Protestant Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine
[1] Congregations holding services in German and use the current German Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch issued by the Protestant church bodies in Austria, France (Alsace-Moselle), Germany and Luxembourg (1993–1996), in a regional edition (Ausgabe Baden / Elsass-Lothringen) including traditional hymns from Alsace, Baden and Moselle.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the populations in a number of small imperial estates or free imperial cities including their governments (princes or city councils) had adopted the Calvinist confession; in other such territories, the ruling princes introduced the Calvinist faith using their privilege of Cuius regio, eius religio.
[4] However, Napoleon's model of hierarchical parastatal governance was a harsh breach with many crucial Reformed presbyterial and synodal traditions.
[4] Napoleon's law did not provide for a general synod, the only body relevant in taking decisions in matters of doctrine and teaching for all the church, and while the law de jure provided for regional synods combining representatives of at least five consistorial ambits the government de facto never allowed their convocation.
[6] The new Central Council established in 1852, the supreme executive body of the Reformed Church of France, was staffed with incumbents appointed by the government, a practice clearly contradicting the presbyterial and synodal doctrine of Calvinism.
So, the pre-1905 Reformed Church of France entered into heavy controversies on doctrinal and teaching matters which could not be resolved due to the lacking general synod.
Many Calvinists were adherents of the Christian revival movement (in France, they were then called évangéliques), colliding with proponents of religious liberalism.
When the consistories appointed pastors of a particular theological leaning to a congregation whose members and elected bodies clung to another opinion, it often created hefty quarrels.
[6] Two pastoral conferences were convened each by proponents of one of the two main currents in French Calvinism; the liberals met in Nîmes and the revivalists in Paris.
By the Treaty of Frankfurt France ceded Alsace and parts of two northeastern départements of Lorraine to the newly united Germany.
Evading from the subordination to the non-elected Central Council, which was mostly staffed with proponents of liberal Christianity, whom the French government preferred,[9] was rather welcome to the Calvinists in Alsace-Lorraine.
In 1872, Upper President Eduard von Moeller rejected the Calvinist and Jewish proposals, arguing he would interfere as little as possible in the current state of legal affairs of Alsace-Lorraine as long as no Alsace-Lorrainese legislative body were established.
[15] So the Alsatian Reformed consistories felt the need to establish a statewide Calvinist church and started a new initiative to that end.
[16] By mid-1892 the four Alsatian consistorial delegates formed a committee in order to prepare a constitutive synod, while Metz refused to participate.
However, the Department of Justice and Religious Affairs of the state administration now "determined that the law required only that there be five consistories available for the synod, not that all five consent to form the body.
By the French Organic Articles each time several congregations form a consistory (consistoire), with the term used for the board and its district alike.
[29] As religious statutory law corporations (établissements publics des cultes) the consistories have legal entity status, holding property of their own and receiving contributions from member parishes.
[29] Each consistory comprises all the pastors active in its district and the double number of laypersons, elected for three year terms by the local church presbyteries.
[29] Consistorial decisions are presented to the French minister of the Interior, who may oppose them within a two-month period, and reported to the EPRAL Synodal Council.
