The NEK largely covered the area of the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg where it was the most important Christian denomination.
[1] The NEK was a full member of the Protestant Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD), the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD), and the Lutheran World Federation (joined 1977).
The North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church was founded in 1977 by the merger of four former state churches: It is named after its ambit mostly located north of the River Elbe.
In 1992 Maria Jepsen was the first woman to become a bishop in the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church.
[citation needed] The preaching venue of the bishop was the new St. Nicholas Church (till 1987) and thereafter St. Michael's.