Free Evangelical Churches ( el, Κοινωνία Ελεύθερων Ευαγγελικών Εκκλησιών Ελλάδας) is a communion of over 60 regional

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

free churches A free church is a Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government (as opposed to a state church). A free church does not define government policy, and a free church does not accept church theology or policy definitions from ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

. The great majority of the churches have the name ''Free Evangelical Church''. Free Evangelical Churches can be classified among the

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

and the Plymouth Brethren churches. There are also 3 Greek Free Evangelical Churches in Australia and 2 in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

History

The Free Evangelical Church was founded from a conjunction of various

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

churches in

. This effort was begun in 1886 in

Chania Chania ( el, Χανιά ; vec, La Canea), also spelled Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno and west of Heraklion. The muni ...

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

by two

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

women who worked in the UK Consulate of Chania. At the same time in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

the Church of Christian Brethren was founded by the

Irishman The Irish ( ga, Muintir na hÉireann or ''Na hÉireannaigh'') are an ethnic group and nation native to the island of Ireland, who share a common history and culture. There have been humans in Ireland for about 33,000 years, and it has been c ...

Henry Devine. A second church was created in Patras by Theofanis Zaferopoulos, which got help from Swiss

Open Brethren The Open Brethren, sometimes called Christian Brethren, are a group of Evangelical Christian churches that arose in the late 1820s as part of the Assembly Movement within the Plymouth Brethren tradition. They originated in Ireland before spread ...

. In 1911 Athanasios Katsarkas founded churches in

Komotini Komotini ( el, Κομοτηνή, tr, Gümülcine, bg, Комотини) is a city in the region of East Macedonia and Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the Rhodope. It was the administrative centre of the Rhodope-Evros super-p ...

and Andrianoupolis, while in 1914 they were transported to

Thessalonica Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

, and afterwards they also expanded into other regions. In

the main worker of the Free Evangelical Church was Kostas Metallinos. It is believed that Kostas Metallinos was the main founder of the Communion.

External links

New Life Evangelical ChurchFree Evangelical Church of HeraklionChaidari Free Evangelical Church - GreekFree Evangelical Youth - GreekIndependent Evangelical Church - Greek

Komotini Free Evangelical Church - Greek

Peristeri Free Evangelical Church - GreekFree Evangelical Church of Glyfada - Greek
{{DEFAULTSORT:Free Evangelical Churches Protestantism in Greece Anabaptist denominations