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A free church is any Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government. A free church neither defines government policy, nor accept church theology or policy definitions from the government. A free church also does not seek or receive government endorsements or funding to carry out its work. The term is only relevant in countries with established state churches. Notwithstanding that the description "free" has no inherent doctrinal or polity overtones. An individual belonging to a free church is known as a free churchperson or, historically, free churchman.
Lutheranism is present on all inhabited continents with an estimated 80 million adherents, out of which 74.2 million are affiliated with the Lutheran World Federation. A major movement that first began the Reformation, it constitutes one of the largest Protestant branches claiming around 80 million out of 920 million Protestants. The Lutheran World Federation brings together the vast majority of Lutherans. Apart from it, there are also other organisations such as the International Lutheran Council and the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, as well as multiple independent Lutheran denominations.
Christianity in Kazakhstan is the second most practiced religion after Islam and one of the major religions of Kazakhstan.
Christianity is a minority religion in Sri Lanka. It was introduced to the island in first century. Traditionally, after Thomas the Apostle's visit in Kerala in AD 52, Christianity is said to have been introduced to Sri Lanka because of its close geographical and commercial ties.
Christianity is a minority religion in Tajikistan.
Finland is a predominantly Christian nation where 65.2% of the Finnish population of 5.6 million are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (Protestant), 32.0% are unaffiliated, 1.1% are Orthodox Christians, 0.9% are other Christians and 0.8% follow other religions like Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, folk religion etc. These statistics do not include, for example, asylum seekers who have not been granted a permanent residence permit.
Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the United States. Estimates from 2021 suggest that of the entire U.S. population about 63% is Christian. The majority of Christian Americans are Protestant Christians, though there are also significant numbers of American Roman Catholics and other Christian denominations such as Latter Day Saints, Eastern Orthodox Christians and Oriental Orthodox Christians, and Jehovah's Witnesses. The United States has the largest Christian population in the world and, more specifically, the largest Protestant population in the world, with nearly 210 million Christians and, as of 2021, over 140 million people affiliated with Protestant churches, although other countries have higher percentages of Christians among their populations. The Public Religion Research Institute's "2020 Census of American Religion", carried out between 2014 and 2020, showed that 70% of Americans identified as Christian during this seven-year interval. In a 2020 survey by the Pew Research Center, 65% of adults in the United States identified themselves as Christians. They were 75% in 2015, 70.6% in 2014, 78% in 2012, 81.6% in 2001, and 85% in 1990. About 62% of those polled claim to be members of a church congregation.
Christianity was first introduced to Thailand by European missionaries. By 2021, it represented 1.2% of the predominantly Buddhist national population. Christians are numerically and organizationally concentrated in northern Thailand, where they make up an estimated 16% of the population in some lowland districts and up to very high percentages in tribal districts.
According to the Lithuanian census of 2021, the predominant religion in Lithuania is Christianity, with the largest confession being that of the Catholic Church. There are smaller groups of Orthodox Christians, Evangelical Lutherans, members of Reformed churches, other Protestants, Jews and Muslims as well as people of other religions.
The Baptist Church in Ukraine is one of the oldest and most widespread Evangelical Christian denominations in the country. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, over half the 1.5 million acknowledged Baptists and Pentecostals in the USSR lived in Soviet Ukraine. Prior to its independence in 1991, Ukraine was home to the second largest Baptist community in the world, after the United States, and was called the "Bible Belt" of the Soviet Union.
Christianity in Uzbekistan is a minority religion.
Estonia, historically a Lutheran Christian nation, is today one of the least religious countries in the world in terms of declared attitudes, with only 14 percent of the population declaring religion to be an important part of their daily life. This is thought to largely be a result of the Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1940, prior to which Estonia had a large Christian majority.
The main religion traditionally practiced in Latvia is Christianity. As of 2019, it is the largest religion (68.84%), though only about 7% of the population attends religious services regularly.
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes justification of sinners through faith alone, the teaching that salvation comes by unmerited divine grace, the priesthood of all believers, and the Bible as the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice. The five solae summarize the basic theological beliefs of mainstream Protestantism.
Protestantism in Italy comprises a minority of the country's religious population.
Protestantism is the largest grouping of Christians in the United States, with its combined denominations collectively comprising about 43% of the country's population in 2019. Other estimates suggest that 48.5% of the U.S. population is Protestant. Simultaneously, this corresponds to around 20% of the world's total Protestant population. The U.S. contains the largest Protestant population of any country in the world. Baptists comprise about one-third of American Protestants. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest single Protestant denomination in the U.S., comprising one-tenth of American Protestants. Twelve of the original Thirteen Colonies were Protestant, with only Maryland having a sizable Catholic population due to Lord Baltimore's religious tolerance.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Central Asia, also known as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia and the Other States (ELCROS), is a Lutheran denomination that itself comprises seven regional Lutheran denominations in Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan as well as individual congregations in Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. Established in its current form in 1999, ELCROS currently has about 24,050 members in more than 400 congregations within its jurisdiction.
Christianity in Taiwan constituted 3.9% of the population, according to the census of 2005; Christians on the island included approximately 600,000 Protestants, 300,000 Catholics and a small number of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
References
- ↑ World Religion Database on the ARDA website, retrieved 2023-08-03
- ↑ "Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Central Asia". Archived from the original on September 29, 2007.
- ↑ "German site on mission in Tajikistan" (PDF).
- 1 2 "US State Dept 2022 Religious freedom report on Tajikistan".
- ↑ "Open Doors on Tajikistan". Archived from the original on April 13, 2008.
- ↑ "European Baptist Federation".
- 1 2 3 4 "European Baptist Federation website, Mission in Tajikistan".
- ↑ "European Baptist Federation".
- ↑ The World Christian Encyclopedia, Second edition, Volume 1, p. 728
