Manfred Kock

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Manfred Kock 2005

Manfred Kock (born September 14, 1936 in Burgsteinfurt , Westphalia ) is a German Protestant theologian.

Live and act

After attending the Arnoldinum grammar school in Burgsteinfurt, Kock studied Protestant theology at the Bethel Church University in Bielefeld , at the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster and at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen . From 1961 to 1962 he was a research assistant at the church college in Bethel. After the vicariate he became a pastor in the auxiliary service in Recklinghausen -Süd, where he received his first pastor in the miners' community of Philipp-Nicolai. He also gave religious instruction at a commercial vocational school, at the mountain vocational school and at a secondary school.

Work in Cologne

In October 1970 Manfred Kock was elected the first full-time youth pastor of the Evangelical City Church Association of Cologne with 4 church districts and more than 60 parishes (more than 300,000 parishioners).

A special focus of the work was the establishment of the youth pastor's office as a contact for the many parishes in the city and in the districts and their full-time and voluntary employees in youth work. For the first time, the office became a negotiating partner for cities and districts with the Protestant Church. Among other things, Kock became a reminder and applicant for professional drug help, which then led to permanent establishment in 1972.

In March 1974, as “Manfred Kock, youth pastor, Cologne” he was one of the 77 signatories of a controversial open letter (written by Wolfgang Grell ) to the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Justice Diether Posser .

On January 5, 1976, Kock was introduced to the first parish of the Cologne Evangelical Church Community of Bickendorf in the Bocklemünd district. Bocklemünd / Mengenich had emerged a few years earlier as a satellite town for almost 12,000 new residents on the north-western outskirts. Together with his colleague, Pastor Renate Graffmann and in ecumenical partnership with the Catholic parish of the Nativity of Christ under the direction of Monsignor Wilhelm Löhers, u. a. by building a community center each, a new city district is revitalized and shaped.

From 1980 he was superintendent of the church district Cologne-Nord and from 1988 also city superintendent of Cologne. During this time he developed models for a contemporary church public relations work (“mix yourself” campaign). Manfred Kock was President of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland from February 1997 to April 2003 . The office of the president corresponds to that of a regional bishop. The synod (the "church parliament") of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, with 3.2 million members the second largest of 24 Evangelical regional churches in Germany, elected Kock in January 1997 to succeed the late President Peter Beier for eight years .

After the death of the former mayor of Cologne, Norbert Burger, he was chairman of the Cologne / Bethlehem partnership from 2012 to September 2016.

Acting as EKD chairman

On November 5, 1997, the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) elected him with 116 out of 137 votes at its meeting in Wetzlar as chairman of the council, the EKD's highest church political decision-making body. His election, with which he succeeded the Baden regional bishop Klaus Engelhardt , was generally considered a surprise. Even then, the election of the Berlin bishop Wolfgang Huber was expected, who then became Kock's successor as council chairman in 2003.

In addition to his main office as President and his "honorary" work as EKD Council Chairman, Manfred Kock held a number of other church offices, from 1987 to 1997 a. a. Member of the Synod of the Evangelical Church of the Union (EKU), an association of eastern and western regional churches with a common confessional tradition (so-called Old Prussian Union ) and chairman of a number of church foundations (including the Evangelical Jerusalem Foundation, Kaiserin-Auguste-Victoria-Stiftung) . In 2011 he had to give up the chairmanship of the board of trustees of the ecumenical foundation Bible and Culture for reasons of age (75 years). He is an honorary member of the Order of St. John .

Important goals of his church political work were among others: the reform of church structures, the implementation of the missionary mandate of the church in modern society, also through the use of the newer communication media, as well as the shaping of the future of Protestantism in Europe.

Further concerns included the continuation and deepening of the ecumenical dialogue, especially with the Catholic Church and the dialogue with the churches in Europe. In questions of bioethics, Kock has clearly positioned himself for the protection of developing life at the earliest point in time with reference to the biblical image of man. In the discussion about euthanasia, he warned against a dehumanizing development in dealing with old and terminally ill people. In terms of media ethics, too, he is concerned with questions of human dignity, for example in connection with so-called reality TV productions. He was particularly interested in the relationship between church and art.

Manfred Kock is considered a preacher who brings the pastoral and social dimension of the biblical message into the dialogue with the political forces and social groups in Germany. He wanted to keep the Protestant Church open to people who were searching and who doubted, and he was always looking for a language by means of which the Christian faith could reach people today.

Kock has been married to the teacher Gisela Kock, daughter of Alfred Stephany , since 1962 . The couple has three children, six grandchildren and lives in Cologne.

Honors

Web links

Commons : Manfred Kock  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred Kock in the Munzinger archive , accessed on August 21, 2012 ( beginning of the article freely available)
  2. ↑ Order of Merit for former President Kock
personal data
SURNAME Kock, Manfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian, Chairman of the Council of the EKD
DATE OF BIRTH September 14, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Burgsteinfurt