Hans-Jürgen Meyer (Pastor)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hans-Jürgen Meyer
1986: Hans-Jürgen Meyer and colleague Klaus Brinker at a memorial service for gays in Bergen-Belsen
Book cover with Hans-Jürgen Meyer

Hans-Jürgen Meyer (born May 21, 1949 in Rotenburg / Wümme ) is a retired German Protestant pastor .

After he initially decided to train in the administration of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg , he began a theological training in 1970 after completing basic military service. The introduction to the office of pastor took place in 1980 in the Epiphany congregation in Hanover .

After being suspended from work because of his openly lived homosexual partnership, there was a long-term legal dispute with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover , in which he was represented by Gerhard Schröder . It was not until the end of 2005 that the waiting status that had been pronounced in the 1990 ruling after two instances was finally lifted.

After "several TV programs and other media reports about the Hanoverian pastor", his biography Lieben - Leiden - Lachen was published at the end of 2011 . A gay pastor tells the story with a foreword by former regional bishop Margot Käßmann . The book also includes letters and statements from Helmut Gollwitzer , Luise Rinser , Dorothee Sölle , Hans-Georg Wiedemann , Helmut Kentler , Gerhard Schröder, Uta Ranke-Heinemann and others.

Hans-Jürgen Meyer is the spokesman for the local homosexual and church group in Hanover.

education

Meyer attended elementary school in Lauenbrück between April 1956 and March 1965 . After graduating from two-year commercial school , he began his professional training on April 1, 1969, initially as an administrative intern at the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. After his appointment as a candidate for a government inspector , he completed his basic military service in Buxtehude between 1969 and 1970 .

Professional background

On September 1, 1970 Meyer began his theological training at the parish vicar seminary in Hermannsburg . After obtaining his university entrance qualification , he took up theological studies in Celle , which he completed on August 5, 1976 with the first specialist theological examination. After the vicariate in Lachendorf near Celle, the second theological examination followed on September 11, 1978.

On October 16, 1978 Meyer was appointed assistant pastor and entrusted with the second pastoral position in the Epiphany Church. The ordination was followed there on October 29, 1978. On November 1, 1980, he was introduced community Epiphany in the office of pastor of. From September 1 to November 30, 1982 he was delegated to the parish ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran parish in Pattensen near Hanover.

Legal dispute with the regional church

course

Hans-Jürgen Meyer with his partner Bernd Iwan (2012)

On October 9, 1984, Pastor Meyer was suspended from service because of his openly homosexual partnership. This was followed by the initiation of a formal procedure under the Official Breeding Act, which was initially set in September 1986. After being introduced to the office of pastor in the field of work for the disabled in the Diakonie , Meyer was suspended again in March 1987. The ruling of 1990 after two instances of legal dispute with the regional church meant a five-year waiting period. After that, Pastor Meyer was again possible on request to practice in the gown. It was not until November 2000 that he was able to fill a three-quarter position as a hospital chaplain in the Henrietten Foundation. On March 1, 2005, this activity was expanded to include work (quarter position) in the work of the disabled in Hanover- Sahlkamp .

With the support of the publisher's daughter and lawyer Maria Sabine Augstein , the waiting period was officially lifted on December 31, 2005 and Hans-Jürgen Meyer was appointed pastor of the regional church. On September 2, 2007, Pastor Meyer switched to the elderly care of the Henrietten Foundation in Kirchrode as a pastor . There he retired on June 1, 2009.

Publications

Public legal radio

Fonts

Hans-Jürgen Meyer and Anne Hagenberg at a reading in the Andersraum

Hans-Jürgen Meyer's biography, published in 2011, summarized the former theology professor Manfred Josuttis in his epilogue as follows:

“Pastor Hans-Jürgen Meyer was at the forefront of the dispute nationwide from 1984 to 2005 on the question of Are gay pastors allowed to be pastors? Beyond the personal, the book is an important and unique documentation about this conflict ...
[Meyer's] arduous life has made a decisive contribution to the fact that in the future more gay pastors will work in the evangelical church in the preaching of the gospel . His struggle for the vocation to the pastorate reduced the legal norms in the Church of the Gospel for a vital area and helped the Church of Freedom to take an important step towards liberation . "

voluntary work

literature

Web links

Commons : Hans-Jürgen Meyer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Meyer: A gay pastor tells. Love - suffer - laugh . With a foreword by Margot Käßmann. German Literature Society, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86215-990-1 (222 pages).
  2. ↑ The champion. In: TAZ of November 9, 2011
  3. ↑ Hannah Suppa: The Pathfinder. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung from April 15, 2011
  4. ↑ Love - Suffering - Laughing ... , pp. 140ff.
  5. ↑ Love - Suffering - Laughing ... , pp. 191ff.
  6. ↑ Love - Suffering - Laughing ... , p. 249 ff.
  7. ↑ Love - Suffering - Laughing ... , p. 238 f.
  8. ↑ Love - Suffering - Laughing ... , p. 346 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Meyer, Hans-Jürgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant pastor
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Rotenburg / Wümme