Evangelical Waldensian Church

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Waldensian coat of arms , stained glass window (detail) of the Waldensian Church in Rome

The Evangelical Waldensian Church ( Chiesa Evangelica Valdese ) is the largest evangelical church in Italy. It emerged from the medieval reform movement of the Waldensians . At the Synod of Chanforan in 1532, the movement decided to join the Reformation with Swiss characteristics and has since been a Reformed Church according to doctrine and church constitution . Persecuted for a long time, it was only able to spread throughout Italy after 1848.

After a long period of cooperation, the parishes of the Evangelical Waldensian Church and the Methodist Church of Italy came together in 1975 to form an administrative union.

Number of members

Farm in the Waldensian valleys, around 1895

According to its own account, the Evangelical Waldensian Church today (2018) has around 45,000 members who belong to three different groups:

  1. Eighteen municipalities with the center of Torre Pellice in the Waldensian valleys , the traditional retreat of the Waldensians in the times of persecution: Angrogna , Bobbio Pellice , Luserna San Giovanni , Massello , Perrero- Maniglia, Pinerolo , Pomaretto , Prali , Pramollo , Prarostino , Rodoretto-Fontane ' Rora ', San Germano Chisone , San Secondo di Pinerolo , Torre Pellice, Villar Pellice , Villar Perosa , Villasecca.
  2. Diaspora within Italy: Church buildings in Turin (oldest foundation outside the valleys), Florence , Rome ( Tempio Valdese di Roma ), Palermo , Riesi and other Italian cities.
  3. Evangelical Waldensian Church of the Rio de la Plata ( Iglesia Evangelica Valdese del Rio de la Plata ) with around 15,000 members, with a settlement center in Uruguay and diaspora congregations in the two states of Uruguay and Argentina.

Creed

The Evangelical Waldensian Church shares with most other Christian denominations the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene-Constantinople Creed. At a time of great danger, when French and Savoyard troops invaded the Piedmontese valleys, in 1655, based on the Confessio Gallicana written by Johannes Calvin , it also formulated its own creed ( Relation vèritable de ce qui s'est passé dans les persucutions et massacres, faites cette années, aux églises reformées de Piedmont etc. ).

Church constitution

Casa Valdese in Torre Pellice, Via Beckwirth 2: this is where the Synod meets

The church has a presbyterial constitution; the local churches are autonomous. Fundamental questions are discussed by the delegates of the local parishes at the annual synod, which in turn elects the Tavola Valdese as executive.

Synod

The church is managed by the synod , which meets once a year in August in Torre Pellice. The individual local congregations send deputies to the synod, which also includes the pastors and those responsible for various fields of activity of the church. In addition to the members with voting rights, participants with an advisory vote are also present at the synod. The Synod is responsible for relations with other ecumenical churches, for questions of divine service and for the appointment of professors in the theological faculty. The Synod also elects the members of the Tavola Valdese.

Tavola Valdese

Between the synods, the Tavola Valdese, elected for seven years at a time, is the governing body of the Church. It corresponds to what is called synodal presidium or moderamen in other Reformed churches . The term “table” is historical: in earlier centuries the members of the committee sat at a table in the middle of the meeting room and were referred to in French (the Waldensian language at that time) as les officiers de la table .

Currently (from August 2019) the following people, lay people and theologians, belong to the Tavola Valdese:

  • Alessandra Trotta ( presenter ),
  • Erika Tomassone (Vice Presenter),
  • Italo Pons,
  • Dorothea Müller,
  • Laura Turchi,
  • Greetje van der Veer,
  • Ignazio Di Lecce.

Important decisions

Women's ordination has existed in the Waldensian Church since 1962 . This step had been discussed fourteen years earlier.

In 2010 the Synod decided to enable same-sex partnerships to be blessed . In an interview with the NEV news agency, Maria Bonafede , moderator of the Tavola Valdese, explained : “It's not about whether we welcome homosexuals into our church. It is about the blessing for a partnership between two people who want to testify publicly and in front of their religious community of their shared life journey. To do this, we need to understand what blessings mean in the Bible and in the Church. Blessing does not mean marriage, because for us Protestants marriage is not a sacrament, but a matter under civil law. "

Facilities

Agape meeting center in Prali
Colporteur of the Claudiana publishing house with Bible carts, 19th century

The Waldensian Theological Faculty (Facoltà Valdese di Teologia ) is the oldest institution for the study of Protestant theology in Italy. It was founded in Torre Pellice in 1855 . From 1860 to 1921 it was based in the Palazzo Salviati in Florence. The Faculty of Theology has been in Rome since 1921, in the neighborhood of the Waldensian Church on Piazza Cavour (Via Pietro Cossa).

In Torre Pellice there is a Waldensian high school, the Liceo Valdese , founded in 1831 and built in 1835 . It was a foundation of the Anglican clergyman WS Gilly on the model of an English college. With its founding, Gilly wanted to do something against the discrimination of the Waldensians by the Italian school system of that time.

After the Second World War , a group of volunteers under the direction of Pastor Tullio Vinay built the Agape meeting center in Prali near Turin , a place for international understanding and for political and Christian youth education.

The Waldensian Church operates retirement homes and facilities for children and people with disabilities, guest houses and cultural centers throughout Italy. In particular, it maintains diaconal institutions in the Sicilian cities of Riesi and Palermo. The Centro Diaconale “La Noce” in Palermo, financed by donations, is a school with additional support facilities for children and a guest house. Servizio Cristiano in Riesi also offers support for children, a school and a leisure center.

There is also its own publishing house ( Claudiana ) and the weekly newspaper Riforma .

Ecumenism

The Waldensian Church is a member of the Confederation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, the World Council of Churches , the World Community of Reformed Churches , the Community of Evangelical Churches in Europe and the Conference of European Churches . In 1990 a mutual recognition was decided with the Italian Baptists .

Position towards the Italian state

The Constitution of the Italian Republic of 1948 put all religious denominations on an equal footing, but privileged the Roman Catholic Church and adopted the Lateran Treaties from 1929. In 1984, part of the Lateran Treaties was revised. The Italian state has now signed corresponding agreements with other religious communities, such as the Evangelical Waldensian Church ( Intesa ).

About 600,000 Italians decide to support the Waldensian Church with eight per thousand ( otto per mille ) of their tax revenue ( mandate tax ) - much more than the church itself has members. This money is used for social and charitable purposes, not for church work in the narrower sense.

The Waldensian Church advocates the ideological neutrality of the state and the separation of state and church. The presenter of the Tavola Valdese , Maria Bonafede, therefore welcomed the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in 2009 , according to which crucifixes should not be hung in classrooms : “It is an important ruling that finally addresses the question of the public display of religious symbols in a European context secularity and legal protection for everyone: - for all believers, - for all believers who do not belong to the majority denomination and - for all who are not believers. "

Contacts with the Roman Catholic Church

Relations with the Roman Catholic Church are strained by centuries of persecution by the Inquisition. On the other hand, as the Waldensian Church expanded across Italy in the 19th century, it benefited from the anti-clerical and anti-Catholic mood in parts of the Italian population.

On June 22, 2015, Pope Francis in Turin was the first Pope to visit a Waldensian church. He was welcomed by the local pastor Eugenio Bernadini (also moderator of the Tavola Valdese). Pope Francis asked "for forgiveness for all those unchristian, even inhuman acts and attitudes that we have directed against you in history". Pastor Bernadini referred to still open questions: the Catholic Church refuses the Waldensian Church (like other denominations) the title of church. He also addressed the Waldensian desire for communion celebrations together: "What unites Christians are bread and wine and his words, not our interpretations, which are not part of the Gospel."

The Synod, which met in Torre Pellice the following August, received the Pope's words with “deep respect and emotion”, but declared that it could not forgive on behalf of the martyrs of the past. They are ready to begin a new chapter in history together with the Roman Catholic Church. On March 5, 2016, Pope Francis received an official delegation of Waldensians and Methodists in the Vatican for the first time. Topics were the witness of Christians in a secular world and cooperation on social issues, especially in view of the tragedy of migration that challenges Europe and the churches.

Migration as a field of activity for the church

Together with the Catholic Community of Sant'Egidio , the Italian Evangelical Church Federation has launched the Mediterranean Hope project . Through so-called humanitarian visas, refugees are brought safely and legally to Italy. This work is financed by the money that the Evangelical Waldensian Church receives through the mandate tax.

Many migrants have joined the Waldensian communities in Italy. It is estimated that 200,000 evangelical immigrants live in Italy; most of them come from Africa or the Far East. The Evangelical Waldensian Church also sees its task in helping the new members integrate into Italy.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Integrazione valdesi e metodisti. In: Chiesa Evangelica Valdese. Retrieved November 16, 2018 (Italian).
  2. ↑ La chiesa valdese oggi. In: Chiesa Evangelica Valdese. Retrieved November 16, 2018 (Italian).
  3. ↑ Confession of Faith. In: Chiesa Evangelica Valdese. Retrieved November 16, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Casa Valdese. In: in Val Pellice. Retrieved November 16, 2018 (Italian).
  5. ↑ Sinodo. In: Chiesa Evangelica Valdese. Retrieved November 16, 2018 (Italian).
  6. ↑ Tavola valdese. In: Chiesa Evangelica Valdese. Retrieved November 16, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Alessandra Trotta, nuova moderatora della Tavola valdese: “Prima gli ultimi” in: Articolo 11
  8. ^ The Moderator of the Board. A meeting with Maria Bonafede, the first woman elected to the leadership of the Waldenses. In: L'Osservatore Romano. April 2, 2013, accessed November 16, 2018 .
  9. ^ Luigi Sandri: Italian Protestant denominations approve same-sex blessings. In: Canadian Mennonite. August 31, 2010, accessed November 15, 2018 .
  10. ↑ La facoltà. In: Facoltà Valdese di Teologia. Retrieved November 15, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Note storiche. In: Collegio Valdese. Retrieved November 16, 2018 (Italian).
  12. ↑ Il Centro Diaconale La Noce. In: http://www.lanoce.org/# . Retrieved November 16, 2018 (Italian).
  13. ↑ Servizio Cristiano, valdese istituto. Retrieved November 16, 2018 (Italian).
  14. ↑ a b Evangelical Waldensian Church on the website of the WCC
  15. ^ Rainer Janssen: Waldensians. In: reformed online. Retrieved November 16, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Thomas Migge: The Waldensians and Luther. In: Deutschlandfunk. February 7, 2017, accessed November 16, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Indipendenza finanziaria. In: Chiesa Evangelica Valdese. Retrieved November 16, 2018 (Italian).
  18. ^ Crosses in schools: protest initiatives in Italy against judgment. In: ORF. November 5, 2011, accessed November 16, 2018 .
  19. ^ Relations with the Roman Catholic Church. In: Chiesa Evangelica Valdese. Retrieved November 16, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Pope asks Waldensians for forgiveness: Historic apology , message on Domradio from June 22, 2015, accessed on June 22, 2015
  21. ↑ Pope asks Italian Waldensians for forgiveness. In: evangelisch.de. June 22, 2015, accessed November 16, 2018 .
  22. ↑ Waldensians do not accept the Pope's plea for forgiveness. "Deep respect" but "impossible to forgive". In: Evangelical Covenant. August 27, 2015, accessed November 14, 2018 .
  23. ^ NEV - News bulletin of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy - March 2016. In: Global Ministries. April 18, 2016, accessed November 15, 2018 .
  24. ↑ Deborah Sutter: The Waldensian Church creates new, safe paths for refugees. In: SRF. February 27, 2016, accessed November 16, 2018 .