Sacred Heart Church (Avenwedde)

Heart of jesus

Basic data
Denomination	Roman Catholic
place	Gutersloh , Germany
diocese	Archdiocese of Paderborn
Patronage	Sacred Heart of Jesus
Building description
inauguration	July 1, 1955
Architectural style	Neo-Gothic
Construction type	Hall church
Function and title
Parish church
Coordinates 51 ° 54 '47.5 "  N , 8 ° 26' 11.7"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 54 '47.5 "  N , 8 ° 26' 11.7"  E

View of the church from the chapel school

Herz-Jesu is a Catholic parish church in Avenwedde , a district in the East Westphalian Gütersloh in North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany . Church and congregation belong to the pastoral association Avenwedde-Friedrichsdorf in the Archdiocese of Paderborn .

It was originally built as a three - aisled neo - Gothic brick hall church. A polygonal choir adjoined the three-bay nave in the east . 1953–54 the church was expanded twice. The historicizing forms of the old building were adopted. As part of the renovation, the choir was moved to the west. The octagonal, 55 m high tower were added to the initially only with a roof turret add-equipped building until the 1964th

Prehistory to the beginnings of the parish

The earliest known information about religious life in today's Avenwedde relates to the Wiedenbrück district , which was part of the Osnabrück diocese from its foundation around the year 800 . The further structure of the church took place very slowly, probably due to the sparse population. At the beginning of the 19th century the church was reorganized, which meant the end of the Osnabrück diocese. The deaneries Wiedenbrück and Rietberg were transferred to the diocese of Paderborn.

For several centuries the Gütersloh Pankratius Church (today's Apostle Church ) was responsible for the surrounding farmers, including Avenwedde. At the end of the 18th century the village of Friedrichsdorf was founded and the Catholic settlers were united in a parish. The services were initially held in a barn until collections in the Friedrichsdorf and Avenwedde farmers enabled construction of a church to begin. The foundation stone was laid in 1804 and the inauguration took place that same year. Due to dilapidation, the construction of the new St. Friedrich Church began in 1864 , which was consecrated in 1866 and is known as the "Mother Church of the Sacred Heart Parish". Around 85% of the parish at the time consisted of residents of the Avenwedde peasantry, but some of them led their religious life in St. Pankratius in Gütersloh.

History of the parish Herz-Jesu

Around 1960 the church and other church buildings were expanded. The reason was the increasing prosperity of the community members, caused by the so-called second industrial revolution (many construction projects were largely privately financed, i.e. through donations).

On November 18, 1966, the parish council was constituted according to the instructions of the bishop to support the pastor and to resolve matters affecting the parish together with him. A parish festival has been held annually since 1972, the proceeds of which are used to finance construction projects in the community.

The close collaboration with the Schoenstatt Movement , which began immediately after the Second World War, is also worth mentioning . Several members of the community joined this. The order was involved in the design of the church forecourt (Marien-wayside shrine ) and was active in Celebes as part of the Pater Noldus campaign (see below).

In 2004 the church had 3,550 souls. Since July 2003 she has been part of the Avenwedde-Friedrichsdorf Pastoral Association.

Charitable tasks

The chapel school was built parallel to the church building. The first kindergarten was built in 1946. It was closed from 1951 to 1960 because the building was needed as a school, and has been in operation again since then (now in a second building complex at a different location). The community also operates its own cemetery.

Pastor Karl Hoffmann (1960–1980 in office), who himself was imprisoned in the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps during the war , endeavored all his life to achieve reconciliation and cooperation with Poland. In 1973 he was awarded the Amicus Poloniae ("Friend of Poland") badge by the Polish literary magazine Poland , and in the following year Polish priests visited the community for church services and a pilgrimage to Werl .

Pater Noldus Action

In 1965, the Dutch missionary Father Karl Noldus, who was currently on home leave, took over a sick person in the Sacred Heart Congregation on the instructions of the bishop. As a result, it was confronted with the severe poverty situation of the inhabitants of the Indonesian island of Celebes (today: Sulawesi ). There were spontaneous and later organized aid actions in the form of deliveries in kind, building schools and churches and promoting the next generation of priests. Later other parishes also took part in the Pater Noldus campaign. In return, clergymen from Celebes came to Avenwedde more often. The strong bond was also shown by the fact that after the end of his missionary work, Father Noldus worked for a short time as vicar in Avenwedde.

Selected associations in the parish

• Catholic women's community (founded in 1919 as a mothers' association in St. Friedrich)
• Catholic workers 'movement KAB (founded in 1921 as a workers' association St. Josef , reorganized in the general association of the KAB after the ban by the National Socialists in 1947)
• Kolping family (founded in 1928 as a spin-off from the Gütersloh Kolping family)
• German youth force DJK Blau-Weiß Avenwedde (1925)
• St. Sebastianus Schützenbruderschaft (founded in 1926 as the Avenwedde Citizens ' Rifle Club , with its current name since 1948)
• Parish Caritas (since 1961)

History of the church

From around 1900, not least because of the rapidly increasing population, a public discussion about building a separate church for Avenwedde began. In 1909, the married couple Christoph and Elisabeth Hauertmann donated a three- acre property, subject to the stipulation that a church would be built on it within 20 years. On October 20, 1910, three members of the parish council of Friedrichsdorf applied for permission to build a chapel. However, the application was initially rejected by the church council. On November 27, 1911, the chapel construction and entertainment association in Avenwedde was founded and entered in the register of associations at the Gütersloh district court, with the aim of using a legal entity as the founder of the church. So donations could be collected for the construction. In 1912 the donations received were high enough to draw up a construction plan and submit it to the Episcopal Authority for approval. The foundation stone was laid in July 1913.

On May 10, 1914, the church, which was modeled on the Gothic architectural style, was consecrated . The church was initially run as the Vicarie of St. Friedrich. On October 23, 1916, the first vicar was introduced in Avenwedde. In 1920 there were the first signals from the Archbishop's General Vicariate in Paderborn to make the Sacred Heart Congregation independent. As of July 18, 1921, independent vicariate. The rectory was built in 1921/23. Due to the difficult economic situation and inflation, the construction period dragged on.

On April 1, 1924, Avenwedde became a branch parish in the parish of Friedrichsdorf with independent asset management. The development association dissolved and donated its assets to the community. It numbered about 600 Catholics. In 1928 the painting of the church began. In 1934 the first organ was installed in the church. In 1935 the former stable building at the rectory was converted into a rectory. In 1939 the church was equipped with warm air heating.

As the community grew after the Second World War, the chapel building soon became too small. On July 2, 1953, the foundation stone for an extension was laid, which was completed at Easter 1954. On July 1, 1955, the church and the altar were consecrated by the auxiliary bishop Franz Hengsbach . At the same time, the community was raised to an independent parish. The extended building was now twice as long, with space for around 700 visitors. This resulted in a new spatial orientation: the church's longitudinal axis was rotated 180 degrees so that the altar was now on the other side. There is now a choir room behind the chancel, plus two side altars and an organ gallery. A pulpit was removed.

The foundation stone for the church tower was laid on May 10, 1964 (also the 50th anniversary of the church). Since there was no longer a facade that could have been expanded into a tower after the renovation, the church council decided to build the tower separately from the church. It is an octagonal tower with a height of 55 meters, four bells and a copper roof. There has been a burial site inside since 1974. In 1971 the church got a new organ with 2343 pipes in 30 registers. When the church was renovated in 1977, the chancel and side altars were redesigned. On December 4, 1977 the new altar was consecrated by Paderborn Archbishop Johannes Joachim Degenhardt. Relics of the martyrs Castus and Aureus were set in the altar.

From May to October 2005 the church was renovated again and could be used again from October 16, 2005.

Pending construction projects

In 1961 the parsonage was expanded, which then also housed youth work, educational work (such as marriage seminars) and a parish library ("Avenwedder readers' community"). In 1965 the youth home and vicarie were built. In 1976 a new rectory was built.

literature

• Josef Bielefeld: Parish of Herz-Jesu Avenwedde - Origin and Development, Gütersloh 1979 (Ed .: Catholic parish of Herz-Jesu Avenwedde)
• Heinz Flötotto (Ed.): 800 years of Avenwedde, Gütersloh 1996, ISBN 3-929494-07-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ With the exception of the parish of Lette , which belonged to Münster. The spatial separation from Osnabrück gave the district the character of an upstream exclave . For the entire section cf. Bielefeld, 1979 (see literature).
2. ↑ Josef Bielefeld: Parish of Herz-Jesu Avenwedde - Origin and Development, Gütersloh 1979 (Ed .: Catholic parish of Herz-Jesu Avenwedde)
3. ↑ Although not completely correct in canon law, since the parish was only raised to a parish on July 1, 1955, this date is usually set by the parish as the beginning of its history.
4. ↑ In the 1960s, as part of the Second Vatican Council , slight modifications were made to take account of the new design of the divine service, since now the priest is facing the congregation.

Web links

• Community website