Gerhard Nordholt

Gerhard Nordholt (born October 9, 1920 in Schüttorf , Grafschaft Bentheim ; † November 27, 1994 in Emlichheim ) was a Reformed theologian and, as a regional superintendent, long-standing spiritual director of the Evangelical Reformed Church in northwest Germany (today part of the Evangelical Reformed Church ) with its seat in Leer (East Frisia) .

Live and act

Gerhard Nordholt was born the son of a weaver and grew up with six siblings. After graduating from middle school, he learned to be a bank clerk. After the war and imprisonment, he attended the preacher's school " Johanneum " in Wuppertal - Barmen from 1946 to 1949 , graduated from high school in 1949 and studied theology in Göttingen , Basel and Münster .

In 1954, Nordholt received his doctorate in Münster with a thesis on the theology of Johannes Oekolampad as a doctor of theology .

After completing the theological exams in Leer, he spent his vicariate in the parishes of Hinte , Westerhusen and Neermoor in East Friesland . In 1955 he became parish pastor in Neermoor and one year later moved to a pastor's position in the Reformed parish of his hometown Schüttorf in the county of Bentheim .

In 1963, Gerhard Nordholt was elected to succeed Walter Herrenbrück senior as the state superintendent of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany . Re-elected in 1975, Nordholt remained in this position until 1987 when he passed it on to his successor Walter Herrenbrück junior . His special achievements included the preparation of the merger of his church with the Evangelical Reformed Church in Bavaria and the conclusion of a church treaty with the Federal Republic of Germany.

Nordholt spent his retirement in Bad Bentheim and Emlichheim . He found his grave in his hometown Schüttorf.

Other functions and activities

As a state superintendent, Nordholt was for many years a member of the moderamen of the Reformed League . He was extremely committed to drawing up the Leuenberg Agreement in 1973. He was also involved in the process of understanding between the Catholic Church and the Protestant regional churches that began after 1980.

Gerhard Nordholt became known beyond his church through his participation in the declaration of the moderator's name of the Reformed Covenant on The Confession of Jesus Christ and the Church's Responsibility for Peace in the context of the general political retrofitting debate in the early 1980s.

Publications

• The figure of the congregation and the worship service belonging to the catechism , 1963
• "Why not theology?" Information on Theology as a Study and Profession , 1968
• The Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany One Hundred Years on the Road in the Wandering People of God of the Old and New Covenants , 1982
• Calvin's way to Geneva
• The creation of the "Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover" , 1982

literature

• Rainer Bürgel, Jürgen Jeziorowski, Rolf Koppe : Who is where in the Protestant Church? People and functions . Hanover 1989 - ISBN 3-7859-0576-9
• Alfred Rauhaus : Gerhard Nordholt , in: Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland Vol. 2 , Aurich, 1997, pp. 274–276 ( PDF file )