Background to formation Emerging from the
Reformation in the 16th century, the
reformed churches in France were organised independently and, by force of circumstance,
clandestinely. The first national synod of the Reformed Churches was held in 1559; the first formal confession of faith, the
Confession of La Rochelle, was composed in 1571. Recognised but restricted by the
Edict of Nantes in 1598, the last official synod met in 1659; subsequently, the churches were suppressed in France by the
Edict of Fontainebleau of 1685, which revoked the Edict of Nantes. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes began a period of systematic state persecution known in
French as the
Désert (wilderness), an allusion to the sufferings of the Hebrews when they
wandered in the wilderness following the flight from Egypt. This was associated with mass
emigration to other European countries, North America, and South Africa (
les pays de Refuge). In 1787, the
Edict of Versailles, issued by
Louis XVI, ended most legal discrimination against non-Roman Catholics – including Huguenots. In 1802, the church was recognised in accordance with the
Organic Articles (
les Articles organiques) which followed
Napoleon Bonaparte's
concordat with the
Roman Catholic Church. This permitted a local and non-national organisation of the church, which did not reflect its traditional organisation (synods, participation of lay members in the pastoral organisation of the Church, etc.) In the 19th century, the Awakening (
le Réveil) and other religious movements influenced the French and European Reformed churches; this was also accompanied by division within French Protestantism. In 1871 the Reformed congregations in German-annexed Alsace and the newly formed
Bezirk Lothringen of
Lorraine were separated from the Reformed Church in what remained of France. The consistorial districts of the conquered territories then formed the still-existing
Protestant Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine (EPRAL). At the time of the promulgation of the
Separation of Church and State in 1905, which did away with the
établissements publics du culte (religious
statutory corporations) leaving the status of a
religious association, there were no less than four groupings of the Reformed Church: the Evangelical Reformed Churches (
les Églises réformées évangéliques), the United Reformed Churches (
les Églises réformées unies), the Free Reformed Churches (
les Églises réformées libres), and the Methodist Church (''l'Église méthodiste'').
The Reformed Church of France today The horrors of the
First World War, combined with new departures in theology (in particular the thought of
Karl Barth), allowed for a partial restoration of a national grouping: the Reformed Church of France (
L’Église Réformée de France, ÉRF), established in 1938. However, some Reformed congregations preferred not to merge and form
their separate union since. The ÉRF is the largest of the four French Protestant churches and is in full communion with the other three (which are also members of the
World Council of Churches): the Evangelical Lutheran Church of France (''l'Église évangélique luthérienne de France'') and in Alsace-Moselle the EPRAL and the Lutheran
Protestant Church of Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine. In June 2012, it was announced that the Reformed Church of France and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of France would unite to form the
United Protestant Church of France (Eglise Protestante unie de France or EPUF). ==Beliefs==