Danish Baptist Union

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Koebner Baptist Church , Copenhagen

The Danish Baptist Union ( Baptistkirken i Danmark ) is a national federation of Danish Baptist congregations , which primarily serves the cooperation in the areas of mission , diakonia and education.

history

Baptist Kristus Kirken , Copenhagen
Baptist Church in Brovst
Baptist Church in Østervrå
Baptist Church in Tølløse

The first Baptist work in Denmark began in 1839 when Julius Köbner , a Danish Jew who had converted to Christianity, visited his home in Hamburg and met people with baptismal attitudes there. Köbner was a close collaborator of Johann Gerhard Oncken (1800–1884), who is often referred to as the father of the continental European Baptists. Oncken baptized the believers and founded a Baptist church in Copenhagen that same year . Until 1849, when a constitution guaranteed religious freedom, Baptists were fined, arrested, and their children were forcibly baptized . With his first work Om Baptister og Barnedaab [ About Baptists and Baptism of Children ] (1844), the theologian Magnús Eiríksson (1806–1881) campaigned for the persecuted free church . The importance of the young Baptist movement for the granting of religious freedom in Denmark should not be underestimated.

The Baptist Union was founded in 1849 and was a branch of the German Baptist Union until 1888. This year a reorganization took place due to the emigration of Baptist Danes to the USA , whereby Danish Baptism was more strongly influenced from America. The New Hampshire Creed was adopted. Some Danish pastors studied at Morgan Park Seminary in Chicago until a theological seminary of their own was founded in 1918.

Danish Baptists evolved from a closed Calvinist tradition to a more open society. Holy Communion has been practiced since the 1930s, and infant baptized members are now accepted. The social structure also changed. The communities, which were originally shaped by workers and farmers, now recruit their members from the upper middle class.

Organization and ecumenism

The Baptist Union is a member of the European-Baptist Federation and the Baptist World Federation . According to our own sources, there were 5260 members in 50 parishes in 2008. The head office is in Copenhagen, the theological seminary in Tølløse .

literature

  • Albert W. Wardin, Jr .: Baptists Around the World. A comprehensive handbook . Broadman & Holman, Nashville TN 1995, ISBN 0-8054-1076-7 .

swell

  1. ↑ www.baptistkirken.dk: Hvem er baptister?

Web links