The Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of the Church of the Holy Cross in Cottbus and the Evan-gelical Lutheran Congregation of St. Peter’s Church in Döbbrick are united with the Church of Jesus Christ throughout the whole world. Both belong to the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK) in Germany..
Independent
The congregations are corporations under public law, care for their own needs, and are financed only by the donations of their parishioners.
Evangelical
In our worships services Jesus Christ is proclaimed as the only way to eternal life. The gospel tells of the freedom that Jesus offers us through His death on the cross. This blessed message forms the core and substance of our congregational life. Believers expe-rience the liberating power of the Good News that Jesus Christ accepts sinners unconditionally and gives them new life. No one can discover these teachings on his own because „faith comes by hear-ing.“ And so the purpose of our worship services is to proclaim the Gospel so that it can be believed and its power experienced.
Lutheran
The Lutheran Confessions are the basis of our doc-trine. The confessions were written during the Ref-ormation and express significant aspects of the Gos-pel that were rediscovered at that time. We accept as true and valid the confessions’ explanation of the Gospel as the glad tidings of God’s grace.
Church
We are a church because the Lord’s Word is preached there and the sacraments are administered as Jesus Christ instituted them..