Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

(h) The Evangelical Church in Germany (1948)
The situation among Protestant churches in Germany is highly complex, but unions were
achieved after the Second World War. Twenty-eight regional churches existed in 1933:
„Twenty were Lutheran in confession; two were Reformed; the remaining six were United,
among then the old Prussian Union of 1817, by far the largest of German Evangelical
Churches.‟ 149 In addition there were Free Churches, not tied to the State. In 1948 the
Evangelical Church of Germany brought these strands together in a „Bund‟. 150
(i) The Church of North India (1970)
The movement for unity here can also be traced back, as for the Church of South India, to the
meeting in Tranquebar 1919. In 1924 Congregationalists and Presbyterians came together to
form the United Church of North India. In 1970 five other groups joined this union to form
the Church of North India. These groups were the Anglican churches of India, Pakistan,
Burma, and Ceylon; the British and Australian Conferences of the Methodist Church; the
Baptist churches of North India (connected with the Baptist Missionary Society of the UK);
the Church of the American denominations; and the Church of the Brethren and the Disciples
of Christ in Central India. As in the case of the Church of South India, Episcopal and nonepiscopal
churches were brought together in the union and both paedo- and credo-baptisms
were approved. 151
(j) The Church of Pakistan (1970)
This Church was formed from the Anglican Church of Pakistan, the Methodist Church, the
Pakistan Lutheran Church, and the Sialkot Church Council. In 1972, when Bangladesh
(formerly East Pakistan) became an independent State, the Church of Bangladesh came into
being. 152
In 1970 a similar scheme to that of North India, involving Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists,
Presbyterians and the Church of South India, Jaffna Diocese, was planned for Sri Lanka, but
it did not come into being.
(k) The United Reformed Church (UK) (1972)
This was a merger of the Congregational Church and the Presbyterian Church of England. In
1981 the majority of the Disciples of Christ joined this Union.
149 Rouse, Ruth and Neill, Stephen C, A History of the Ecumenical Movement, 1517-1948, SPCK,
London, 1954, p 466-467.
150 Bund is the German word for federation or union.
151 A History of the Ecumenical Movement, Vol 3, 1968-2000, ed John Briggs, Mercy Amba Oduyoye
& George Tsetsis, World Council of Churches, pp 503-504.
152 A History of the Ecumenical Movement, Vol 3, 1968-2000, ed John Briggs, Mercy Amba Oduyoye
& George Tsetsis, World Council of Churches, p 507.
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