7 weeks without

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7 Weeks Without is a nationwide fasting campaign of the Evangelical Church in Germany , which takes place every year during the Passion . It always begins on Ash Wednesday and always ends on Easter Sunday . With more than two million participants every year, the fasting campaign is the best-known church campaign after Bread for the World .

The fasting action

In 1983 a group of journalists and theologians in Hamburg decided to fast for seven weeks - from Ash Wednesday to Easter . 70 participants responded to a call in a church newspaper of the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church . A year later, 300 people took part. The idea spread quickly, so that in 1992 the coordination was transferred from the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church to the nationwide community of Evangelical Journalism in Frankfurt am Main . In 1989 around 500,000 people took part in the church's fasting campaign.

According to an Emnid survey, more than 3 million people in Germany take part in the "7 weeks without" fasting campaign every year, whereby the total number of German citizens who want to forego certain foods and beverages during the fasting period, according to a forsa survey by 2007 was around 11.5 million people for Stern magazine .

The joint venture of Protestant journalism organizes, supervises and supports the fasting campaign, for example through media information, fasting calendars, fasting accompanying letters and other materials, as well as through its own website . Since 1983, thousands of fasting groups have formed in church parishes, schools and associations, and they participate in the campaign with local offers. The annual fasting campaign is regularly reported in the media , for example in radio , television and newspaper reports.

After the reformers rejected fasting entirely or at least as a good work (cf. justification ), the custom in the Protestant churches had been forgotten over the centuries. The action made the originally common Christian tradition popular again in German Protestantism.

subjects

  • 1998: Food - Means of Life
  • 1999: Medialess
  • 2000: step by step
  • 2001: Suffering Lines
  • 2002: Affection
  • 2003: Dreams of life
  • 2004: clarify!
  • 2005: Bright spots
  • 2006: love letters. Remember what is important
  • 2007: respite. Feel how life flows
  • 2008: waste! - 7 weeks without stinginess
  • 2009: Make a decision! - 7 weeks without hesitation
  • 2010: Closer! - 7 weeks without fear
  • 2011: it was me! - 7 weeks without excuses
  • 2012: good enough! - 7 weeks with no false ambition
  • 2013: Take a risk, man! - 7 weeks without caution
  • 2014: think for yourself! - 7 weeks with no false certainties
  • 2015: You're beautiful - 7 weeks without putting it down
  • 2016: big heart! - 7 weeks without being too tight
  • 2017: wait a minute! - 7 weeks without immediately
  • 2018: show yourself! - 7 weeks without pinching
  • 2019: let's be honest! - 7 weeks without lies
  • 2020: Confidence! - 7 weeks without pessimism

aims

The aim is to consciously shape the passion time . The campaign invites people one to reconsider daily habits: they dispense for example beverages such as alcohol , nicotine or candy or other conveniences such as television watching , ready meals or Internet . In this way they create space for changes, develop new perspectives and determine what constitutes quality of life . Another motive is to show solidarity with the disadvantaged by renouncing consumption. The campaign follows the insight “ less is more ” and emphasizes that “7 weeks WITHOUT is also 7 weeks WITH”. Because where there is renunciation, there is also room for new things.

Differences to the Roman Catholic fasting tradition

In contrast to the Roman Catholic tradition, fasting in the Protestant churches is not associated with the sacrament of penance . Thus the lack of salvation -creating character of penance and thus the general obligation for the community members to participate in the fast. Nevertheless, the Passion time as a time of reflection and inner contemplation has retained its importance in the Protestant world to this day.

The 7 weeks without campaign follows this tradition. It differs from the traditional Roman Catholic fasting law in that, on the one hand, there are no specific (food) regulations and, on the other hand, there is no general obligation to participate. The concept of fasting is broader and is not limited to avoiding certain foods and stimulants (traditionally animal products such as meat and milk as well as cooking oil ). It is extended to the abstinence from personal habits, to overturning one's own order in everyday life, in order to free oneself from the constraints of everyday life, in order to realign one's own life to one's own inner values and to God . Because it is optional for the individual believer to fast, participation in the fasting campaign is voluntary.

Impact history

As a supplement to the Protestant campaign “7 weeks without”, the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church has started the decidedly ecumenical campaign “7 weeks with”. This action does not see itself as competition, but as a further development of the evangelical fasting action. The aim of the “7 weeks with” campaign is to focus less on renunciation and more on the content of the Passion of Christ. The situation is similar with the “Live 7 weeks differently” campaign by the ecumenical association “ Andere Zeiten” in Hamburg. He sends out weekly Lenten Letters and runs one of the largest Internet forums in Germany on the subject of Lent from Ash Wednesday to Easter.

literature

  • Björn Uwe Rahlwes, Thomas Hammerschmidt (Hrsg.): Das Lastenlesebuch. Less can be more; of the riches of renunciation in the face of abundance. Seven weeks without. Joint work of Protestant journalism, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-932194-69-1 .
  • Peter Uffelmann, Tobias von der Recke: The right measure or the art of self-restraint. Dtv, Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-423-34119-6 .
  • Hinrich CG Westphal (Ed.): Seven weeks without. Fasting for body and soul. Brockhaus, Wuppertal 1987, ISBN 3-417-20409-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Stammtisch idea - start for “seven weeks without”. Two million people take part in church fasting , report in the world of March 5, 2003 (accessed on March 5, 2009).
  2. ↑ a b Seven weeks without. (PDF; 792 kB) Fasting for the soul. Hamburger Abendblatt, March 25, 1989, accessed on June 27, 2013 .
  3. ↑ “Seven Weeks Without” a nationwide success , report in der Welt from March 4, 2002 (accessed on March 5, 2009).
  4. ↑ Every seventh person wants to do without during Lent. Stern, September 2007, archived from the original on October 20, 2013 ; Retrieved June 27, 2013 .
  5. ↑ a b Radio Church. Seven weeks without hesitation. In: www1.ndr.de. Norddeutscher Rundfunk, February 2009, archived from the original on December 8, 2008 ; Retrieved June 27, 2013 .
  6. ↑ http://www.br.de/fernsehen/bayerisches-fernsehen/sendung/abendschau/index.html (link not available)
  7. ↑ Great cinema with the bishop ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), report in the Frankfurter Rundschau from February 26, 2009 (accessed on March 5, 2009).
  8. ↑ Food - Means of Life. Motto of the EKD fasting campaign "Seven weeks without". (No longer available online.) In: www.ekd.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, March 18, 1998, archived from the original on October 30, 2013 ; Retrieved August 15, 2013 .
  9. ↑ a b suffering lines. Can suffering also have its good? (No longer available online.) In: www.ekd.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, February 27, 2001, archived from the original on October 30, 2013 ; Retrieved August 15, 2013 .
  10. ↑ “Step by step” into the new millennium. Lenten action is approaching Easter. (No longer available online.) In: www.ekd.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, April 3, 2000, archived from the original on January 27, 2013 ; Retrieved August 15, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ekd.de
  11. ↑ "Affection" - Live consciously - Show solidarity. Fasting campaign "7 weeks without" 2002. (No longer available online.) In: www.ekd.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, February 12, 2002, archived from the original on October 31, 2013 ; Retrieved August 15, 2013 .
  12. ↑ Dreams of life. Fasting campaign "7 weeks without" begins. (No longer available online.) In: www.ekd.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, March 5, 2003, archived from the original on October 31, 2013 ; Retrieved August 15, 2013 .
  13. ↑ Get on with the problems! "Seven weeks without" starts for the 21st time. (No longer available online.) In: www.ekd.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, February 24, 2004, archived from the original on October 31, 2013 ; Retrieved August 15, 2013 .
  14. ↑ Bright spots that do you good. The "7 weeks without" campaign starts. (No longer available online.) In: www.ekd.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, February 1, 2005, archived from the original on October 30, 2013 ; Retrieved August 15, 2013 .
  15. ↑ First love letter box is in Frankfurt's Nikolaikirche. The Protestant Church's fasting campaign begins with love greetings. (No longer available online.) In: www.ekd.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, February 28, 2006, archived from the original on January 27, 2013 ; Retrieved August 15, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ekd.de
  16. ↑ Seven weeks without. Evangelical fasting campaign opened. (No longer available online.) In: www.ekd.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, February 21, 2007, archived from the original on October 31, 2013 ; Retrieved August 15, 2013 .
  17. ↑ a b c d e Past fasting actions. 2012 - 2011–2010 - 2009 - 2008. (No longer available online.) In: www.7-wochen-ohne.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, archived from the original on September 27, 2013 ; Retrieved August 15, 2013 .
  18. ↑ 7 weeks without. The fasting action of the Protestant Church 2013. In: www.7-wochen-ohne.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, accessed August 15, 2013 .
  19. ^ The fasting campaign of the Protestant Church 2013. In: www.7-wochen-ohne.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, accessed on February 21, 2014.
  20. ↑ 7 weeks without. The fasting campaign of the Protestant Church 2017. In: www.7-wochen-ohne.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, accessed December 30, 2016 .
  21. ↑ 7 weeks without. The fasting action of the Protestant Church 2018. In: www.7-wochen-ohne.de. Evangelical Church in Germany, accessed January 17, 2018 .
  22. ↑ 7 weeks without. Retrieved February 24, 2019 .
  23. ↑ 7 weeks without. Retrieved February 15, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Internet presence of "7 weeks with"
  25. ↑ Internet presence of "Live 7 weeks differently"
  26. ↑ More than 20,000 participants in ecumenical fasting , report in the Hamburger Abendblatt from February 28, 2011 (accessed on March 10, 2011).