Companion Synod - Czech Republic

Following a resolution passed at the La Crosse Area

Synod's 2016 Synod Assembly, the Global Mission

Committee pursued establishing a companion synod

relationship with the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB).

FACTS ABOUT THE ECCB:

The church body was founded in 1918, being the largest Czech Protestant church and second largest church overall.
They formed through the unification of the Protestant churches of the Lutheran and Reformed confessions.
ECCB has approximately 115,000 members in more than 230 local congregations in the Czech Republic, a country roughly the size of South Carolina. They primarily serve congregations in rural settings.
The ECCB ordains women.
We are the their first ELCA Companion Synod.
The ECCB is dedicated to serving people in poverty, seniors, children, Roma and immigrants through comprehensive social services. The Czech Brethren also sponsor early childhood education centers and schools
They have participated in the ELCA International Camp Counselor Program and enjoyed youth development. This connection has been renewed with Sugar Creek Bible Camp.
ECCB is a member of the World Council of Churches, the Conference of European Churches, the Lutheran World Federation and the World Communion of Reformed Churches.

The La Crosse region received Czech immigrants in the 1850s as farmers, in part because the terrain of Bohemia is similar to the bluff and coulee country of west-central and southwest Wisconsin.