High Church of St. John Brotherhood

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elisabeth Cross. Since 1983 sign of the High Church St. John's Brotherhood (SJB)

The High Church St. John Brotherhood (SJB) is part of the High Church Movement .

history

The brotherhood emerged in 1929 from the High Church Association of the Augsburg Confession and was initially called the Evangelical-Catholic Eucharistic Community (EKEG) . Under the 1st chairman of the High Church Association, Prof. Dr. Friedrich Heiler opened the community, which was originally shaped by Lutheran confessionalism, to Protestant catholicity after 1927 . The concept of Evangelical Catholicity by the Swedish Archbishop Nathan Söderblom became the theological model. From the very beginning, all ecumenical impulses of the 1920s were received with great intensity ( Lausanne Church Conference 1927, Faith and Order , Franciscan Piety ( Paul Sabatier )). An attempt was made to overcome provincialism in the regional church by establishing numerous personal contacts with prominent church representatives abroad (ecumenical Una-Sancta work, Max Josef Metzger's connection, for example, to the founder of the Swedish high church movement, P.  Gunnar Rosendal ). There were also close contacts with ministers and members of the Catholic-Apostolic congregations .

In 1930 the community asked its head, Prof. Dr. Friedrich Heiler to have Bishop Gaston Vigué from the Gallican Church in southern France and Bishop Gustav Adolf Glinz delegate the power of attorney to the office of Apostolic Head of the Brotherhood (Bishop); thus the community integrated itself into the worldwide Apostolic Succession , the line of consecration of which goes back to the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch . With this step the community wanted to acknowledge the continuity of the church at all times and everywhere. The ecumenical contacts under the Nazi regime led first to the removal of Friedrich Heiler from his professorship in Munich (1934), to the ban on magazines (1937) and finally to the ban on the brotherhood (1938). During the entire Second World War, regular meetings (so-called Hochkirchentage) continued to take place in secret. In 1947 the community was re-established as the Evangelical Ecumenical St. John Brotherhood and renamed again in 1975 to the High Church of St. John Brotherhood .

From 1948 to 1990 it continued to exist in the GDR under the name Johannesbruderschaft under the protection of the Evangelical Churches of the GDR. 1990 to 1993 it came to reunification with the part of the brotherhood in the west (FRG and Rep. Austria). From 1947 to 1999 the Brotherhood accompanied both ecumenical initiatives (1983: Augustana Jubilee, 1999: Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification [GER]) and liturgical developments (2000: Evangelical Worship Book [EGB]) through essays and articles by individual members.

The high church of St. John today has around one hundred members (35% women, 65% men) in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and the Czech Republic. The majority of them are members of Protestant regional churches. Others are members of the Roman Catholic Church, the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK) or another denomination.

Admission to the fraternity is preceded by a novitiate of at least two years. Konrad + Innocenz Schrieder, Hamm, is currently the Apostolic Head in episcopal apostolic succession. The brotherhood is publicly present at church days ( German Evangelical Church Day , German Catholic Day , Ecumenical Church Day ) as well as at ecumenical events such as the St. Ansgar Vespers in Hamburg; she is a member of the Meeting of Spiritual Communities (TGG) and is included in the list of Spiritual Communities of the EKD .

Impact history

Various impulses for the establishment of orders and brotherhoods came again and again from the SJB (also from the high church association associated with it ):

  • 1920: High Church Order
  • 1924: Societas Pastorum de Bono Pastore
  • 1926: Evangelical Humiliate Order
  • 1927: Evangelical Franciscan Tertiary
  • 1935: Brotherhood of the Divine Word
  • 1938: Phoebe Sisterhood
  • 1938: Brotherhood of St. Stephen
  • 1975: Societas Sancti Wunibaldi
  • 1997: High Church Convention of Saxony
  • 2007: Altkirchlicher-Augustinus-Convent Berlin

Related communities are:

aims

  • Eucharistic piety:
Like the Old Church and Luther, the brotherhood sees in the Eucharist / Lord's Supper the effective presence of Jesus Christ and his saving power and at the same time the anticipatory embodiment of the perfect koinonia (community) through him and in him, which can experience the acceptance of the Gospel through faith within the world power. In the brotherhood, the Eucharist is celebrated in the actual liturgical language, which is derived from the common Christian (Catholic) heritage. The aim is to celebrate the full Eucharistic service in all congregations on every Sunday.
  • Private confession:
The Brotherhood hopes that the revival of this sacrament will bring about a renewal of the Protestant communities.
  • Confirmation:
Sealing to the spiritual life is practiced as a sacramental sign from the tradition of the universal Church.
  • Apostolic succession:
The brotherhood sees it as a sign of the unity of all churches and as a sign of personally responsible episcopes (spiritual guardianship) .
  • Triple (sevenfold) church office:
It traditionally embodies the diverse service community of all members of the body of Christ, especially in worship.
  • Spirituality:
The exercitia spiritualia is practiced , as it has meanwhile been rediscovered by many others for the Evangelical Church: Liturgy of the hours, retreats and, following monastic life, a simple lifestyle.
  • Ecumenical unity:
Under the motto of the One Holy Church , the Brotherhood works for the reunification of divided Christianity in faith and love, at the altar and under the direction of bishops in apostolic succession. Accordingly, she is committed to practical ecumenism, including in the life of worship.
  • Evangelical catholicity:
For the brotherhood it is the guiding principle that encompasses all of the stated goals.

External signs

  • Brotherhood name
  • Silver Elizabeth Cross from Andechs Monastery (since 1983)
  • white hooded robe (since 2002)

literature

  • The choir prayer . Hamm 2009.
  • The Evangelical Catholic Eucharistic Community. From a memorandum to the Evangelical Oberkirchenrat in Berlin, Eine Heilige Kirche, special issue Evangelical Orders and Brotherhoods . ed. by Friedrich Heiler, 17th year, 1st – 3rd Heft, Munich 1935, pp. 28–34.
  • Walter Drobnitzky and Ursula Kisker: Evangelical-Catholic hour prayer . Bochum 1982.
  • Gustav Adolf Glinz: Marientage . In: Una Sancta . Volume 1, 1925, Issues 9 and 10.
  • Hans Hartog: Evangelical catholicity - way and vision of Friedrich Heilers . With an afterword by Theodor Schneider, Mainz 1995.
  • Theodor Hauf: Seventy Years of High Church Movement (1918–1988). High church work. Where from? - What for? - Where? EHKNF No. 3, Bochum 1989.
  • Theodor Hauf and Ursula Kisker: Confessing Justification Together - Renewed Call to Evangelical Catholicity. Eighty years of high church unification 1918–1998 . EHKNF No. 5, Bochum 1999.
  • Friedrich Heiler: On reigniting the extinguished mystery . In: Journal Die Hochkirche . Issue 3/4, Munich 1931, p. 102ff.
  • Friedrich Heiler: In the struggle for apostolic succession . In: Journal Die Hochkirche . Booklet 8, Munich 1931, pp. 276ff.
  • Annette Klement: Reconciliation of the different. Friedrich Heiler's struggle for the one church as reflected in his correspondence with Catholic theologians, contributions to church and cultural history . ed. By C. Weber, Volume 4, Frankfurt, Berlin 1997.
  • Hans-Joachim Mund : Evangelical Ecumenical Brotherhood of John . Schwanbergbrief 2/1974.
  • Hans-Joachim Mund: About the one church. Evangelical catholicity . ed. from the High Church Association of the Augsburg Confession, Munich, 1984.
  • Helmut Martin Niepmann: Chronicle of the high church association of Augsburg Confession e. V. Over the first 50 years of its existence 1918–1968 . EHKNF No. 2, Bochum 1988.
  • Gérard Siegwalt: Dogmatique pour la catholicité évangélique. Système mystagogique de la foi chrétienne. L'affirmation de la foi. Cosmologie théologique: Théologie de la création , Vol. 3, No. 2, Cerf-Verlag, Paris 2000.
  • Albrecht Volkmann: Forty Years of the High Church Movement in Germany and the Neighboring Countries, One Holy Church - Journal for Ecumenical Unity . ed. by Friedrich Heiler and Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze, Munich 1957/58.

Web links