Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia

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Dome Cathedral in Riga

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia (Latvian: Latvijas Evaņģēliski Luteriskā Baznīca , LELB for short ) is the most important religious community in Latvia in terms of number of members .

distribution

There is different information about the number of members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia. The church itself gives the number of active members on its website as 43,000, the total number of Lutherans in Latvia as 700,000. The website of the World Council of Churches only mentions 39,000 members, while that of the Lutheran World Federation mentions 250,000. The Communication Committee of Lutheran Minority Churches reported 540,000 Lutherans in 2008, of which 40,000 were active members. The research institute Faith in the Second World states that the Latvian Lutheran Church gained 24,500 new members between 2004 and 2007 (11,133 departures in the same period) and thus grew by 6% to 250,000 members in three years. Thus it is one of the few Lutheran churches in Europe that is growing in the 21st century.

organization

The highest decision-making body of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia is the synod composed of clergy and lay people , which meets every three years. The church is run by an archbishop, Jānis Vanags since 1993 . In 2006 the Synod decided to create the Daugavpils and Liepāja dioceses alongside the Archdiocese of Riga . On October 13, 2007, the bishops Einārs Alpe and Pāvils Brūvers , elected at the Synod in June 2007, were consecrated. Hanss Martins Jensons has officiated as Bishop of Liepāja since Brūvers retired in 2016 . In the new organization, the Archdiocese of Riga comprises seven provosts around Riga and Vidzeme , the Diocese of Liepāja six provosts in the Kurzeme and Zemgale regions in western Latvia and the Diocese of Daugavpils three provosts in the Latgale and Sēlija regions in the south.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia consists of 288 parishes. For 2008, 145 pastors and 50 non-ordained evangelists were given. The Latvian Church is based on the Pastoral Service Regulations of the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK), with which it maintains a contractually regulated partnership.

history

The first Lutheran congregation was founded in Riga in 1523; the Lutheran church was initially largely a church of the ruling German-speaking minority. A revival (and according to some sources even to the actual Christianization) of the Latvian-speaking population came in the 18th century through the mission of the Moravian Brethren .

The clergy of the Lutheran Church remained largely German. The Baltic German pastor Oskar Schabert lists numerous Baltic Germans among the Protestant clergy who were killed in 1905/1906 and during the Bolshevik rule, but only seven Latvians.

With the establishment of the Latvian state, the 194 Latvian congregations and the 20 purely German-speaking congregations were united into a single Lutheran church. In 1922, the Swedish Bishop Nathan Söderblom consecrated Kārlis Irbe, who was elected by the synod, as bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and, at the same time, Peter Harald Poelchau as bishop of the German communities. As a result of the agrarian reform carried out by the Latvian government, the parishes lost a large part of their property, and the municipalities were exempted from compulsory parishes. The bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church received the right to use the Riga Cathedral. A theological faculty was created at the newly founded Latvian University , in which over 100 pastors were trained by 1934. Bishop Irbe founded the conservative Herder Institute, which was independent of the liberal theological faculty and aimed at training for church service. This seminar remained active in the underground even during Soviet rule.

In 1932 the church chose a single head, and Teodors Grīnbergs was elected Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia.

The church was badly affected by the Second World War. In 1944 Archbishop Grīnbergs and the church administration had to leave the country under pressure from the German security service, around sixty percent of the Protestant pastors fled the Red Army. Grīnbergs built the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church abroad , which still has most of its congregations in North America, Western Europe and Australia. The leadership of the church in Latvia was taken over by Provost Kārlis Irbe (1885–1966). Soon after the beginning of Soviet rule, Irbe and other active clergymen were deported, so that the church lost about 80% of its clergy. In 1954 the Soviet Union forced a change in the church constitution, Archbishop Grīnbergs was forced to abdicate and Gustavs Tūrs was elected archbishop. Around 1967 the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church had 400,000 to 450,000 members with around 90 pastors. Church life was limited to holding Sunday services in churches.

Under perestroika there was another radical change in people's attitudes towards the Church. Religion, the Bible, and Christianity also returned to the media, and the number of people attending services initially rose sharply. The Lutheran Church, however, had far too few clergymen who were not trained to meet these new expectations of the Church. In addition, as in practically all churches of the former Eastern Bloc, there was the internal split between the wings of the "martyrs" and the "collaborators" that arose during the communist era. At the Synod in 1989, Kārlis Gailitis replaced the previous Archbishop Eriks Mesters , and the entire consistory was replaced, which enabled the Church to make a fresh start unencumbered by the past. A 1999 poll showed that Latvians viewed the Church as the most credible institution, ahead of the television, press and parliament. Despite the shortage of pastors, especially with the help of the North Elbian Church , it was possible to set up Sunday schools in all parishes, to rebuild hospital, prison and military pastoral care, blue cross work and telephone pastoral care and local diaconal work.

Gradually, however, theological differences also became visible, which Juris Rubenis describes as follows: While the Western churches had an advanced theology, which, however, often did not feel addressed to the grassroots, the Latvian church had a living faith, full churches, but hardly any theologians, who could theologically communicate the existential experience of the church during the communist era.

Ecumenism

Controversy

Ordination of women

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia , like some other Lutheran churches around the world, has a negative attitude towards the ordination of women . Jānis Matulis (Archbishop 1969–1983) ordained some pastors, which caused quite a surprise and opposition in the church.

His successor Eriks Mesters (Archbishop 1983-1989) was personally against the ordination of women and was asked by the pastors not to ordain women. The archbishop refrained from ordaining women, but did not take a clear position on the question; there was a moratorium. A commission of five pastors appointed by the synod decided 3: 2 against the ordination of women.

At the 1989 synod , which voted Mesters out and elected Karlis Gailitis as the new archbishop, a vote was taken towards the end of the synod without consultation to allow women to be ordained. Gailitis was a strong advocate of women's ordination, and several women were ordained over the next several years. There were numerous protests in the parish; but the church leadership did not allow a new discussion of the question. Some conservative congregations were determined to start their own church if Gailitis' successor also ordained women.

When choosing the successor to Gailitis, both candidates were asked about their attitudes towards the ordination of women. One candidate, Elmārs Ernsts Rozītis , Archbishop of the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Abroad, was in favor; Jānis Vanags stated that as archbishop he would not ordain women, but warned that this attitude would expose the church to strong pressure from liberal Lutheran churches. According to Egils Grislis, a Canadian observer, 80% of the synod were against the ordination of women. The election of Jānis Vanags led to another moratorium on the ordination of women. The women ordained under his predecessors could remain in office, but not serve as parish priests.

At the synod on June 3rd and 4th, 2016, a motion was accepted that in future restricts admission to ordination to male candidates.

homosexuality

After the pastor Māris Sants opened his church to AIDS patients and homosexuals, he was suspended on May 21, 2002 without warning or consultation "for promoting a tolerant attitude towards homosexuality" . After this suspension, Juris Cālītis, pastor and dean of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Latvia, publicly protested against this handling of the case. He also allowed Sants to participate in a service in the Anglican Church. Thereupon Cālītis was also suspended and excluded from the church by the archbishopric. Pastor Varis Bogdanov was accused of involvement in a parade of sexual minorities (Riga Praids 2005) ... revoked by decision of the College of Bishops of the status of a minister on Oct. 6, 2009 from .

Church Debt

Problems with the servicing of loans repeatedly triggered distress sales of church properties. The press expresses doubts about the archbishopric's economic competence. After the budget had to be cut by 45% in 2010, Archbishop Vanags put the vote of confidence, but was approved by the synod on March 3rd and 4th. Confirmed December 2010.

Formation of autonomous communities

The exclusion of pastors from the LELB resulted in the situation in several parishes that parishes separated from the LELB in order to be able to keep their pastors. All members of these autonomous communities were also excluded from the LELB. In protest against the abolition of women's ordination, the congregation of the Kreuzkirche in Liepāja resigned from the LELB and joined the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church abroad. Thereupon the LELB had the door locks of the Kreuzkirche changed and locked the community out. However, a court ordered the return of the church.

See also

literature

  • Johannes Junker (Ed.): What remains is what lives and sustains. Voices from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia (= Lutheran contributions. Supplement . Volume 2). Verlag der Lutherischen Buchhandlung, Groß Oesingen 2000.
  • Lutheran Service , ISSN  2196-5978 , Vol. 41 (2005), Issue 2: Special Issue Latvia and Lithuania .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ LELB misija - būt Kristus klātbūtnes vietai sabiedrībā on the ELCL website, accessed on September 3, 2018.
  2. ↑ Entry on the website of the World Council of Churches, accessed on September 3, 2018.
  3. ↑ Entry on the website of the Lutheran World Federation, accessed on September 3, 2018.
  4. ↑ Numbers and facts , archived version at www.archive.org , accessed on September 3, 2018.
  5. ↑ ideaSpektrum November 24, 2007
  6. ↑ Pictures of the episcopal ordination
  7. ↑ Biskapi on the ELCL website, accessed on September 3, 2018.
  8. ↑ Paul Neustupny: The effectiveness of the Moravian Church in Estonia and Latvia. Lecture at the 5th international MORAVIAN conference October 16-18, 2009 in Suchdol nad Odrou / Zauchtel (PDF)
  9. ^ Björn Mensing: Baltic Martyrs and Confessors in Björn Mensing and Heinrich Rathke (eds.): Resistance , 2002
  10. ^ A b The History of the ELCL
  11. ↑ a b Latvia Revived: Touchstone Magazine interview with Archbishop Jānis Vanags
  12. ↑ Walter Graßmann: History of the Evangelical-Lutheran Russian Germans in the Soviet Union, the CIS and in Germany in the second half of the 20th century (PDF; 9.6 MB)
  13. ↑ a b Juris Rubenis: The rebirth and renewal in the European churches of our time. A view from the perspective of the Church of Latvia. (PDF; 2.0 MB) In: Contributions to East German Church History  3, 1999
  14. ^ Claus von Aderkas: Church development aid in Latvia. (PDF; 2.0 MB) In: Contributions to East German Church History  3, 1999
  15. ↑ Latvian Lutheran church officially bans women's ordination . In: The Baltic Times , June 4, 2016, accessed June 6, 2016.
  16. ↑ Barbara Oertel: "The Long March to Coming-Out" Interview with Māris Sants, Die Tageszeitung , July 23, 2005.
  17. ^ Collection of articles on Māris Sants
  18. ↑ Juris Lavrikovs: "Leading Latvian pastor excommunicated from the church for supporting gays" ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), ILGA-Europe website, November 17, 2005.
  19. ↑ Biography of the founder of Zvannieki , Juris Cālītis
  20. ↑ Svētdienas Rīts (Sunday morning in German from February 6, 2010)
  21. ↑ suspension of pastors Calitis and Bogdanov
  22. ↑ Elmārs Barkāns: Naudas grūtībās nonākusī luterbaznīca tirgo ekskluzīvus zemes gabalus
  23. ^ Criticism of the church leadership of the ELCL after the adoption of savings plans on the website of the G2W Institute. Ecumenical Forum for Faith, Religion and Society in East and West, accessed on September 3, 2018.
  24. ↑ Latvia: Controversial Archbishop remains in office on the website of the G2W Institute. Ecumenical Forum for Faith, Religion and Society in East and West, accessed on September 3, 2018.
  25. ↑ Observation among autonomous parishes in Courland ( Memento from January 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  26. ↑ Split of the St. John's parish in Cēsis (Livonia)
  27. ^ Cross parish in Liepāja gets its church back on the Latvian Press Review website , 25 August 2016.

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