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