André Appel

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Appel (2nd from right) in conversation with Mikko Juva , Anders Nygren and Károly Prőhle , 1966

André Appel (born December 20, 1921 in Strasbourg , † November 1, 2007 ibid) was a French Lutheran theologian. Among other things, he worked as general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and as church president of the Protestant Church of the Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine .

Life

Appel, a son of pastor Georges Appel, studied Protestant theology at the universities of Leipzig and Tübingen from 1940 . He evaded being drafted into the German Wehrmacht in 1942 by deserting. So he was finally able to continue his studies in Paris and graduate in Strasbourg in 1946. From 1946 to 1948 he did postgraduate studies at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota and at Princeton Theological Seminary , where he also taught French. After ordination , he worked from 1949 to 1955 as a parish pastor in Wissembourg and then as a student pastor in Paris. From 1957 to 1964 he was general secretary of the Fédération Protestante de France , then pastor at Temple Neuf in Strasbourg for a year . In 1965 he succeeded Kurt Schmidt-Clausen as General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva. His special endeavor was to involve the churches of the global South appropriately in the work of the World Federation. He was also involved in the development of the Leuenberg Agreement of 1973, with which Lutheran and Reformed churches in Europe declared communion .

In 1974 he was elected President of the Protestant Church of the Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine, the first theologian in this office, which until now had mostly been exercised by lawyers. He remained in this office until his retirement in 1987 and was at the same time President of the Conference of Churches on the Rhine and President of the Chapter on St. Thomas (Chapitre de Saint-Thomas) . From 1979 to 1986 he was also President of the Conference of European Churches .

Appel was married to the American Marjorie Pedersen since 1950; they had four children.

Honors

Appel has been awarded honorary doctorates from three universities : Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania , St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and Thiel College in Greenville, Pennsylvania .

literature

  • Norman A. Hjelm, Prasanna Kumari, Jens Holger Schjørring (eds.): From the World Federation to Community. History of the Lutheran World Federation 1947–1997. Lutherisches Verlagshaus, Hanover 1997, ISBN 3-7859-0745-1 , pp. 443-447.
  • Former LWF General Secretary André Appel has passed away. In: Lutheran World Information (LWI). No. 10, 2007, p. 9 ( lutheranworld.org [PDF; 497 kB]).

Web links

  • A Gallery of Portraits: LWF General Secretaries Since 1947. (PDF; 415 kB) 4. André Appel. In: lutheranworld.org. LWF Office for Communication Services, July 2011, p. 4 (English, from the LWF Institutional Memory DPO / Archive services).;
  • Disparition d'un artisan de l'unité des Églises, André Appel. Communiqué de presse de la Fédération protestante de France et de l'Union des Églises protestantes d'Alsace et de Lorraine - November 5, 2007. (No longer available online.) In: protestants.org. Fédération protestante de France, November 5, 2007, archived from the original on December 20, 2018 (French, obituary with curriculum vitae ).;
  • Christian Wolff, Philippe Legin: APPEL André. Les notices NetDBA. (No longer available online.) In: alsace-histoire.org. Fédération des Sociétés d'Histoire et d'Archéologie d'Alsace, October 2015, archived from the original on December 27, 2016 (French, short biography).;

Individual evidence

  1. ^ So Christian Wolff (see web links ). According to other information in Saverne , so the Lutheran World Information (see literature ).
  2. ↑ So in the obituary of the Fédération protestante de France (see web links ). According to other information in Le Hohwald , so Philippe Legin (see web links ).
  3. ↑ Disparition d'un artisan de l'unité of Eglises, André Appel. Communiqué de presse de la Fédération protestante de France et de l'Union des Églises protestantes d'Alsace et de Lorraine - November 5, 2007. (No longer available online.) In: protestants.org. Fédération protestante de France, November 5, 2007, archived from the original on December 20, 2018 ; Retrieved on July 19, 2019 (French, obituary with curriculum vitae).
personal data
SURNAME Appel, André
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Lutheran theologian
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg
DATE OF DEATH November 1, 2007
Place of death Strasbourg