Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony

Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony (ELM)
Legal form:	Foundation under private law
Purpose:	Proclamation of the Gospel in word and deed
Chair:	Chairman of the Mission Committee: Ralf Meister ; Chairman of the board: Director Michael Thiel
Managing directors:	Detlef Kohrs
Consist:	since 1849
Founder:	Ludwig Harms
Number of employees:	160
Seat:	Hermannsburg
Website:	www.elm-mission.net

The Evangelical Lutheran Missionswerk in Lower Saxony (ELM) is a German mission organization based in Hermannsburg in the Lüneburg Heath .

Model of the Ev.-luth. Mission in Lower Saxony (ELM)

"Our missionary responsibility is the holistic proclamation of the Gospel in word and deed, through people and projects, in the respective contexts of our partner and supporting churches." (Annual report 2006/2007, p. 5)

history

On October 12, 1849, the Hermannsburg pastor Ludwig Harms began training the first missionaries. That is why this day is considered the beginning of the Hermannsburg Mission . To this day , young people are trained for service in the worldwide church at the University of Applied Sciences for Intercultural Theology in Hermannsburg , the successor institute of the Hermannsburg Missionary Seminar . On May 25, 1977 it became the free work, the Hermannsburg Missionary Institution - also known as the Hermannsburg Mission - as a joint institution of the Evangelical-Lutheran regional churches of Hanover , Brunswick and Schaumburg-Lippes from the merger of the Hermannsburg Missionary Institution and the Hildesheim headquarters of "Evangelical Lutheran Mission (Leipzig Mission) to Erlangen" founded. There is close cooperation with the Hessian regional churches, the Protestant Church of the Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine and over 20 mission associations and groups of friends.

The legal form of a foundation under private law was retained. Seat of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony (ELM) is Hermannsburg . A branch in Hildesheim was closed on June 30, 2006.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the “Leipziger Mission” association was dissolved in 1992 and the Evangelical Lutheran Missionswerk Leipzig , based in Leipzig, was founded. The focus of the work is India. However, the ELM continues its own work in India as an independent partner alongside the “Leipzig Mission”.

The ELM today

Ludwig Harms House in Hermannsburg, formerly the Old Mission House

The Evangelical Lutheran Missionswerk in Lower Saxony is now a mission organization that operates worldwide, sends staff to Lutheran churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America and financially supports congregations and projects there.

In 2007 it worked with 19 churches in 17 non-European countries around the world. The work focuses on Ethiopia , southern Africa ( South Africa , Botswana , Malawi , Swaziland ), Latin America ( Brazil , Peru ), India and non-European Russia .

In addition to theologians, medical specialists, teachers, craftsmen, agricultural and administrative specialists are sent abroad. In addition, a volunteer program offers young people the opportunity to work in a partner church every year and thus encounter a foreign culture. The ELM is a recognized sending organization as part of the voluntary service of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development weltwärts .

The official publication of the ELM is the journal Mitteilungen , which is produced six times a year in cooperation with five other mission organizations.

In the Ludwig-Harms-Haus in Hermannsburg, a conference and event center, the exhibition "Candace - Mission possible" gives interested parties an insight into the globally networked work of the ELM and its partner churches. The ELM is a member of the Evangelical Mission in Germany (EMW).

structure

The ELM is divided into a Germany team, a team abroad, volunteers and other services abroad, the International Church Cooperation Office (BikZ) in Hanover and the headquarters, to which departments are assigned:

Elm Headquarters: Directorate; Press and information office; Management & administration

Germany team

• Community Department Worldwide
• Foreign department for the community

International team

• International Department

Volunteer and other services abroad

A total of around 160 full-time employees work for the mission work at home and abroad. (Stand 2013)

organs

The organs of the ELM are the mission committee and the board of directors.

Senior Mission Committee

The leading mission committee is the highest governing body of the mission work. The mission committee consists of 19 members who are sent by the church governing bodies of the regional churches, including the respective department heads of the regional church offices responsible for missions. The mission committee elects nine members. The members are elected for six years. The chair is i. d. R. the regional bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran regional church of Hanover. Regional Bishop Ralf Meister is currently Chairman of the Mission Committee.

The committee forms an executive committee to which five members belong.

The committee is u. a. responsible for principles and guidelines on the work of the mission work, for the appointment and dismissal of the director, for changes to the statutes and the dissolution of the mission work.

Board

The board consists of the director as chairman, who has to be a pastor of one of the member churches, the manager and three other members. The board implements the decisions of the mission committee. The term of office of the board is five years. The director is elected by the missions committee for ten years, with re-election.

Directors

• 1977–1988 Reinhart Müller (* April 8, 1925 † April 3, 2006)
• 1989–2003 Ernst-August Lüdemann
• 2003–2013 Martina Helmer-Pham Xuan
• since 2014: Michael Thiel

Sources and literature

• Right in the middle - the ELM introduces itself. Hermannsburg 2003
• Helmer-Pham Xuan, Martina (Ed.): Annual Report 2006/2007. Hermannsburg 2006.
• Lüdemann, Ernst-August (Hrsg.): Vision congregation worldwide - 150 years Hermannsburg Mission and Evangelical Lutheran. Mission in Lower Saxony (ELM). Hermannsburg 2000.
• Hugald Grafe: Church under Dalits, Adivasi and caste people in South India. The Indian partner churches of the Lutheran churches in Lower Saxony. Becoming and growing. Sources and contributions to the history of the Hermansburger Mission and the Evangelical Lutheran. Missionswerkes in Niedersachsen Vol. 22. LIT Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, Berlin 2013.
• Henning Wrogemann (ed.): India - melting pot of religions or competition between missions? Protestant mission in India since its beginnings in Tranquebar (1706) and the mission of other denominations and religions. Sources and contributions to the history of the Hermannsburg Mission and Ev.-Luth. Mission in Lower Saxony. Volume XVII. LIT Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, Berlin 2008. ISBN 978-3-8258-0914-0

Web links

• Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony - website (accessed February 25, 2016)
• Work of the ELM in India, presented on December 3rd, 2003 by Pastor Ponniah Manoharan, Asia advisor ELM (Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony). (Accessed February 25, 2016)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ http://www.landeskirche-hannovers.de/evlka-de/presse-und-medien/nachrichten/2013/12/2013_12_11_1
3. ↑ http://www.elm-mission.net/mitarbeitende/elm-zentrale.html