new guidelines for churches wishing to join. This declaration made clear that "churches wishing to join recognize the ordination and ministry of women ministers in other CPCE churches".