Christ Church (Belm)
The Christ Church is an Evangelical Lutheran church in Belm in the district of Osnabrück , Lower Saxony , which was built between 1815 and 1819.
history
With the Osnabrück Peace Treaty in 1648 (Instrumentum Pacis Osnabrugensis, IPO) Belm (mentioned in 1190 as Belehem, later Beelem) was declared a Catholic parish, although almost 90% of the population belonged to the Lutheran faith. Public services were forbidden and even made a criminal offense. The Lutherans had no choice but to attend church services in neighboring Protestant communities. The simultaneum , the use of the existing church for both denominations, was forbidden to the Belmers.
In 1809 the consistorial councilor Albrecht Friedrich Ludolph Lasius received permission from the Osnabrück diocese to “freely practice their religion in their private schoolhouse”. The following Sunday service was celebrated in the school building and the meeting place was consecrated as a house of prayer.
In 1812 Belm belonged to the Kingdom of Westphalia created by Napoleon Bonaparte , and the latter granted permission from distant Moscow to build a Protestant church in Belm. The document did not arrive until 1813, however, and Lasius became the first Lutheran pastor in Belm.
In 1814 King George III. , in personal union Elector of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, the Belmern the permission to collect in the entire former prince-bishopric for the construction of the church in Belm. With the collection of around 500 thalers, construction of the church began in the summer of 1815.
The church received the bell tower, which was not initially planned for financial reasons, in 1817 as a gift from the Osnabrück Monastery of Marienstätte. There it was completely removed and rebuilt as the tower of the Christ Church. The Belmer Church was consecrated on September 20, 1819.
Now it was time to set up: They used the sale of church property as a result of secularization , and a valuable altar from the 16th century was bought for 80 thalers. Other sacred inventory, such as the pulpit, baptismal font and chandelier, came into the possession of the community through donations. The chandelier on the ceiling of the church vault is a gift from ten master craftsmen from Osnabrück.
Today, in addition to the Sunday service, there are numerous offers. There are music groups, choirs, Bible study groups and various offers for young people. The current pastor is Arne Schipper.
Foundation for the preservation of the Christ Church Belm
The establishment of the church foundation in 2004 is based on the financial contribution of a private donor of 50,000 euros. The foundation fulfills all church and tax requirements. The carrier is the ev.-luth. Christ parish that is entitled to issue donation receipts.
The foundation's capital remains with the foundation on a permanent basis and must not be touched. The more the foundation's capital stock increases, the more foundation income can be used to maintain the Christ Church. The church board decides on the use of the annual foundation income on the recommendation of the foundation board of trustees. From the foundation's income to date, some structural measures in the church have already been supported with grants in recent years - including the renovation of the bell ringing system, the renovation of the altarpiece and the renewal of the microphone system.
Web links
- Internet presence of the Christ parish in Belm , accessed on January 22, 2015
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.noz.de/archiv/vermischtes/artikel/254074/straffreie-gottesdienste-seit-200-jahren
- ↑ Information compiled from various articles of the working group Archive of the Christ Church in Belm, which appear every two months in the community letter KONTAKTE. http://www.ckbelm.de/downloads/kontakte-gemeindebrief.html
- ↑ Taken from the foundation's brochure ( http://www.ckbelm.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Fotos/Downloads/Stiftung_Belm_2011.pdf )
Coordinates: 52 ° 18 ′ 5.2 ″ N , 8 ° 8 ′ 24.3 ″ E