Editing Fellowship of Evangelical Baptists

The Federation of Evangelical Baptist Congregations (formerly: Congregations of Evangelical Baptists II (ETG) , Fröhlichians , or ETG for short ) is an evangelical free church and at the same time the umbrella organization of all affiliated European local congregations of evangelical Baptist congregations. It is organized as an association with its headquarters at the respective secretariat. It is headed by the federal conference, the federal leadership and the control body.

==Current Churches==

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="margin:auto"
|+ Current Congregations
! Country!! Church !! Address
|-
| Germany || [[Berglen-Oppelsbohm]] || Distlerweg 6, 73663
|-
| Germany || [[Lindenwiese]] || Lindenbühlstr. 50, 88662
|-
| Germany || [[Neuhütten]] || Waldesruh 25, 71543
|-
| Germany || [[Prum]] || Gondenbretter Weg 2, 54595
|-
| Germany || [[Scheppach]] || Rappacher Str. 24, 74626
|-
| Germany || [[Siegelsbach]] || Rosengasse 5, 74936
|-
| Germany || [[Spaichingen]] || Gunninger Str. 25, 78549
|-
| Switzerland || [[Au]] || Schellerstr. 8, 8804
|-
| Switzerland || [[Bachenbülach]] || Niederglatterstr. 3, 8184
|-
| Switzerland || [https://acchistory.org/index.php?title=BernETG Bern] || Konsumstr. 21, 3007
|-
| Switzerland || [[Buchwiesen]] || Buchwiesenstr. 3, 8586 Erlen
|-
| Switzerland || [[Reconvilier]] || Chaindon 38, 2732 Reconvilier
|-
| Switzerland || [[Diessbach]] || Dorfstr. 59, 3264 Diessbach
|-
| Switzerland || [[Eggstei]] || Ibergstr. 6, 9220
|-
| Switzerland || [[Erlenbach]] || Schulhausstr. 23, 8703
|-
| Switzerland || [[Giebel]] || Giebelfeld 619d, 3552 Bärau
|-
| Switzerland || [[Hombrechtikon]] || Aberenstr. 80, 8712 Stäfa
|-
| Switzerland || [[Lachern]] || Lachernweg 2a, 8952 Schlieren
|-
| Switzerland || [[Mettmenstetten]] || Weidstr. 20, 8932
|-
| Switzerland || [[Neuhof]] || Hittnauerstr. 34, 8330 Pfäffikon
|-
| Switzerland || [[Rümlang]] || Steinfeldstr. 6, 8153
|-
| Switzerland || [[Spalen]] || Missionsstrasse 37, 4055
|-
| Switzerland || [[Weinberg]] || Weinbergstr. 22, 8630 Rüti
|-
| Switzerland || [[Zurich]] || Freiestrasse 83, 8032
|-
|}

==Story==

The Community of Evangelical Baptists (GET) was founded by the former Reformed pastor Samuel Heinrich Fröhlich . He worked in Leutwil in the first third of the 19th century , but fell out with the church authorities due to theological differences. However, many people felt touched by his sermons, which led to several hundred people meeting outside of the national church structures to listen to him. In 1832, he performed believer's baptism on 38 of them . The subsequent communion on Pentecost Sunday of the same year is today considered to be the birth of the ETGs.

By the end of his life (1857), there were already more than 30 GETs spread across Switzerland , Alsace , and southern Germany . But even after his death, the GETs continued to spread, hardly in Switzerland and Germany anymore , but instead in France , Eastern Europe (especially Hungary ), and North and South America . At the same time, however, the GETs also had to contend with the fact that they had a relatively loose organization. Regular national and international elders ' meetings were organized in order to reach agreement on the most important theological questions. In addition, the GETs visited each other regularly. However, no contact was maintained with other evangelical free churches .

At the beginning of the 20th century, a dispute arose between the congregations. In the USA, the GETs called themselves "Evangelical Baptist Churches" or "Apostolic Christian Churches" (a Swiss book print from around 1900 also refers to the congregation that published this book as the "Apostolic Christian Congregation"). A dispute began there between the strongly Mennonite/Amish-based parts of the congregation, which traditionally rejected the moustache as being too military-like, and the Eastern European-Slavic-influenced parts of the congregation, which traditionally wore the moustache as a men's fashion. The stricter movement, which forbade its members from wearing a new beard fashion with the warning that as a Christian one should not equate oneself with the "world", ultimately formed the majority, from which the "Apostolic Christian Church (Nazarean)" split off, which did not ban the moustache. Both parts of the congregation continue to exist in the USA to this day, although they refer to themselves as "sister congregations".

The dispute over the moustache also grew into a problem in Switzerland due to intercontinental contacts. The GETs split in various places, forced by the stricter side, such as in Basel in 1905, when the stricter part decided at a meeting to no longer recognize those who did not share their stricter view. It took several years before all communities were affected. Ultimately, after the splits, the stricter group formed the majority in most places. For example, the ratio between the "contractual" GET (= allowing the moustache) and the "non-contractual" GET (= banning the moustache) in Langnau was ¼ to ¾, but the more liberal part kept the community center and the conservative part built a new one in Bärau, which still stands in that place today.

Although the stricter part initially formed the majority, it was unable to maintain its congregation numbers and continued to shrink. The two parts of the congregation also increasingly diverged theologically, especially since the liberal GETs, after a noticeable shrinking process, formed a new group under the name "Association of Evangelical Baptist Congregations" (ETG) in 1984. This was accompanied by a liberalization process, theologically, ecumenically and overall more evangelical in nature. This process was not uniform either, and outside of this new congregational association, some GETs on the contractual side remained who wanted to maintain a more conservative profile (they added the term "Nazarene" in brackets to the congregation names they retained, e.g. in Breidenbach, Hesse).

In Germany, the GETs on the non-contractual side, the moustache opponents, often called themselves "Old Mennonites". In 1964 they had eight regular meeting places, some of which were just house groups . [ 1 ]

Although various attempts were made to reunite, for example in 1940 at a meeting of elders for Switzerland, all of them were unsuccessful. Today there are neither relationships nor cooperation between the extremely strict (the non-contractual part of the GET and the Old Mennonites) and the more open (ETGs, GETs (Nazarenes)) groups, and there is also in some cases no cooperation between the ETGs and the GETs (Nazarenes).

In a presentation of its own church history, the ETG briefly describes its development as follows: The Second World War and the resulting interruption of international relations alienated the churches. There were now different opinions on certain theological questions, but people were now more open to other denominations . The fact that the ETGs were still not subordinate to any organization also played a major role. In order to better coordinate the churches and, above all, the various institutions that had since been founded, the Federation of Evangelical Baptist Churches was finally founded in Bern in 1984. All European local churches of the ETG can become members.


==Works, Institutions and Ecumenism==
Works and institutions in Germany and Switzerland that are close to the ETG Federation but work as independent associations are: EMD - Center for Intercultural Cooperation (EMD) in Weinfelden and Ludwigsburg, the "HILFE" cooperative in Zurich, the Evangelical Leisure Center CREDO in Wilderswil and the Evangelical Leisure Center "Lindenwiese" in Überlingen on Lake Constance. The ETG Federation also works with the Bienenberg Training and Conference Center (ATB) in Liestal near Basel . The ETG Federation is a member of the Association of Evangelical Free Churches and Congregations in Switzerland . Many local congregations are also members of the Swiss Evangelical Alliance .

==member communities==
The member municipalities of the ETG Federation are located in Germany (10), Switzerland (22) and France (3). [ 2 ]

There are municipalities in Germany (as of 2010) in Oppelsbohm (municipality of Berglen ), Scheppach , Balingen, Breidenbach, Öhringen, Nuremberg, Offstein, Karlsruhe-Durlach , Ludwigsburg , Neuhütten (municipality of Wüstenrot ), Siegelsbach , Spaichingen and Bambergen (city of Überlingen ). [ 3 ]

There are municipalities in Switzerland (as of 2010) in Au (municipality of Wädenswil ), Bachenbülach , Basel , Bern , Bischofszell , Chaindon , Diessbach bei Büren , Erlen TG , Erlenbach ZH , Grub AR , Hombrechtikon , Giebel (municipality of Langnau im Emmental ), Mettmenstetten , Pfäffikon ZH , Rümlang , Rüti ZH , Schlieren , Stäfa and Zurich .

==membership numbers==
The ETG Federation itself states that its current membership is 2,500. [ 4 ]

==literature==
Oswald Eggenberger: The churches, special groups and religious associations. A handbook. 3rd revised edition. Theologischer Verlag, Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-290-11542-9
Horst Gerlach: The Old Mennonites among us. From Samuel Fröhlich and the New Anabaptists , in: Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter Vol. 21 (1964), pp. 36–50.
Jürgen Tibusek: One faith, many churches. The Christian religious communities – who they are and what they believe. 2nd edition. Brunnen Verlag, Gießen 1994, ISBN 3-7655-1593-0
Bernhard Ott : Becoming a missionary community. The path of the Evangelical Baptist communities. Verlag ETG, Uster 1996, ISBN 3-9520929-0-8
Ders.: The Evangelical Anabaptist Congregations (ETG). Also ‹New Anabaptists› or ‹Fröhlichians› , in: Mennonitica Helvetica 30 (2007), pp. 179–211.
web links
Portal: Anabaptist Movement  – Overview of Wikipedia content on the topic of Anabaptist Movement
Official website of the Federal ETG
individual references
 Gerlach (1964, p. 43 f.) gives the following meeting places in Germany: Adelshofen, Eppingen, Walldorf, Durlach, Heilbronn, Heißesheim near Donauwörth, Nagold and Deisendorf near Überlingen.
The path of our community since the Second World War , there under 8. The current structures of the ETG ( Memento of the original from December 9, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , read on December 8, 2018. 
 Gerlach (1964, p. 43) names “progressive” communities in Germany in the following places: in Ludwigsburg, in Neuhütten, district of Heilbronn, in Sundheim (Baden), Schönbuch, district of Überlingen, Lauffen a. N., Bretten, Darmstadt, Ulm, Munich and in many other places. In total there are about 36 communities.
The path of our community since World War II , there under no. 8: The current structures of the ETG ( Memento of the original from December 9, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , read on December 8, 2018. This corresponds to the number of members that was stated in 2010: The path of our community since World War II ( Memento from August 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), there under 8., accessed on November 17, 2010.