Evangelical Lutheran Free Church

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Evangelical Lutheran Free Church
Official logo of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church
Official logo of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church
General
branch Protestantism
Belief Evangelical-Lutheran
old denomination
Preses Michael Herbst
membership Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference
founding
Establishment date 1876
numbers
Members 1,317 (as of 2010)
Communities 16
Others
Tax position Free Church
Website www.elfk.de

The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church (ELFK) is a small Lutheran denominational church in Germany. Since 1923 it has held the status of a corporation under public law . Its 16 communities are mainly located in the Saxony area . However, there are also congregations and preaching places in other parts of Germany. There is also a sermon place in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg . In 2018 the ELFK counted around 1250 parishioners.

history

The previous presides of the ELFK
Term of office Name of the President
1876-1879 Friedrich Ruhland
1879-1907 Otto welcome
1907-1914 Johannes Kunstmann
1914-1919 Heinrich Z. Stallmann
1919-1922 Paul Loeffler
1922-1924 Martin Welcome
1924-1930 Theodor Nickel
1930-1958 Heinrich Petersen
1958–1962 Heinrich W. Stallmann
1962-1968 Heinrich Welcome
1968-1972 Hans Kirsten
1972-1977 August Lampert
1977-2002 Gerhard Wilde jr.
2002-2010 Rolf Borszik
2010-2018 Martin Wilde
2018–0000 Michael Herbst

The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church can be traced back to those Lutherans in the Kingdom of Saxony who separated from the Saxon regional church in 1871 . While in Prussia the union of the Lutheran and Reformed congregations was the reason for the new formation, in Saxony, where with very few exceptions there were no Reformed congregations, liberal tendencies that gained space in the Lutheran regional church gave the occasion. The tendencies found their expression in the belief of some Lutheran theologians, the admission of non-Lutherans to the Lord's Supper, which is contrary to the denomination, and in the weakening of the commitment to confession (religious oath) for pastors and religion teachers. For these reasons, faithful parishioners left the regional churches since 1871 and founded free Lutheran congregations. These merged in 1876 to form the "Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Saxony and other states in Germany". The term “ free church ” was used for the first time for independent Lutheran churches .

For the first Church President was Friedrich Ruhland selected.

In 1877, Lutheran congregations under Friedrich Brunn from the Prussian Hesse-Nassau joined the Synodal Association and had been in close contact with the Confessing Lutherans in Saxony for a long time. In the following years, communities from Bavaria , other parts of Prussia and other federal states of the German Empire also joined the ELFK. When Danish Lutherans joined the Free Church in 1911, the addition of “Germany” in the name of the ELFK was dropped.

The Free Church also had close contacts with the Missouri Synod , a larger Lutheran church in the United States that was founded by German emigrants. The process of developing the ELFK was accompanied by the confessional theologian Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther . He came from Saxony and was the first President of the Missouri Synod. Friedrich Ruhland, in turn, had received his theological training at the Missouri Synod. Relations between this American Church and the Free Church continued well into the 20th century.

After the Second World War , the congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church were separated by the Iron Curtain . The West German Evangelical Lutheran Free Church then joined the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK) in 1972 . In 1972 the East German Evangelical Lutheran Free Church entered into a partnership association of independent Evangelical Lutheran churches in the GDR with the Evangelical Lutheran (Old Lutheran) Church in the GDR. However, she terminated this cooperation in 1984 because no agreement could be reached between the two churches in the demarcation of biblical criticism and non-denominational ecumenism. In West Germany, where the congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church had belonged to the SELK since 1972, a small group separated from the SELK in 1989 and rejoined the ELFK.

Teaching

Trinity Church of the ELFK in Chemnitz

The traditional teaching of Martin Luther's Wittenberg Church Reformation is characteristic of the theology of the ELFK . It assumes that the Bible - as it says itself (2 Timothy 3:16) - is inspired by God and is therefore in error-free.

The Lutheran Book of Concords , in which the confessional writings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church were collected in 1580, is considered to be the correct and binding interpretation of the biblical scriptures for the Church. These confessional writings include, for example, the Apostles' Creed , the Confessio Augustana and Martin Luther's Small Catechism . Future pastors are obliged to refer to the Bible and the Book of Concord before they take office.

Against this background, the teaching of the ELCF can also be described as concordian Lutheran and conservative. Practical examples of this are the closed communion table and the negative attitude towards the ordination of women to the pastoral office.

The ELCF also attaches great importance to a clean separation of church and state . The task of the church is not to interfere in daily politics, but to proclaim the biblical message of Jesus Christ as Savior for all people.

Church organization

The individual parishes of the Free Church have a great deal of autonomy vis-à-vis the Church as a whole and together form the Synodal Association. The Church Synod of the ELFK meets every two years, with each of the currently 16 parish districts sending its pastor and a parish representative. The Church Synod determines the internal and external administration of the rights and tasks that are assigned to the Church by the individual congregations. It elects the representatives of the Church and determines their powers and tasks. The elected representatives are responsible to the Church Synod for their administration.

As a senior cleric is one of the Church Synod to four years Präses selected. He serves as chairman of the Church Synod and the five-member Synodal Council and has to be a pastor of the ELFK. Pastor Michael Herbst has held this office since 2018.

The aforementioned Synodal Council is the governing body of the Free Church. In addition to the praeses, it includes two pastors and two parishioners. The synodal council manages the church according to the guidelines of the church synod and represents the whole church.

Communities

Facilities

The Lutheran Theological Seminary of the ELFK in Leipzig

Despite the comparatively small number of church members, the Free Church maintains some facilities in addition to its church buildings and community centers.

The ELFK in Leipzig has had a small theological seminar since 1953 , which ensures the training of its own theological offspring and can look back on older predecessor institutions. The establishment of the seminar had become necessary because in the course of the Cold War, East German church members of the ELFK, who had studied at the Lutheran Theological College in Oberursel, Hesse , which was originally co-founded by the ELFK, made it more difficult to return to the German Democratic Republic .

In close connection with the ELFK the Christian Concordia Bookstore in Zwickau, whose roots date back to the 19th century, and in 2001 is on Zwickau Dr. founded Martin Luther Elementary School.

Church fellowship

Compared to other Lutheran free churches in Germany, the ELCF takes a more negative attitude towards ecumenism . In their opinion, full agreement in teaching and practice is an indispensable prerequisite for establishing church fellowship. Therefore, it is not a member of the Working Group of Christian Churches in Germany , for example , but belongs to the denominational Evangelical Lutheran Conference , whose churches are required not to cultivate any fellowship with churches that teach differently - especially from the Lutheran World Federation and the International Lutheran Council . As a result, the ELCF signed neither the Leuenberg Agreement nor the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification .

See also

literature

  • Gottfried Herrmann: Lutheran Free Church in Saxony: History and Present of a Lutheran Confessional Church. Evangelical Publishing House , Berlin, 1985, DNB 871038463 . Under the title The History of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church with special consideration of its beginnings, University Dissertation A in Leipzig 1983.
  • Gottfried Herrmann (Ed.): Directory of parishes and pastors. Ev.-Luth. Free church from 1876 to 1996. Concordia, Zwickau, 1996, DNB 94889685X .
  • Werner Klän, Gilbert da Silva (ed.): Lutheran and independent: an introduction to the history of independent Evangelical Lutheran churches . Ed. Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8469-0106-9 .
  • Martin Willkomm: A small force: Becoming and growing a state-free Evangelical Lutheran. Local community. Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the separated Ev.-Luth. St. Johannis parish u. UK to Planitz 1921. Concordia, Zwickau, 1996, ISBN 978-3-910153-30-1 .
  • Wilhelm Wöhling: History of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Saxony a. a. St. Verlag of the writing association of the separated Evangelical-Lutheran congregations in Saxony, Zwickau, 1925, DNB 362413134 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Evangelical Lutheran Free Church (ed.): Lutherische Gemeindebriefe. Community newspaper of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church , Volume 27, No. 3, March 2011, p. 8.
  2. ↑ Our story . Evangelical Lutheran Free Church, accessed on May 16, 2017.
  3. ↑ The presentation follows: Evangelical Lutheran Free Church (Hrsg.): Lutherische Gemeindebriefe. Community newsletter of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church , Volume 26, No. 7/8, July / August 2010, p. 8.
  4. ↑ Who we are. Evangelical Lutheran Free Church, accessed on May 16, 2017 .
  5. ^ Paul-Gerhardt Congregation | Evangelical Lutheran Free Church. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  6. ↑ The Altluth. Trinity Church of Ev.-Luth. Free Church - in Chemnitz. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Community of the Holy Cross of Ev.-Luth. Free Church - in Crimmitschau. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Dreieinigkeitsgemeinde Dresden. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Community of the Holy Cross of Ev.-Luth. Free church - in Glauchau. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Kreuzgemeinde der Ev.-Luth. Free Church - Greifswald. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  11. ^ Zionsgemeinde der Ev.-Luth. Free Church - in Hartenstein. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Trinity Community of Ev.-Luth. Free Church - in Leipzig. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Matthäusgemeinde der Ev.-Luth. Free Church - in Lengenfeld. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Johannesgemeinde der Ev.-Luth. Free Church - in Nerchau. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Johannesgemeinde der Ev.-Luth. Free Church - in Jüterbog. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Paulus Congregation of the Ev.-Luth. Free Church - in Saalfeld. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Emmaus community of the Ev.-Luth. Free church in Schönfeld (Ore Mountains). Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  18. ↑ small force | the force that changes the world. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  19. ↑ The St. Petri Congregation of the Ev.-Luth. Free Church - in Zwickau. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Ev.-Luth. St. Johannesgemeinde (Evangelical Lutheran Free Church) in Zwickau-Planitz. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  21. ↑ Luth. Theol. Seminar of the Ev.-Luth. Free Church - in Leipzig. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  22. ^ Concordia bookstore - books from your bookseller in Zwickau. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Dr. Martin Luther Primary School in Zwickau. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .