The Council of the CPE has accepted the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ukraine as a direct member of the church communion. The Evangelical Lutheran churches in Russia and other successor states of the Soviet Union had already been discussing their membership in CPCE since 2019. Until now they had been represented together as the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Russia and Other States (ELCROS), but were now seeking their own membership. The German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ukraine (GELCU) was the first to submit such an application in the spring of 2022, which the Council of the CPCE approved at its meeting in Oslo on September 28, 2022. By 2014, GELCU had 31 local churches and up to 20 pastors and deacons. The Russian annexation first of Crimea and since February 2022 the open war have destroyed church life in many places: human lives, church buildings, community. At the same time, the church has taken on new tasks, such as providing essential goods to people devastated by the war. |