Partner churches worldwide

For many years the Protestant churches have maintained official partnerships with churches in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. They are an important part of our church life.

The aims of the partnerships are to cultivate contacts with brothers and sisters in  faith, to share spiritual life and to get to know the respective spirituality and culture in order to facilitate mutual understanding. Likewise, as a globally networked church, we are on the way together to find answers to global challenges and to face up to the responsibility to which our faith calls us. Congregations and groups gain ecumenical learning experiences through partnership work. This work is cultivated at church leadership, deanery and congregational level. The Ecumenical Centreprovides expertise on church and ecumenical structures in the countries of the partner churches and supports the regional partnership committees in their work.  

Current development policy issues of the countries of partner churches are included in the Centre's educational work.

Intercultural and interreligious experiences

Regular mutual visits are essential for the partnerships. These encounters enable original intercultural and partly also interreligious experiences, as well as the participation in the everyday life of the people in the partner churches.

The Ecumenical Centre is networked with European and worldwide bodies and organisations and cooperates with the World Council of Churches and Bread for the World. Within the framework of the  memberships of EKHN and EKKW, cooperation with the Conference of European Churches, the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe and mission agencies such as United in Mission (UIM) and Evangelical Mission in Solidarity (EMS) is a matter of course.