Hanoverian Evangelical-Lutheran Free Church

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The Hanoverian Evangelical Lutheran Free Church was a Lutheran church of old denominations that was established in 1878 .

history

Small cruciform church in Hermannsburg

The background to the establishment of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Hanover was the law on marriage , passed in the course of the Kulturkampf , which made civil marriage mandatory and which came into force on January 1, 1876. The church still had the right to carry out weddings according to the old wedding formula. However, the Hanover regional church changed the marriage formula without a request from the state when the regional synod of the Evangelical Lutheran regional church of Hanover decided that a church wedding can only take place after the civil marriage. Despite numerous petitions to keep the old eaves formula, the new one was introduced.

Old form New form
They are present here
NN. and NN., which are in
the marital status according to divine
Willing to embark
Because NN and NN are mutually exclusive
desire to marry, so I speak it
married together in the name of the father and
of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
or
If then these present persons
NN and NN covet each other for marriage, so
I hereby audition them publicly
married to this Christian congregation
together. What God has put together
man should not separate that. Amen
There are currently NN and NN,
the neat way their marriage
have legally closed
and now more in the name of the triune
God's want to be married
NN, I ask you on behalf of God:
Do you want present NN as yours
having a legitimate husband etc.
Because then this present one
Persons NN and NN each other for marriage
coveted and here before God
Face to face and in front of this church
themselves as Christian married couples
known to also shake hands on it
have given, so I speak as a
ordained minister of the church them together

In the old form it becomes clear that man and woman appear before the altar as bride and groom and not already as married couple as in the new form. Likewise, in the new form, it is not spoken together in marriage, but exclusively spoken together. One of the pastors who opposed the new eaves formula was Pastor Theodor Harms , Hermannsburg . In 1878 he was suspended by the Hanover church authorities because he refused to use the new eaves formula. In addition to him, numerous other pastors were ousted, including the Göttingen superintendent Rudolf Rocholl . After the pastors were removed from office, numerous parishioners resigned from the Hanover regional church. The resigned pastors and the congregations who left with them joined forces on April 30, 1878 at the Synod in Hermannsburg to form the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Hanover. At this synod, the Lüneburg church order was adopted as the basis.

The Hanoverian Evangelical Lutheran Free Church merged with other Lutheran churches in 1945 to form the (Old) Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany , which in turn became part of today's Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK) based in Hanover in 1972 .

management

At the first Hermannsburg Synod, a synodal committee was elected to lead the church. At the head was a praeses. He was accompanied by two pastors and two lay people. This body and the synod were responsible for leading the church.

Teaching

The Hanoverian Evangelical Lutheran Free Church understood the Bible as the infallible word of God and the confessional writings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church as their valid and binding interpretation.

literature

  • History of the Hanoverian Evangelical-Lutheran Free Church . Published by the Pastors' Convention, Celle 1924

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