Serious celebration
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The solemn celebration (initially also a wreath of edification ) is a Christian , non- denominational devotion that has been celebrated within Wingolf since the 1840s . It is thus one of the oldest ecumenical celebrations in the world. It is customary to hold a serious celebration in front of every highly official pub (e.g. at the beginning and end of the semester) and before every comming .
history
Since the mid-1830s, more and more Christian students gathered in circles and wreaths to live their faith together. They were strongly influenced by the revival movement , whose representatives in the theological faculties - e. B. August Neander (Berlin) and August Tholuck (Halle) - actively supported these new efforts. In these awakening circles there were in turn a number of students who did not want to limit themselves to the gathering for prayer and Bible reading, but wanted a more comprehensive community life modeled on the student associations of the time . Nevertheless, it was important to them to distance themselves from the sometimes rude and wild life of the students at the time.
At the beginning of the 1840s, numerous Christian student associations emerged under the name Wingolf . At Whitsun 1844, the four oldest Wingolf associations from Bonn , Berlin , Erlangen and Halle founded the Wingolf Association in Schleiz . From the beginning the question of the organization and order of common worship services and devotions arose .
Although the majority of the Wingolfites at that time were students of Protestant theology, they kept the possibility of membership open to all Christians. The Wingolfsbund is thus one of the oldest non-denominational organizations at all. The basic possibility of membership for students from both major denominations also gave rise to a need for action, because it was generally not customary for non-denominational devotions to take place.
The common prayers in front of the pubs have therefore been called edifying wreaths or solemn celebrations since the earliest times . There are several reasons for this:
- With the new name, the term divine service was avoided. So different views among the brothers about the order of worship and the actual purpose of the worship service could not disturb the common celebration. Instead of cath. To put ideas of the holy mass and evangelical ideas of worship in a competitive relationship , the Wingolfites determined a separate purpose of the solemn celebration: From then on it was regarded as the central place for the reflection on the principle of Wingolf ( Δι 'ἕνος πάντα ; Di henos panta !; (Greek: Through One Everything!)) and the Christian attitude to life of the Wingolfites derived from it, the Christianum .
- With the ascription serious , the celebration was separated from the boozy pub events. From then on, Wingolf celebrated its community not only, like other student associations , in sociable pubs or Kommersen, but also in the form of common reflection on the Christian foundation of Wingolf.
- The new name made it possible for every brother to take part in the celebration without getting into denominational difficulties with the congregation or family.
To this day, all Wingolf associations celebrate serious celebrations in front of their pubs and Kommersen. The serious celebration is also an integral part of the program at joint events such as Wingolf seminars, convention meetings and the Wingolf Wartburg Festival .
execution
The solemn celebration can be held by a member of Aktivitas as well as by a Philistine . In many wingolf associations every member is obliged to organize a serious celebration once in their active time. The design of the solemn celebration depends to a large extent on the leading federal brother. A serious celebration lasts about a quarter to half an hour. The seriousness of the celebration is the reason for the ban on consuming alcoholic beverages during the solemn celebration. The visible sign of this renunciation is the removal of all commons from the table.
meaning
theology
Since the majority of Wingolf's members were theology students for a large part of its existence, Christian practice within Wingolf was again and again an object of theological reflection. So the speeches of the solemn celebrations were collected (e.g. harvest of flowers from the Wingolf) and became the subject of discussions in pubs and among the brothers. Since in earlier times numerous professors of theology participated in the life of the Wingolfs connections (e.g. August Tholuck , Friedrich Loofs , Martin Kähler ), the speeches and drums (speeches in the pubs) were subject to special observation and were not infrequently seen by the professors while they were still publicly commented on the celebration.
In the solemn celebrations of Wingolf, the leading brothers, in the face of numerous fellow students and lecturers, perhaps for the first time developed their own position on a topos of theology. Today the general pastoral aspect is in the foreground. The community of the Federal Brethren should be accompanied into the semester, on major festivals such as the foundation festival the connection of their Christian basis is ensured, at the end of the lecture period the events of the semester are classified.
Ecumenism
The solemn celebration is of particular importance for the development of interdenominational forms of worship and for ecumenical action as a whole. Long before the World Mission Conference in Edinburgh in 1910 , which can be seen as the beginning of the worldwide ecumenical movement , Christians of all denominations came together in the Solemn Celebration for common "worship" acts. The solemn celebration is thus one of the oldest non-denominational Christian celebrations that still exist today. Although it has to be said that only very few of the Wingolfites of the 19th century saw themselves as ecumenists . Their acceptance in principle of the respective other denomination is better expressed in the word interdenominational .
Pub culture
The solemn celebration had an influence above all on the culture of the bar within Wingolf. The Wingolf took over the form of the pub from the numerous other student associations that had existed before 1840. By placing the solemn celebration in front of each pub, Wingolf created its own pub culture.
literature
- Philipp Greifenstein: The Serious Celebration - A small guide to preparation. Hallenser Wingolf, Halle (Saale) 2010.
- Hugo Menze, Hans-Martin Tiebel: History of Wingolfs 1917-1970. Association of Alter Wingolfiten, Lahr 1971.
- Hans Waitz: History of the Wingolfbund communicated and presented from the sources . Verlag Joh.Waitz, Darmstadt 1896, 2nd edition 1904, 3rd edition 1926.
- Hans Waitz (Hrsg.): History of the wingolf connections. Publishing house of the Association of Old Wingolfites, Darmstadt 1914.
- Manfred Wieltsch et al .: History of Wingolfs 1830–1994. 5th edition, Edition Piccolo, Detmold 1998.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Association of Alter Wingolfiten (VAW) (Ed.): History of Wingolfs 1830–1994. s. literature
- ↑ in The Serious Celebration - A Little Guide to Preparation P. 2 f., S. Literature.
- ↑ in The Serious Celebration - A Little Guide to Preparation p. 5, s. Literature.
- ↑ From Wingolf - Part Two. Harvesting flowers, containing poems, speeches and essays. (ed. W. Sarges), Halle (Saale) 1891, 2nd edition Mühlhausen / Thuringia 1901.
- ↑ in The Serious Celebration - A Little Guide to Preparation p. 1, s. Literature.