Alfred Gajan

Alfred Gajan in 2009

Alfred Gajan (born April 22, 1933 in Poprad -Matejovce (Matzdorf), Czechoslovakia ; † November 10, 2015 in Calw ) was a German Protestant pastor , long-time inspector of the Liebenzeller community association and author .

Live and act

Alfred Gajan grew up as an only child. His parents, Arpád and Maria Gajan, divorced when he was three years old. In the turmoil of the Second World War , his mother fled with him to Austria in Styria in 1944 . In 1946 they moved to Germany, where they found a new home in Birkenau (Odenwald) . There he completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk from 1950 to 1953 . Due to severe pulmonary tuberculosis, he was treated for over three years in the Thoraxklinik Heidelberg until 1957 . During this difficult time he found faith and joined the local EC youth group and the community of the Liebenzeller community association in Weinheim . In 1959 he began a theological training at the Theological Seminary of the Liebenzeller Mission . From 1961 to 1963 he worked as a community pastor in the Bietigheim district , then until 1971 in the Reutlingen district and then until 1973 in the Schwäbisch Hall district of the South German Community Association (SV).

In 1973 Gajan was appointed inspector of the Liebenzeller Community Association (LGV) and held this position until he retired in 1996. Until the structural reform in 1991, the association was a branch of the Liebenzeller Mission, which is why he also worked in its management from 1979 to 1992 second assistant director was. At the theological seminar of the Liebenzeller Mission he taught the subjects of the history of the community movement as well as practical theology and evangelism (theology, methodology and homiletics of evangelism). From 1973 he was a member of the general assembly and between 1991 and 2000 he was a member of the board of the Evangelical Gnadauer Community Association . In 1993 he was instrumental in the agreements such as the updating of the Pietist Rescript , a decree of Duke Karl Friedrich II (Württemberg-Oels) from 1743, with which the regional churches in Baden and Württemberg recognize the independence of the Pietist communities. Gajan was editor of the distribution sheet “Friedenslicht”, the association magazine “durchblick und dienst” and the author of many articles in the “Carpathian Post. Evangelical Messenger of Faith ”for the Evangelical Lutheran Germans from Slovakia. His lecture tours have taken him to south-east Europe, Slovakia and Hungary

He was an honorary member of the Ludwig Hofacker Circle (today the Christ Movement “Living Congregation” ), whose regional Hofacker Conference (today Christ Day ) in Bad Liebenzell he headed from 1974 to 2000. For decades he was a member of the general assembly of the Evangeliumsrundfunks , the German tent mission and the Missionsbund Licht im Osten . As a supporter, he was one of the first to sign the “Time to Get Up - An Impulse for the Future of the Church” initiative.

Private

Alfred Gajan married Christa Pflaum in May 1964, who died in February 1996. In September 2000 he married Krisztina Pinter. The couple lived in Wimberg (Calw) since 2005.

Publications

• And someone goes with me , Verlag der Liebenzeller Mission , Bad Liebenzell 1977, ISBN 3-88002-035-3 .
• 50 years of the Liebenzeller community association: 1933 1983; ... that you go and bring fruit and your fruit remains ... (Red.), Liebenzeller Community Association, Bad Liebenzell 1983.
• With renewed courage. Elia under the Wacholderbusch , Verlag der Liebenzeller Mission, Bad Liebenzell 1984, ISBN 978-3-88002-216-4 .
• Think ahead, think ahead! , Verlag der Liebenzeller Mission, Bad Liebenzell 1987, ISBN 978-3-88002-323-9 .
• Hope comforts on the way: from my life (autobiography), Verlag der Liebenzeller Mission, Bad Liebenzell 2000, ISBN 978-3-88002-708-4 , Brunnen Verlag (Gießen) , ISBN 978-3-7655-1206-3 .

as a co-author

• with Kurt Heimbucher : When you get together , Verlag der Liebenzeller Mission, Bad Liebenzell 1983, ISBN 978-3-88002-184-6 .
• with Kurt Heimbucher and Traugott Thoma (eds.): Divine guidance. Well-known personalities tell from their lives , Verlag der Liebenzeller Mission, Bad Liebenzell 1985, ISBN 978-3-88002-276-8 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Alfred Gajan in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Alfred Gajan  in the German Digital Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Alfred Gajan: Death and Obituary. , schwarzwaelder-bote.de, article from November 13, 2015.
2. ↑ Liebenzeller community association mourns Alfred Gajan. , lgv.org, message from November 11, 2015. ( Memento from November 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Pietist Rescript 1993. , kirchenrecht-ekwue.de, accessed on November 14, 2015.
4. ^ Liebenzeller community association: Ex-community inspector Alfred Gajan died at the age of 82. , idea.de, notification dated November 12, 2015.
5. ^ Alfred Gajan on his 80th birthday ( Memento from November 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), karpatendeutsche.de. Karpatenpost 2013/04, pp. 5–6, accessed on November 15, 2015 (PDF; 2.07 MB).
6. ↑ ^{a b} Alfred Gajan died. ( Memento from November 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Lebige-gemeinde.de, message from November 12, 2015.
7. ^ First signatory of the "Time to get up" initiative. , zeit-zum-aufhaben.de, accessed on November 14, 2015.