Evangelical retreat training in Switzerland
The evangelical retreat training in Switzerland is a course in Bible-oriented meditation. It has its methodological basis in Ignatian spirituality. Because of their consistent alignment with the Bible, Ignatian-oriented retreats have also become important as a meditation path in the Protestant church in recent decades. In Switzerland, despite initial skepticism and difficulties, the training for this has successfully gained a foothold. Today Ignatian-oriented retreats and accompaniments in many places are the basis of a spirituality in Protestant communities.
Alignment
The evangelical retreat training in Switzerland is based on the retreat book of Ignatius von Loyola (1491–1556), who, based on the medieval mystical tradition, combined elements of various Christian meditation traditions. Over the centuries his instructions have proven to be a viable exercise path: for the development of one's own personality, in the connection of spiritual experience and everyday life and as a differentiation and decision-making aid in social issues. The spiritual exercises according to Ignatius have become a ferment of ecumenism in the last few decades with their orientation towards the biblical word. They are therefore also a foundation of evangelical retreat training in Switzerland.
historical development
In Switzerland the Protestant pastor Margrit Schiess offered Ignatian retreats in cooperation with other Protestant pastors after training with German Jesuits in 1992 . With the Swiss "Training and Continuing Education of Pastors", she has also developed a year and a half training for the management of retreats in everyday life with 4 modules. Due to greater demand, an expanded range of training courses arose in the mid-1990s with large 30-day retreats or large everyday retreats and a two-year advanced course for longer individual accompaniments, which has been successfully carried out every 2 years since then. In doing so, it was also possible to fall back on the Ignatian-oriented meditation instructions of the German Protestant theologian Karin Johne.
With the extended training, Margrit Schiess began a sporadic, then a partnership with individual Jesuits, which in 2005 resulted in a partnership agreement with the Lassalle-Haus. In 2004 she founded the Ecumenical Institute for Meditation. However, since practical problems arose over time in the collaboration with the Lassalle House and theological differences also became clearer, the formal collaboration ended in 2017.
As a result, the retreat training of Margrit Schiess with the Protestant pastor Peter Hofmann was ecumenically open. The Protestant pastors receive subsidies from the cantonal churches for their training. In 2010, under the direction of Pastor Peter Hofmann and Pastor Katharina Zimmermann Zingg, an Evangelical retreat week on an Ignatian basis was held for the first time in the "Training and Education of Pastors" department, which was repeated every two years. The Ecumenical Institute also organizes regular retreats in the retreat house of the Sisters of Grandchamp.
Practical and theoretical work
In the meantime, retreats and Ignatian-oriented accompaniments are offered by the trained retreat leaders at various Protestant locations in Switzerland. Wherever possible, ecumenical cooperation will continue to be sought. At the same time, in the context of these retreats, there are also increasing theoretical discussions about the evangelical retreats. A clear description is provided by z. B. Jörg Wanzek's bachelor thesis, which he submitted to the Theological Faculty of the University of Zurich in 2018, on "Exercises in everyday life and community work", a case study in the Evangelical Reformed parish of Winterthur-Veltheim. A book by Margrit Schiess was published early on "Christian ways of inner experience". She is also the editor of the anthology "Exercises with creative elements", wherever the dynamics of the exercises were also discussed. There is a new reading and exercise book from Peter Hofmann for retreat weeks. Theoretically more general are the works on evangelical exercises by Silke Harms, who did her doctorate at the Theological Faculty of the University of Zurich. The contributions by Claudia Kohli Reichenbach, a lecturer at the Institute for Practical Theology in Bern and a member of a retreat training, on spiritual support and evangelical spirituality are also diverse.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tocco AG: Education provider from A to Z | Education Church. Retrieved November 9, 2018 .
- ↑ Guest reception | SONNENHOF House of Silence . In: SONNENHOF House of Silence . ( sonnenhof-grandchamp.org [accessed November 9, 2018]).
- ↑ Exercise courses - Exercise forum Switzerland. Retrieved November 9, 2018 .
- ^ Metanoia-Verlag - List of Articles. Retrieved on November 9, 2018 (Swiss Standard German).
- ↑ Books. Retrieved November 9, 2018 .
- ↑ Reading and exercise booklet for retreat weeks / 978-620-2-44284-8 / 9786202442848 / 6202442840. Retrieved on November 9, 2018 .
- ^ Claudia Kohli Reichenbach. December 15, 2017, accessed February 11, 2019 .