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The Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony (''Evangelische Kirche der Kirchenprovinz Sachsen''; KPS) was the most important Protestant denomination in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. As a united Protestant church, it combined both Lutheran and Reformed traditions (Prussian Union). On 1 January 2009 the church body merged with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia into the Evangelical Church in Central Germany. ==History== The Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony emerged on 1 October 1950, when the ecclesiastical province of Saxony within the Evangelical Church of the old-Prussian Union assumed its independence as church body of its own. The history of the old-Prussian Union is tied with the history of the kingdom of Prussia. Following the second constitution of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), enacted on 9 April 1968 and accounting for its de facto transformation into a communist dictatorship, the church bodies were deprived their status as statutory bodies () and the church tax, automatically collecting parishioners' contributions as a surcharge on the income tax, was abolished. Now parishioners had to fix the level of their contributions and to transfer them again and again on their own. This together with ongoing discrimination of church members, which let many secede from the church, effectively eroded the adherence of parishioners and the financial situation of the Evangelical Church. The Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony was a full member of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). The leader of the church was bishop Axel Noack (2006). The church had approx. 504,200 members (in December 2005) in 2,020 church parishes. The seat of the bishop was Magdeburg Cathedral. There are several former cathedrals in the territory retaining their original name, notably the Halberstadt Cathedral, the Merseburg Cathedral, the Naumburg Cathedral and Zeitz Cathedral. There are also some other imposing churches (often former collegiate churches) called "Dom" (often translated as cathedral) in the area. The Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony was a member of the Union of Evangelical Churches in Germany and the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe. In Wittenberg the church had its own academy. The Ordination of women and the blessing of same-sex unions has been allowed. Since 1 July 2004 the church was on the way to merge with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia into the Evangelical Church in Central Germany, with effect of 1 January 2009. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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