National church

A Church of Denmark parish church in Holte, with the Dannebrog flying in its churchyard

A national church is a Christian church associated with a specific ethnic group or nation state. The idea was notably discussed during the 19th century, during the emergence of modern nationalism.Template:Citation needed

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in a draft discussing the question of church and state around 1828 wrote that

"a National Church might exist, and has existed, without Christianity, because before the institution of the Christian Church – as [...] the Levitical Church in the Hebrew Constitution, [and] the Druidical in the Celtic, would suffice to prove".

John Wordsworth, Bishop of Salisbury, wrote about the National Church of Sweden in 1911, interpreting the Church of Sweden and the Church of England as national churches of the Swedish and the English peoples, respectively.

The concept of a national church remains alive in the Protestantism of United Kingdom and Scandinavia in particular. While, in a context of England, the national church remains a common denominator for the Church of England, some of the Lutheran "folk churches" of Scandinavia, characterized as national churches in the ethnic sense as opposed to the idea of a state church, emerged in the second half of the 19th century following the lead of Grundtvig. However, in countries in which the state church (also known as the established church) has the following of the majority of citizens, the state church may also be the national church, and may be declared as such by the government, e.g. Church of Denmark, Church of Greece, and Church of Iceland.

Countries and regions with national churches

Country	National church	Denomination	Percentage
Template:Flag	Armenian Apostolic Church	Oriental Orthodox	92.5% (2017)
Template:Flag	Bulgarian Orthodox Church	Eastern Orthodox	62.7% (2021)
Template:Flag	Church of Cyprus	Eastern Orthodox	89.1% (2011; government-controlled territory)
Template:Flag	Church of Denmark	Lutheran	74.3% (2020)
Template:Flag	Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church	Lutheran	9.91% (2011)
Template:Flag	Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church	Oriental Orthodox	43.5% (2007)
Template:Flag	Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church	Oriental Orthodox
Template:Flag	Church of the Faroe Islands	Lutheran	79.7% (2019)
Template:Flag	Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, Orthodox Church of Finland	Lutheran Eastern Orthodox	65.2% (2022) 1.02% (2022)
Template:Flag	Georgian Orthodox Church	Eastern Orthodox	83.4% (2014)
Template:Flag	Protestant Church in Germany Catholic Church	ProtestantTemplate:Efn Catholic	23.7% (2021) 26% (2021)
Template:Flag	Church of Greece	Eastern Orthodox	90% (2017)
Template:Flag	Church of Iceland	Lutheran	59% (2022)
Template:Flag	Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia	Lutheran	34.2% (2011)
Template:Flag	Catholic Church	Catholic	75.9% (2010)
Template:Flag	Catholic Church	Catholic	83% (2019)
Template:Flag	Serbian Orthodox Church	Eastern Orthodox	71.1% (2023)
Template:Flag	Macedonian Orthodox Church	Eastern Orthodox	64.4% (2011)
Template:Flag	Church of Norway	Lutheran	69.91% (2018)
Template:Flag	Romanian Orthodox Church	Eastern Orthodox	81.9% (2011)
Template:Flag	Russian Orthodox Church	Eastern Orthodox	71% (2017)
Template:Flag	Serbian Orthodox Church	Eastern Orthodox	84.59% (2011)
Template:Flag	Church of Sweden	Lutheran	53.9% (2021)
Template:Flag	Church of Tuvalu	Calvinist	91%+ (2012)
Template:Flag	Ukrainian Orthodox Church	Eastern Orthodox	52% (2021)
Template:Flag Template:Flag Template:Flag	British Protestant Churches Church of England Church of Scotland	Protestant Anglican Calvinist	69% 47.0% (2008; with Wales) 20.4% (2022)

Ethnic groups

Country	Group	National church	Denomination
Template:Flag	Copts	Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria	Oriental Orthodox
Template:Flag	Greek Christians	Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria	Eastern Orthodox
Template:Flag	Assyrians	Assyrian Church of the East Chaldean Catholic Church Syriac Catholic Church Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch	Church of the East Eastern Catholic Oriental Orthodox
Template:Flag	Aramaeans	Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch	Oriental Orthodox
Template:Flag	Maronites	Maronite Catholic Church	Eastern Catholic
Template:Flag-Template:Flag-Template:Flag	Antiochian Greek Christians	Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch	Eastern Orthodox
Levant-Template:Flag	Antiochian Greek Christians	Melkite Greek Catholic Church	Eastern Catholic
Template:Flag	Armenian Apostolic Church	Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople	Oriental Orthodox
Template:Flag	Greek Christians	Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople	Eastern Orthodox
Template:Flag	Chinese Indonesians	Gereja Kristen Kalam Kudus	Calvinist
Template:Flag	Dayak people	Evangelical Church in Kalimantan	Calvinist
Template:Flag	Moluccans	Protestant Church of Maluku	Calvinist
Template:Flag	Balinese	Protestant Christian Church in Bali	Calvinist
Template:Flag	Sundanese	Pasundan Christian Church	Calvinist
Template:Flag	Minahasans	Christian Evangelical Church in Minahasa	Calvinist
Template:Flag	Javanese Madurese	East Java Christian Church	Calvinist
Template:Flag	Javanese	Javanese Christian Church	Calvinist
Template:Flag	Torajan	Toraja Church	Calvinist
Template:Flag	Torajan	Toraja Mamasa Church	Calvinist
Template:Flag	Karo Batak	Karo Batak Protestant Church	Calvinist
Template:Flag	Angkola Batak	Angkola Protestant Christian Church	Lutheran
Template:Flag	Toba Batak	Batak Christian Protestant Church	Lutheran
Template:Flag	Pakpak Batak	Pakpak Dairi Christian Protestant Church	Lutheran
Template:Flag	Niasans	Protestant Christian Church of Nias	Lutheran
Template:Flag	Simalungun Batak	Simalungun Protestant Christian Church	Lutheran

Criticism

Karl Barth denounced as heretical the tendency of "nationalizing" the Christian God, especially in the context of national churches sanctioning warfare against other Christian nations during World War I.

See also

• Christian nationalism
• Christian amendment
• Christian right
• Christian state
• Phyletism
• State church

References

• William Reed Huntington, A National Church, Bedell lectures, Scribner's, 1897.