Carl Heinrich Rappard

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Carl Heinrich Rappard (born December 26, 1837 in Giez VD , † September 21, 1909 in Gießen ) was a Swiss Protestant missionary and inspector of the Pietist pilgrimage St. Chrischona .

Life

Carl Heinrich Rappard grew up in a devout family and had a strict but happy childhood. He spent his youth on an estate near Schaffhausen . At a young age he came to a living faith in Jesus Christ and experienced his conversion . He was soon drawn to study theology, but his father - formerly a theologian himself - initially opposed it for fear of liberal theology . In 1861, however, he did join the Protestant training center of the St. Chrischona pilgrimage mission near Basel, founded by Christian Friedrich Spittler .

Here he got to know consistent Christianity and a very simple, humble life. In addition to his education, he also learned English. In 1864 he went to England for 6 months and was ordained in Leonberg in 1865 . The pilgrim mission sent him to the mission field in Alexandria . This was one of the stops on the so-called «Apostelstrasse» of the pilgrimage mission. The construction of the station was extremely tough. At first there weren't even any rooms, there were shortages and thefts also occurred. Bishop Samuel Gobat of Jerusalem, his future father-in-law, was the chairman of the pilgrimage mission at the time.

In 1866 he started a school with an Arab teacher. The Arab teacher left him after a while and started his own school. He wanted to save his students from Christianity. But Rappard was not discouraged and started a new school in the European part of the city. This was self-supporting and helped to carry out the other tasks in the pilgrimage mission. When the Scottish Missionary Society offered Rappard a position with a good salary, he turned it down because he was convinced that God would have called him to the previous assignment.

In Jerusalem he got to know and love Dora Gobat, the daughter of Bishop Samuel Gobat. He wooed them and on November 28, 1867, they were married by Bishop Gobat in Beuggen Castle . Dora Rappard's grandfather , Christian Heinrich Zeller , founded the Beuggen facility. In 1868 Carl-Heinrich Rappard was appointed pastor to the German-Swiss community in Cairo . Dora Rappard knew Arabic and began evangelistic work among these poor women in the harems .

In the same year Rappard was called to St. Chrischona as an inspector . The humble man was despondent at first, but accepted the post on the condition that he could continue to work evangelistic and not have to collect money, ie not have to go on collecting trips. He had one goal: he wanted to keep St. Chrischona humane, but spiritually high. He himself believed in healing the sick through faith and even experienced this twice in himself. In a very short time he was able to repay the debts of the pilgrim mission in St. Chrischona.

characterization

Rappard was a simple, practical man of gigantic stature and firm belief and character. Impressed by the emerging sanctification movement , he attended the famous Brighton and Oxford conferences in 1874 and 1875 . He belongs to the sober wing of the sanctification movement.

service

Later he also visited other countries where the pilgrims' mission worked, e.g. B. the Rohrbach station in southern Russia, which was also offered to Franz Eugen Schlachter for support. Here he got to know the meetings in the open air. Rappard then devoted himself entirely to evangelistic work or travel service and visited America and England in 1887 . He also spoke at the famous Bern Festival, which the Evangelical Society organized every year.

Age

When Rappard was of an advanced age, his brother-in-law Pastor Theodor Haarbeck took over the mission work as inspector for a few years. During this time the Rappard family lived in Basel. During this time he worked mainly as an evangelist. When Pastor Haarbeck was called to Wuppertal, Rappard took over his office as inspector in St. Chrischona. Carl Heinrich Rappard and his wife Dora had a total of ten children, two of whom died at a young age. Rappard was a leader of the sanctification movement and maintained a childlike faith into old age. In the middle of a travel service he died unexpectedly in 1909 and was called home.

Remembrance day

September 20th in the Evangelical Name Calendar .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carl Heinrich Rappard in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
personal data
SURNAME Rappard, Carl Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss Protestant missionary and inspector of the St. Chrischona pilgrimage mission
DATE OF BIRTH December 26, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH Giez VD
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 1909
Place of death to water