sentences:  The Ordination of women and the blessing of same-sex unions has been allowed.Since 1 July 2004 the church was on the way to merge with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia into the Evangelical Church in Central Germany, with effect of 1 January 2009.The area covered by the Evangelical Church of the Church Province of Saxony was equivalent to the old Prussian Saxony province, similar to the East German state of Saxony-Anhalt (1946–1952; except of former Anhalt) and small parts of the states of Brandenburg and Thuringia.