Community of Evangelical Cistercian Heirs in Germany
The Community of Evangelical Cistercian Heirs in Germany has been an amalgamation of evangelical parishes, monasteries , convents and communities that work on the site of former Cistercian monasteries in Germany since 1993 .
History and mission
Paul Geißendörfer, pastor of the Protestant parish Heilsbronn , at the site of the former Cistercian monastery Heilsbronn , invited other German Protestant parishes, which are also located at the site of earlier Cistercian monasteries, to a meeting in Heilsbronn, which was followed annually by further meetings in other locations. The association, which in 1997 expressly renounced association status , presented a charter in Loccum in 2005 with the so-called Loccumer Declaration 2005 in which the common principles are formulated. Accordingly, the community sees its task in rediscovering (in ecumenical contact with the Roman Catholic Cistercian Order ) the rich spiritual heritage of the medieval Cistercian movement in the spirit of the Lutheran Reformation and making it fruitful for the life of the communities and individual Christians. In 2016 about 120 parishes belonged to the community, 79 of which were represented on the community's homepage with their own page, but all were located on a map of Germany, which also recorded the monasteries currently populated by Roman Catholic (male and female) Cistercian monasteries.
literature
- Paul Geißendörfer and Horst Hirschler: The Community of Evangelical Cistercian Heirs in Germany. Their becoming, their theological and ecclesiastical character . Heilsbronn 2003.
- Jörg Neijenhuis: From the sources. Origin, development and content orientation of the community of Evangelical Cistercian heirs in Germany . In: Jahrbuch für Liturgik und Hymnologie 49, 2010, pp. 9–29.
- Paul Geißendörfer and Christine Jakobi-Mirwald (eds.): Churches and monasteries of the Cistercians. The evangelical heritage in ecumenical neighborhood in Germany, Austria and Switzerland . Fink, Lindenberg 2015.