Federation of Evangelical Anabaptist Congregations
The Federation of Evangelical Anabaptist Congregations (formerly: Churches Evangelisch Taufgesinnter II (ETG) , Fröhlichianer , called Bund ETG for short ) is a Protestant Free Church and at the same time the umbrella organization of all affiliated European local churches of Evangelical Anabaptist congregations . It is organized as an association that has its seat at the respective secretariat. Its organs are the federal conference, the federal management and the control body.
history
The Community of Evangelical Baptists (GET) was founded by the formerly reformed pastor Samuel Heinrich Fröhlich . He worked in Leutwil in the first third of the 19th century , but fell out with the church authorities due to theological differences. However, many people felt touched by his sermons, which led to several hundred outside of the regional church structures meeting to listen to him. In 1832 he baptized 38 of them in their faith. The subsequent joint taking of the Lord's Supper on Pentecost Sunday of the same year is now regarded as the hour of birth of the ETGs.
By the end of his life (1857) there were already more than 30 GETs spread across Switzerland , Alsace and southern Germany . But even after his death, the GETs continued to spread, hardly in Switzerland and Germany , but to France , Eastern Europe (especially Hungary ) and North and South America . At the same time, however, the GETs also struggled with the fact that they had a relatively loose organization. Regular national and international elders' meetings were organized to agree on major theological issues . In addition, they visited each other regularly. However, no contact was maintained with other Protestant free churches .
At the beginning of the 20th century there was a dispute among the communities. In the USA , the GETs called themselves “Evangelical Baptist Churches” or “Apostolic Christian Churches” (a book printing from around 1900 from Switzerland also referred to the church that published this book as the “Apostolic Christian Church”). A dispute began there between the strongly Mennonite / Amish-based parts of the community, which traditionally rejected the mustache as too close to the military, and the Eastern European-Slavic parts of the community, which traditionally wore the mustache as men's fashion. The stricter direction, which forbade its members to wear a new beard fashion by pointing out that as a Christian one should not put oneself on an equal footing with the “world”, ultimately formed the majority from which the “Apostolic Christian Church (Nazarean)” split off did not forbid the mustache. Both parts of the congregation continue to exist in the USA to this day, calling themselves "sister congregations".
The controversy over the mustache grew into a problem in Switzerland, also due to the intercontinental contacts. The GETs split up in various places, forced by the stricter side, e.g. B. 1905 in Basel, when the stricter part decided at a meeting there to no longer recognize those who did not share their stricter view. It took several years for all communities to be affected. Ultimately, after the divisions, the stricter group outnumbered in most places. So were z. B. the proportions between "contractual" GET (= allowing the Schnauzer) and "non-contractual" GET (= forbidding the Schnauzer) in Langnau 1/4 to 3/4, only the more liberal part kept the parish hall and the conservative part built a new one in Bärau, which still exists in the same place today. Although the greater part formed the majority at first, it was unable to maintain its parish numbers and continued to shrink. The two parts of the congregation also developed increasingly theologically apart, especially since the liberal GETs, after a likewise noticeable shrinking process, formed a new group from 1984 under the name "Bund der Evangelische Anabaptistgemeinden" (= ETG). This was accompanied by a process of liberalization, theologically, ecumenically and, overall, more evangelical. This process was also not uniform and there were some GETs on the contractual side outside of this new association of municipalities who wanted to maintain a more conservative profile (they put the designation "Nazarenes" in brackets on the municipality names that were retained, e.g. in Breidenbach, Hesse).
In Germany, the GETs on the non-contractual side, the mustache opponents, often called themselves “Altmennonites”. Those had eight regular meeting places in 1964, e.g. T. only house groups.
Various attempts have been made to reunite, e.g. B. in 1940 at a meeting of elders for Switzerland, but all remained unsuccessful. Today there is no relationship or cooperation between the extremely strict (GETs non-contractual part and Old Mennonites) and the more open direction (ETGs, GETs (Nazarenes)). Sometimes not between the ETGs and the GETs (Nazarenes).
In a description of its own community history, the ETG briefly describes its career as follows: Due to the Second World War and the resulting interruption of international relations, the communities alienated each other. There were different views on certain theological questions, but they were more open to other denominations . It also played a major role that the ETGs were still not subordinate to any organization. In order to better coordinate the congregations and, above all, the various institutions that have now been established, the Federation of Evangelical Anabaptist Congregations was finally founded in Bern in 1984 . Members can be any European local church of the ETG.
Works, institutions and ecumenism
Works and institutions in Germany and Switzerland that are close to the ETG but work as independent associations are: EMD - Specialist for Intercultural Cooperation (EMD) in Weinfelden and Ludwigsburg, the “HILFE” cooperative in Zurich, the CREDO Evangelical Leisure Center in Wilderswil and the “Lindenwiese” Protestant leisure center in Überlingen on Lake Constance. In addition, the Bund ETG works with the Bienenberg Training and Conference Center (ATB) in Liestal near Basel . The Bund ETG is a member of the Association of Evangelical Free Churches and Congregations in Switzerland . Many local congregations are also members of the Swiss Evangelical Alliance .
Member municipalities
The member communities of the Federal ETG are in Germany (10), Switzerland (22) and France (3).
The following community names refer to the status of 2010:
There are municipalities in Germany in Oppelsbohm (municipality of Berglen ), Scheppach , Karlsruhe-Durlach , Ludwigsburg , Neuhütten (municipality of Wüstenrot ), Siegelsbach , Spaichingen and Bambergen (city of Überlingen ).
There are municipalities in Switzerland in Au (municipality of Wädenswil ), Bachenbülach , Basel , Bern , Bischofszell , Chaindon , Diessbach bei Büren , Erlen TG , Erlenbach ZH , Grub AR , Hombrechtikon , Giebel (municipality of Langnau im Emmental ), Mettmenstetten , Pfäffikon ZH , Rümlang , Rüti ZH , Schlieren , Stäfa and Zurich .
Membership numbers
The Federal ETG indicates its current membership as a total of 2,500.
literature
- Oswald Eggenberger: The churches, special groups and religious associations. A manual. 3rd revised edition. Theological Publishing House, Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-290-11542-9
- Horst Gerlach: The old Mennonites among us. By Samuel Fröhlich and the New Baptists , in: Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter Jg. 21 (1964), pp. 36–50.
- Jürgen Tibusek: One belief, many churches. The Christian Religious Communities - Who They Are and What They Believe. 2nd Edition. Brunnen Verlag, Giessen 1994, ISBN 3-7655-1593-0
- Bernhard Ott : Becoming a missionary congregation. The way of the Evangelical Anabaptist Congregations. ETG publishing house, Uster 1996, ISBN 3-9520929-0-8
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerlach gives the following meeting places in Germany in 1964, p. 43 f.: Adelshofen, Eppingen, Walldorf, Durlach, Heilbronn, Heissesheim near Donauwörth, Nagold and Deisendorf near Überlingen.
- ↑ The path of our community since World War II , there under 8. The current structures of the ETG , read on December 8, 2018.
- ↑ Gerlach names 1964, p. 43, for Germany "progressive" communities in the following places: in Ludwigsburg, in Neuhütten, district of Heilbronn, in Sundheim (Baden), Schönbuch, district of Überlingen, Lauffen a. N., Bretten, Darmstadt, Ulm, Munich and many other places. There are around 36 parishes in total.
- ↑ The path of our community since the 2nd World War , there under No. 8: The current structures of the ETG , read on December 8, 2018. This corresponds to the number of members that was specified in 2010: The path of our community since the 2nd World War ( Memento from August 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), there under 8., accessed on November 17, 2010.