[4] It was well-supported by Czechoslovakia's first president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk,[5] who himself belonged to the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren.

The church had a working-class membership and supported a socialist economic system in the years leading up to the 1948 Czechoslovak coup.

In the post-1920 period new churches were built, but only a few portraits were considered appropriate to place in them, particularly representations of Christ, and occasionally pictures of Jan Hus.

In the iconography of the church the chalice plays a major role, usually depicted in red, as it was used in the 15th century as a battle standard on the flags of the Hussites.

In the following decades there was no official census of religious affiliation in what is today the Czech Republic, although it is apparent that under Communist rule, membership started to collapse.

Relations between the church and other members of the ecumenical movement are cordial, but remained strained with the country's Roman Catholic leadership.

The first woman to become a bishop of the Czechoslovak Hussite church, Jana Šilerová, was elected to a seven-year term of office in April 1999.

In January 1999, Catholic Archbishop Miloslav Vlk made a public statement of disapproval, warning against election of a woman to this position and saying that it would cause deterioration of ecumenical relations.