Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE) - Leuenberg Church Fellowship -

"Unity in reconciled diversity"

Almost all Protestant churches in Europe are member churches of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe. Its basic document is the Leuenberg Agreement of 1973 which marks the end of the over 450 years of the church division between the Lutheran and Reformed churches. On the basis of the common understanding of the Gospel, the signatory churches grant one another a pulpit and table fellowship and commit themselves to common witness and service at local, regional and European levels, and the continuing theological work.

Up to now 105 Churches across Europe belong to the CPCE. These churches are, besides classical Reformation churches, pre-Reformation churches such as the Waldensian Church and the Church of the Czech Brethren, plus five South American Protestant churches emanating from the earlier immigration churches. The seven Methodist churches in Europe joined it on the basis of a "Joint Declaration of Church Fellowship".

Origin
The final text of the "Agreement between the Reformation Churches in Europe" (Leuenberg Agreement) was drafted at Leuenberg near Basle in March 1973, thus concluding a long process of dialogue mainly between Lutheran and Reformed Churches, which had begun after the Second World War. This text drawn up in European context met with astonishingly rapid and sustained approval of the Churches. On 31 October 2003 the Leuenberg Church Fellowship changed its name to the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe.

Theology
The church division could be overcome by means of doctrinal discussions among the churches of different denominations. The Preamble of the Agreement, referring to the key statement of the Confessio Augustana (CA VII), confirms: "In the view of the Reformation it follows that agreement in the right teaching of the Gospel and in the right administration of the sacraments is the necessary and sufficient prerequisite for the true unity of the Church" (LA 2). The "common understanding of the Gospel" is founded on the Message of Justification as the "message of the free grace of God" (LA 7-12) and interpreted with reference to preaching, baptism and the Lord's Supper (LA 13-16), as set out in the second section of the Agreement. The third section removed the doctrinal disagreements relating to the Lord's Supper, christology and predestination, as these disagreements no longer reflect current teachings of the signatory churches (LA 17-28). The fourth section contains the core of the Agreement: the declaration and implementation of church fellowship with the confirmation that "in the sense intended in this Agreement, church fellowship means that, on the basis of the consensus they have reached in their understanding of the Gospel, churches with different confessional positions accord each other fellowship in word and sacrament and strive for the fullest possible cooperation in witness and service to the world" (LA 29). This church fellowship is manifested in shared pulpit and table fellowship including the mutual recognition of ordination and the practicability of inter-celebration (reciprocal presidency over the celebration of communion).

Method of Working
The Community of Protestant Churches in Europe serves to promote the unity and community of the Protestant churches through joint theological doctrinal conversations. They also represent the positions of Reformation churches on important spiritual and social challenges such as the question of a just war, the Christian understanding of freedom, the relationship of church, state, people and nation. Among the various consensus papers resulting from the doctrinal discussion, the studies "The Church of Jesus Christ" and "Church and Israel", which were unanimously adopted by the General Assemblies of 1994 in Vienna and 2001 in Belfast respectively, deserve special attention. The first common understanding of the Protestant churches regarding the ecclesiology and thus the Protestant contribution to the ecumenical conversations on the unity of the Church, thus bore fruits in understanding the relationship between Christians and Jews.

The Community of Protestant Churches in Europe has an intentionally loose organisational structure for the sake of flexibility. General Assemblies take place about every six years, in which basic outlines of future work, new subjects for theological conversations are determined and the new Executive Committee elected. The Executive Committee, led by the Presidium, is responsible for the work between the General Assemblies. The Secretariat, which operates under the direction of the Executive Committee, has been located in the Head Office of the Union of Evangelical Churches in Berlin since 1987.

Protestant Voice in Europe
The majority of the Churches participating in the CPCE are minority Churches which carry out their mission under difficult conditions. In a Europe of political transformation, the CPCE calls for active solidarity and strives to create awareness for the voices of minorities. It expresses views on the current issues of a Europe that is growing together. It is also attempting to grapple critically with the past. It promotes initiatives and links at local, regional and pan-European levels in the missionary, diaconal and social areas. It has an internet site (www.leuenberg.eu) and is developing an inter-church communication and information network.

Well aware of its limits, the CPCE has the whole ecumenical scene in view and considers itself as a step on the way towards the unity of the universal Church of Jesus Christ in a reconciled diversity. For this reason it maintains working relations with the World Council of Churches, the Conference of European Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches as well as with the Anglican churches and European Baptist Federation.

The intensified sense of belongingness of our member churches and the claim formulated at the last general assembly 2001 in Belfast to bring forward a Protestant voice in Europe, is clearly expressed through the new name (as from 1 Nov. 2003) “Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE)”.

---