Hello all, Since I have run across a number of archive links for Lutheran churches in Germany, I thought it pertinent to ask if anyone on the list can explain the current organization of Lutheran churches in Germany. >From what I can gather, there is a top-level organization, Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, which is composed of 24 regional church organization. Each of these regional organizations appears to be composed of smaller organizations, which one of the regional organizations refers to as "Kirchengemeinde(n)". Are these local churches, or what? Does anybody know? If there are any informed subscribers who can explain to the rest of us just how this organization should be understood, please post to the list. I will use any responses, along with my own intuitions where necessary, to enhance the mailing list webpage with sites for Germany. Also, I have considered the possibility of asking for a suite of GenConnect boards to go along with LUTHERAN-ROOTS. If granted, the suite would include the following boards, searchable from within Rootsweb: Queries Bible Records Bios Deeds Obits Pensions Wills Do you think it would be useful to have such boards available? The purpose of the boards would be two-fold: 1) Provide a place where you can post original records in your possession that you may wish to share with others 2) Provide a searchable repository -- all GenConnect boards are globally searchable using the Rootsweb surname helper. This would allow others researching your same surnames to contact you. Let me know what you think. -- Mary Taffet List Administrator for LUTHERAN-ROOTS mdtaffet@syr.edu