The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany (Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Norddeutschland) is a Lutheran member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD). It was established on 27 May 2012 as a merger of the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg, and the Pomeranian Evangelical Church. It covers the combined area of all those former member churches, which are the federal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Nordkirche is the only Landeskirche in Germany which covers parts of both New states of Germany and West Germany. It is also called Nordkirche (North Church). It has 1,892,749 members (31/12/2020). There are 1,704 ordained pastors and more than 84,000 volunteers working for Nordkirche (4/2016). Landesbischof The Landesbischof (Presiding Bishop) is the senior (metropolitan) bishop and principal leader of the Nordkirche. In German, Nordkirche uses the title Landesbischof (literally: State Bishop). He or she got his or her see in Schwerin Cathedral but preaches in both, Schwerin Cathedral and Lübeck Cathedral. He or she is the leader and primus inter pares of the bishops in the dioceses (Sprengel). He or she chairs the Council of Bishops (Bischofsrat) and the Church Executive Board (Kirchenleitung). First Landesbischof Gerhard Ulrich also served as Leitender Bischof (Leading Bishop) of United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany from 2011 until 2018. Ulrich was retired as Presiding Bishop 31 March 2019. On 27 September 2018, the General Synod elected regional bishop (Regionalbischöfin) Kristina Kühnbaum-Schmidt as new Presiding Bishop (Landesbischöfin). She started to serve as new Presiding Bishop 1 April 2019; Gerhard Ulrich gave back his pectoral cross 9 March 2019 and was retired 31 March 2019. Dioceses There are three dioceses (German: Sprengel). They consist of total 13 districts (German: Kirchenkreise). Each diocese is led by a bishop in the diocese (German:Bischof im Sprengel). Sprengel Schleswig und Holstein (Diocese of Schleswig and Holstein) covers the state of Schleswig-Holstein without some parts of Southern Holstein (larger urban zone of Hamburg), Lübeck and the Duchy of Lauenburg. The parishes in Nordschleswig (Danish: Nordslesvig) in Southern Denmark (Jutland) also belong to the Diocese of Schleswig and Holstein. Current bishop is Gothard Magaard. He got his see in Schleswig Cathedral. Kirchenkreis Altholstein Kirchenkreis Dithmarschen Kirchenkreis Nordfriesland Kirchenkreis Ostholstein Kirchenkreis Plön-Segeberg Kirchenkreis Rantzau-Münsterdorf Kirchenkreis Rendsburg-Eckernförde Kirchenkreis Schleswig-Flensburg Parishes of German speaking minority in Southern Jutland (South of Denmark). Sprengel Hamburg und Lübeck (Diocese of Hamburg and