Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine ( French Église protestante réformée d'Alsace et de Lorraine ; EPRAL) is a Reformed religious community with the status of a corporation under public law ( établissement public du culte ). EPRAL is the smaller of the two Protestant churches in the two French regions of Alsace and the Lorraine department of Moselle, which have been linked to the Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace and Lorraine (EPAL) since 2006, with their special history.

history

After the Concordat of 1801 with the Vatican issued Napoleon with organic products and for the members of non-Catholic religious groups (Calvinists, Jews, Lutherans) similar statutes that parastatal management bodies ( consistories FROM ROCHE), whereby the Reformed Church of France took legal form. The Reformed accepted the regulation because it was no worse off than other religious communities. But it marked a dramatic break with their presbyterial and synodal principles. Pastors were no longer employed and paid by the church people in the parishes, but they were paid state salaries and were subordinate to the consistory as employers.

In the absence of a general synod, the Reformed Church drifted into an ordeal in the course of the 19th century between supporters of the revival movement (the so-called évangéliques) and those of religious liberalism. The parishes therefore functioned as the only doctrinal organ of the Reformed churches. Napoleon III On March 26, 1852, a legislative decree influenced by Charles Read passed , which legally recognized the Reformed parishes and determined the election of presbyters based on the reformed teaching of the time on the basis of universal male suffrage. In the pastorates to be filled by the consistory, however, the parishes were repeatedly presented with candidates who contradicted the predominant attitude of the presbyteries and the majority of the parishes that voted for them. This triggered some violent quarrels.

Two pastoral conferences, each of which attracted pastors from one direction or the other (Liberals in Nîmes and Awakened in Paris), were non-binding and could not make up for the absence of the General Synod. The Awakened demanded a general synod in order to adopt an authoritative creed, moderate liberals agreed to them, and the radical liberals no longer wanted to recognize the authority of a general synod on questions of doctrine and dogma. It was not until June and July 1872 that a reformed general synod met again, which was able to provide binding clarification.

The Reformed parishes in the Lorraine and Alsace districts could no longer benefit from this. They were separated from France by the Reformed Church in 1871. In contrast to the Lutheran Church of the Augsburg Confession of France , whose directorate and senior consistory were based in Strasbourg and henceforth continued to work for the newly formed Church of the Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine with territorial restriction to Alsace-Lorraine , the central church leadership of the Reformed was based in Paris. Since the Reformed Central Council (Conseil central) created on March 26, 1852, the highest executive body of the Reformed Church, with its appointments of officials, also mostly followers of liberalism, contradicted Reformed doctrine, its removal was very welcome.

For the Reformed parishes in the Lorraine district, for which the reformed consistory of Nancy had been responsible since 1850, a reformed consistory was set up again in Metz in 1871. A reformed consistory in Metz had existed as early as 1822, but was moved to Nancy in 1850. The five reformed consistorial districts then existed like "island solutions", unconnected, side by side. Like representatives of the Israelite consistorial districts, which had also lost their central leadership, the Reformed in Alsace-Lorraine struggled to form a new central leadership for the whole of the empire. According to the Reformed understanding, this should be a synod brought about by elections, not a church authority. In 1872, President Eduard von Moeller rejected both requests, as he wanted to change the existing legal situation as little as possible before the establishment of Alsace-Lorraine legislative bodies.

A central reformed synod for all reformed consistorial districts was created in 1895, which founded the Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine. The central church leadership for all of Alsace-Lorraine, the Synodal Council (Conseil Synodal), was only recognized by an imperial edict on June 21, 1905. The Synodal Board and its President have been elected for three years each. According to the new Constitution of Alsace-Lorraine in 1911 the president was the Synodalvorstands as a representative of a recognized national church ex officio member of the first chamber of the parliament of Alsace-Lorraine . Karl Piepenbring , who had been President of the Synodal Board since 1898 , represented the church in the state parliament.

While the churches in France lost their semi-state status in 1905 (introduction of strict secularity ), the organic articles or concordatary rights and restrictions in Alsace and the Moselle department (interrupted by the abolition by the German occupying power 1941–1945) also apply after their resettlement France gone. When transferring the legal relationships of the three departments ( Bas-Rhin , Haut-Rhin , and Moselle) that make up the territory of the former Alsace-Lorraine, the French Republic proceeded according to the principle that all German regulations continue to exist as regional peculiarities ( Droit local en Alsace et en Moselle ), which were considered more advantageous than the corresponding rules in the rest of France. Therefore, the Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine cannot legally unite with the Reformed Church of France unless it gives up concordat rights, which are also financially beneficial.

organization

The church has the status of an ecclesiastical corporation under public law (établissement public du culte) in France . It has around 33,000 members (as of 2012), who are divided into 52 parishes, which are grouped into four (previously five) consistorial districts: The consistories are located in Bischweiler , Metz , Mulhouse and Strasbourg . The consistorial district of Markirch was merged with Strasbourg in 2009 due to declining membership numbers. With pastors for special assignments, the church has 61 ordained ministers, including 8 women. The church parliament is the synod of 33 delegates. The synodals elect the synodal council (Conseil synodal) as church leadership and control it. Pastor Christian Krieger has been President of the Synodal Board since September 1st, 2012 .

Further memberships

In 1961 she was a founding member of the Conference of Churches on the Rhine . She is also a member of the Fédération Protestante de France (FPF), i. H. of the Protestant League of France .

Hymn book

In 2005 the Strube-Verlag published the supplement “Where we praise you, new songs grow” with 94 songs, many of which can be assigned to the New Spiritual Song , together with the regional churches of the Palatinate , Baden and Württemberg . In 2018, this volume was supplemented by further songs and psalm prayers and now comprises 224 titles, all in German and French.

President

Christian Krieger , Church President EPRAL.

The church presidents ( French: Président du Conseil Synodal ) were:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e N. N., “The Concordat” , on: Virtual Museum of Protestantism , accessed on February 27, 2013.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g N. N., “The Time of Divisions” , on: Virtual Museum of Protestantism , accessed on February 27, 2013.
  3. ^ NN, "Athanase Coquerel senior (1795-1868)" , on: Virtual Museum of Protestantism , accessed on February 27, 2013.
  4. ^ NN, "The Alsace from 1871 to 1918" , on: Virtual Museum of Protestantism , accessed on February 27, 2013.
  5. ↑ a b Jean Colnat, 43 J Archives du Temple Neuf ( Memento of 23 October 2014 Internet Archive ) (accessed on 28 February 2013), Saint-Julien-lès-Metz: Service départemental d'Archives de la Moselle, 2002 .
  6. ↑ Pierre Kempf, “Le débat confessionnel à Metz à l'époque de la création des paroisses protestantes” , in: Les Cahiers Lorrains , N ° 2–3, 1995, pp. 107–129, here p. 109.
  7. ^ Anthony Steinhoff, The gods of the city: Protestantism and religious culture in Strasbourg, 1870-1914 , Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008, p. 80. ISBN 9789004164055 .
  8. ↑ Anthony Steinhoff, The gods of the city: Protestantism and religious culture in Strasbourg, 1870-1914 , Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008, p. 81. ISBN 9789004164055 .
  9. ↑ a b See “Strasbourg, paroisse réformée du Bouclier” , on: Wiki-protestants.org , accessed on February 26, 2013.
  10. ↑ Thus, among other things, the Bismarck social security in the three departments - in the rest of France something similar was not created until later - as well as the existing connections between state and religion, e.g. B. December 26th and Good Friday are also public holidays.
  11. ^ According to EPAL page ( Memento from July 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Press release at la-croix.com from June 14, 2012
  13. ↑ Where we praise you, new songs grow - plus , Munich 2018, Strube Verlag VS 4111, ISBN 978-3-89912-211-4
  14. ^ A b Anthony Steinhoff, The gods of the city: Protestantism and religious culture in Strasbourg, 1870–1914 , Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008, p. 441. ISBN 9789004164055 .