German Working Group for Evangelical Deaf Pastoral Care
The German Working Group for Evangelical Deaf Church Care e. V. (DAFEG) is an association of employees in the Protestant deaf pastoral care in the area of the Evangelical Church in Germany and has the task of promoting the service of the deaf pastors in the Protestant regional churches.
The office is based in Kassel . As a professional association , the DAFEG is a member of the Diakonisches Werk , the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and a founding member of the International Ecumenical Working Group for the Deaf- Mute Chaplain (IÖAK). Members of the DAFEG can be all those active in the pastoral care of the deaf, such as deaf pastors, catechists , church social workers and social pedagogues, deaf lay preachers.
history
The development up to the present
The "cradle" of the deaf pastoral care was in most cases in the schools. The deaf chaplains went to teaching with the teachers.
At the end of the 19th century, deaf associations were formed as a form of self-organization for the deaf outside of school and the church. The Catholic Church reacted to this with the formation of Catholic deaf associations and in 1925 with the establishment of the "Association of Catholic Deaf Germany". The decentralized structure of the Evangelical Church in Germany with almost 30 different regional churches at the time did not allow a similar reaction. Only in the area of the Rhenish Church is there a correspondence in the Protestant area with the "Association of Evangelical Deaf people in the Rhineland" founded in 1926 and its subdivisions.
Nevertheless, the Protestant Church also saw the need to find common solutions for some problem areas. In particular, it was important to develop standards for the training of deaf chaplains and to create the appropriate training opportunities. In addition, a unified press organ for the evangelical deaf should grow out of the many local newspapers. In general, the call for "literature for the deaf" is constantly present. In 1928, with the significant participation of Pastor Hermann Schrecken, the merger to form the "Reich Association of Protestant Deaf- Mute Chaplains of Germany" took place. Members could all be active in the pastoral care of the deaf on behalf of their churches. In addition to the above-mentioned tasks, the religious signs and the cooperation of the deaf communities were on the first agenda.
Pastoral care for the deaf in the Third Reich
The changes that the church experienced during the time of National Socialism can also be found in the pastoral care of the deaf (apart from the " church fight " between the German Christians and the Confessing Church ; it played almost no role in the joint work). The greatest challenge arose from the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring, which came into force in 1933 . In contrast to the Catholic Church, this law did not provoke any resistance worth mentioning in the Protestant Church. The Reich Association of Evangelical Deaf Chaplains was therefore not outside the consensus in the Evangelical Church when it saw its task in the endeavor "to give its deaf and dumb people as far as possible an inner understanding of this law (which also provided for the compulsory sterilization of the deaf!) help ". In 1935 a word from the Reich Association to the "hereditary Protestant deaf people" was distributed in an "Obey the authorities!" culminated, connected with the call: "Think of the future of your people and make this sacrifice that is required of you!"
In individual cases, many pastors tried to alleviate the suffering and campaigned for individual deaf people at the hereditary health courts . But that does not change the fact that the deaf pastoral care has made itself the stooge of a criminal policy. It was not until the 1960s, when the compensation of Nazi victims was debated and the book "Klagende Dinge" by Horst Biesold made the subject of the forced sterilization of the deaf public, that this dark chapter in the history of deaf pastoral care began to be dealt with.
After 1945
In 1949 it was again Hermann Schektiven who brought the Reich Association back to life. The "Working Group of Deaf Chaplains in Germany" was founded in Treysa; In 1951, in accordance with the separation of Germany, the "Convention of the Deaf Chaplains of the Evangelical Churches of the GDR" was founded.
In the West, in 1956 the working group became a registered association, which was renamed in 1964 to "German Working Group for Evangelical Deaf Chaplaincy" (DAFEG).
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Convention and the DAFEG reunited in 1992, albeit only after an intensive consultation process and under a new, jointly developed statute.
Evangelical pastoral care for the deaf in Germany today
Today the DAFEG is the umbrella organization of the evangelical deaf chaplaincy in Germany, an association without regional associations, to which the regional churches belong as corporate members, but otherwise only individuals.
The landscape of the deaf pastoral care in Germany is correspondingly colorful. Different traditions, different focuses, different structures have developed, often shaped by the responsible persons.
Some examples are given here:
In Frankfurt am Main ( Landeskirche Hessen and Nassau ), the first - and so far only - staff congregation anchored in church law in the Protestant area has emerged, with all the rights and obligations of its members arising from it.
In the Westphalian Church there are well-developed forms of co-determination, but without any canonical fixation. In all parishes, elected parish spokesmen officiate, who form a parish church-wide assembly with quasi-synodal competences.
Oldenburg is an example of a smaller regional church : Half a pastor's post was set up in 1997 for the pastoral care of the deaf, and there are also a few part-time and voluntary employees who are responsible for around 300 deaf people.
In Saxony there are two large centers (Leipzig and Dresden) with full-time pastors, plus a considerable number of part-time pastors who care for the small communities in the country with sometimes only a few deaf people.
A remarkable leisure culture has developed in the area of the Württemberg regional church . In addition to the normal church services, three to four camps are offered nationwide, which serve as an important factor in community formation. There are also regular regional church days.
The association structure still exists in the Rhineland : The deaf pastoral care works closely with the Association of Protestant Deaf people.
In addition, the Rhenish regional church, such as B. also the Baden one , an example of a church in which the factually different tasks of the deaf and hard of hearing pastoral care are carried out in personal union. This often leads to the difficulty of meeting both groups of people with their different communicative and cultural needs in the same way. At the same time, this problem is difficult to convey to the hearing public that is not directly affected - and this includes church leaderships.
organization
The DAFEG is managed by a board that is elected every four years by the general assembly. The extended board is at the side of the board.
In addition to the board, the extended board includes representatives of the deaf pastoral care of the regional churches; a representative of the evangelical deaf teachers, deaf-blind work, catechists and diaconal institutions for the deaf, appointed by the board; the editor of "Our Congregation" - magazine for evangelical deaf people. Furthermore, the extended board with an advisory voice includes one representative each from the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and the Diakonisches Werk as well as the managing director of DAFEG. Two elected representatives of the deaf members of the DAFEG have belonged to the Extended Board since 2014.
Tasks and basic questions
The most important task of the DAFEG is to ensure preaching, pastoral care, Christian instruction, confirmation classes and life support for the deaf and to awaken and keep alive the understanding of the concerns of deaf people in the EKD and its member churches. The work mainly focuses on the following topics:
- Education and training for deaf chaplains
- Ways to improve communication between hearing and deaf people
- Religious gestures
- Developing sign songs and prayers
- Elaboration of biblical and church history texts
- Publication of the magazine "Our Congregation" - newspaper of the evangelical deaf people
- Training of deaf workers in the deaf community
- Deaf mission projects in Eritrea and Tanzania together with the Finnish Deaf Mission
- Canonical status of deaf communities
- Social ethical topics e.g. B. Gene technology , cochlear implant
- Coming to terms with National Socialist injustice against the deaf such as forced sterilization
Within the church, it is still a matter of creating appropriate structures and ensuring that the deaf communities are adequately staffed. It must be made clear that the pastoral care of the deaf sees itself as a community work of the deaf members of the church and is therefore far more than just a diaconal task of the hearing church.
Based on a new perception and appreciation of sign language , the development towards a new (non-disabled) self-confidence began in the deaf community in Germany in the 1980s. This discovery of the own culture of the deaf and the struggle for the recognition of sign language were also reflected in the pastoral care of the deaf and are a constant challenge to the endeavor to become more of a church for the deaf than a church for the deaf .
The prerequisite for this are opportunities for the deaf to participate at all levels of church work, ie in the community, in the regional church and in the EKD area .
With regard to the provision of personnel, a mixed structure of full-time and part-time pastors is currently emerging. The demands on pastoral workers and their training are increasing and require professionalization. Without full-time workers in the pastoral care of the deaf, it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet the requirements.
On the other hand, a few full-time employees cannot cover the entire work area. In order to enable deaf parishioners to have short distances and regular worship services, part-time listening pastors are still necessary, with the consequence that, for objective reasons, they can only achieve and maintain limited sign language skills.
In terms of content, the focus is currently on the development and of visual forms of worship and other visual media (e.g. the translation of Bible texts into German sign language ).
Outside the ecclesiastical area, the area of medical-technical ethics deserves special attention for a few years , based on the knowledge that this failed in the time of National Socialism and on the other hand in the immensely increased possibilities of prenatal diagnostics and biotechnology, which z . B. in the form of the cochlear implant (CI) have an impact on the deaf and their communities.
A special branch of the work that is worth mentioning is the German Deaf Mission . Here, deaf schools in East Africa (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Tanzania) are supported with donations and collections from the deaf communities and in cooperation with partner organizations in Finland.
Technical committees
A large part of the work of the DAFEG is done in the technical committees (FA). Depending on the task and goal, these are composed of different personnel and may be limited in time.
Here are a few examples for different technical committees:
- Organization and implementation of events, exhibitions and centers for the deaf and hearing impaired at the German Evangelical Church Congress / Ecumenical Church Congress
- FA Interpreter Training
- Education and training of sign language interpreters in religious sign language
- FA Sign Lexicon
- continue and improve the existing lexicon Religious Sign Language Terms
- FA Sign Song Book
- collect and publish sign songs
- FA Sign Choir Conductors
- Education and training of sign choir leaders
- FA Bible translation
- Translation of the Bible into German Sign Language (DGS)
- Pastoral care for the deaf and hearing impaired on the Internet
literature
- Horst Biesold: plaintive hands , Solms 1988, ISBN 3-920224-31-0
- Chances and Limits of the Cochlear Implant , German Working Group for Evangelical Deaf Chaplaincy (ed.), Kassel 1999
- Documents and Reports - anthology on the history of deaf chaplaincy , German Working Group for Evangelical Deaf Chaplaincy (ed.), Kassel 1996
- Deaf - just a matter of ears? Aspects of Deafness , German Working Group for Evangelical Deaf Church Care (ed.), Hamburg: Signum, 2nd edition 2001, ISBN 3-927731-87-0
- Helga Paetzold: Wende - personal report on pastoral care for the deaf in the GDR , Kassel 2005
multimedia
- Religious Sign Language Terms, Sign Encyclopedia (CD-ROM Version 2.0), German Working Group for Evangelical Deaf Chaplaincy (ed.), 2006
- Visual divine service - modules and suggestions (CD-ROM), German Working Group for Evangelical Deaf Chaplaincy (ed.), 2003
- From 1st Advent to Eternal Sunday, pericope texts in DGS (DVD), German Working Group for Evangelical Deaf Chaplaincy (ed.), 2003
- Weekly sayings in DGS (DVD), German Working Group for Evangelical Deaf Chaplaincy (ed.), 2007
- Markus Gospel in DGS (DVD), German Working Group for Evangelical Deaf Pastoral Care (ed.)