Sprengel Ostfriesland-Ems

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The Sprengel Ostfriesland-Ems (until 2013 Sprengel Ostfriesland) is one of six not independent subdistricts of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover , which is divided into the Sprengel Hannover , Hildesheim-Göttingen , Lüneburg , Osnabrück , Ostfriesland-Ems and Stade .

The Martin Luther Church in Emden, sermon church of the state superintendent of the district of East Friesland

geography

The district of Ostfriesland-Ems is located in the far west of Lower Saxony and the Hanoverian regional church. It borders on the North Sea , in the west on the Protestantse Kerk in Nederland , in the south on the Evangelical Church of Westphalia and in the east on the Sprengel Osnabrück and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg .

The area of the parish corresponded to the adopted by the General Synod in November 2006, July 1, 2007 Sprengel structural reform the old borders of East Friesland and the administrative district of Aurich, roughly where the counties Aurich , Leer and Wittmund and the independent city of Emden with an area of ​​approx. 3200 km². Compared to the Oldenburg regional church, the old and the new Sprengel did not take part in the territorial changes of the community reforms in the second half of the twentieth century. So it happens that the western part of the community Sande in the district of Friesland - the old office of Gödens - belongs ecclesiastically to the district of Ostfriesland-Ems, but the parish of Idafehn in the community of Ostrhauderfehn in the district of Leer to the Oldenburg regional church.

Effective July 1, 2007, the area of ​​the Ostfriesland district was greatly enlarged: the Emsland-Bentheim parish in the Osnabrück district was reclassified. It covers the area of ​​the districts of Emsland and Grafschaft Bentheim . While mainly Evangelical-Lutheran parishioners lived in the previous Sprengel area, this is different in the newly added church district: the Grafschaft Bentheim is inhabited by predominantly Evangelical-Reformed parishioners, in Emsland, however, the Roman Catholic Church is strongest. On November 29, 2013, the 24th regional synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover decided that the district of Ostfriesland is now called "Sprengel Ostfriesland-Ems".

history

The Reformation, as coined by Martin Luther , took hold under the East Frisian Count Edzard I ( the Great ), who was personally won over to the new teaching through Luther's writings and granted his subjects freedom of belief and teaching.

But before the Wittenberg embassy had conquered the whole country, Zwingli's reformed teaching penetrated from the Rhine into East Frisia. Georg Aportanus ( Jürgen van der Döre ) announced it in Emden and founded a large town there.

Count Edzard's son and successor Enno II wavered between Lutheran and Reformed teaching. In the course of time it turned out that neither the Lutheran nor the Reformed teaching could supplant the other. In general, the princes were Lutheran and the classes that were opposed to them were reformed under Emden's leadership, also based on the Netherlands . In 1599 the Emden Concordats settled the dispute between the denominations.

The coexistence of the two evangelical denominations remained throughout the years. In 1744, the Prussian authorities transferred the supervision of the Reformed parishes to the Aurich Consistory , which was primarily occupied by Lutherans and founded in 1643. Unintentionally connected, the Reformed fought for a Lutheran-Reformed filling of posts in the consistory on an equal footing until 1766. The Lutheran members in the consistory supervised the parishes of the Augsburg Confession, the Reformed members in the consistory supervised the reformed parishes as moderamen .

The revival movement provided an effective impetus for the coexistence of both denominations . In 1893 the statutes of the "Evangelical Mission Society" said: "In East Friesland there is a society that belongs to both Protestant denominations". The founding of the "East Frisian Bible Society" in 1838 was a fruit of the revival movement and contributed to the rapprochement of both denominations. And so the common perception of church responsibility is realized today in the joint sponsorship of various workplaces, services and initiatives.

From 1815 to the Kingdom of Hanover duly Lutheran parishes of East Friesland formed a provincial Lutheran Church, initially passed through the material transferred from the Prussian era General Superintendent Johann Peter Andreas Müller . The Lutheran churches of the Hanoverian parts of the country were only merged in 1865 to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover . In this, the Lutheran parishes of East Friesland formed the General Diocese of Aurich with the Aurich Consistory, which, unlike in the regional church, was not purely Lutheran. The interdenominational cooperation also did not end when the consistory also became the governing body of the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover , newly formed in 1882 , which united most of the Hanoverian Reformed parishes into its own regional church. In 1922 the consistory was purely reformed; the Lutheran state consistory in Hanover was now responsible for East Frisian Lutherans. The new constitution of the reformed regional church of 1925 transformed the consistory into the new reformed regional church office. The General Diocese of Aurich was renamed Sprengel Ostfriesland in 1936 .

The coexistence in East Friesland has become togetherness - even if today the 267,000 Lutherans and 90,000 Reformed are organized in two separate regional churches in Germany in a unique way, which are both member churches of the Evangelical Church in Germany : the Lutheran regional church of Hanover and the Evangelical Reformed Church .

structure

The Sprengel Ostfriesland-Ems includes the seven church districts Aurich, Emden, Emsland-Bentheim , Harlingerland (Esens), Leer, Norden and Rhauderfehn (Westrhauderfehn), which are divided into 136 parishes with 208 pastors. About a million people live there, 45 percent of whom belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

In the area of ​​the Sprengels Ostfriesland-Ems there are the five synodal associations I, IV, Grafschaft Bentheim, Emsland-Osnabrück and Rheiderland, on the part of the Roman Catholic Church ( Diocese of Osnabrück ) the seven deaneries Aschendorf, Bentheim, Freren, Haren, Hümmling, Lingen, Meppen and East Frisia.

State superintendent

management

Pedestrian zone in Aurich with a view of the Lambertikirche

The management of the Sprengels lies with the state superintendent , until 2007 in Aurich it was relocated to Emden as part of the structural reform .

From there, episcopal tasks are performed, which are delegated by the bishop's office in Hanover for reasons of distance alone. The incumbents of the state superintendent are therefore often called " regional bishops ".

The Sermon Church was the Lambertikirche in Aurich until 2007 , since then it has been the Martin Luther Church in Emden .

The incumbents of all Hanover regional superintendent's offices together with the regional bishop form the bishop's council of the regional church.

State superintendent

Sprengelbeirat

The regional superintendent is supported by the Sprengelbeirat, whose twelve members come from all church districts of the Sprengel.

Ephoric Convention

The leading clergy of the church districts, the superintendents , form the Ephorenkonvent des Sprengels. One of these office holders is also the deputy of the state superintendent.

Blasting services

The Sprengel Ostfriesland offers the communities and the community members of its area a variety of services:

District members of the regional synod

The Sprengel Ostfriesland sends seven members to the highest parliamentary body of the Hanoverian regional church, the regional synod .

Current regional synodals are (* = ordained member, ** = appointed member):

  1. * Gerd Bohlen, Superintendent, Rhauderfehn
  2. Ludwig Brüggemann, retired mayor of the municipality D., Hage
  3. ** Gunda Dröge, real estate agent, Meppen
  4. Heike Lübben, lawyer, Neuschoo
  5. Alwin Pfanne, Telecommunication Supervisor i. R., Aurich
  6. Friedrich Pralle, vocational school deacon, Wittmund
  7. Bettina Siegmund, graduate agricultural engineer, Leer

literature

  • L. Tiesmeyer: The history of the revival movement in Germany . 1908/1912
  • Philipp Meyer: From the history of the Reformation in Lower Saxony . 1952
  • P. Alpers: Small Church History of Lower Saxony . 1965

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover: "Ostfriesland-Ems": New name for the district of Ostfriesland . Accessed December 2, 2013.