Initiative Church from Below
The Church from Below Initiative ( IKvu ; originally Katholikentag von Below ( Kvu ), according to Jn 8.23 EU ) is an ecumenical network of originally around 45 groups and initiatives critical of the official church and society . It was founded in 1980 due to problems with the Roman Catholic Church at the Catholic Day 1978 in Freiburg im Breisgau .
Essence and history
The initiative's self-image is based on the “grassroots perspective”. According to her own statements, the “critical dialogue with the church institutions ” is just as important to her as the “constructive discussion of the prevailing politics .” As a result, she is involved in various projects to reform the churches and in the peace and fair trade movement . The relationship between the initiative and the Roman Catholic Church is tense. When Ecumenical Church in 2003 in Berlin its ecumenical excited Supper church services a stir and led to the suspension of the involved Roman Catholic priest Gotthold Hasenhüttl and Bernhard Kroll . Since the turn of the millennium , the importance of the Church from Below initiative began to decline sharply, also because the Central Committee of German Catholics became more open to earlier taboo topics and the need for alternatives decreased. With it came a reduction in the activities of the groups, some of which only exist on paper.
Member initiatives
- Action group Augsburg (AKA),
- Action group Halle (AKH), associated
- Working Group for Students of Catholic Theology (AGT),
- Working group of priest and solidarity groups (AGP),
- Working Group Alternative Catholicism ,
- Imprimatur working group ,
- Munich base ,
- Base community Frankfurt ,
- Base community Friedrich Spee ,
- Berlin Initiative Stolperstein ,
- Association of Religious Socialists of Germany (BRSD),
- Christians for a just economic order e. V. (CGW),
- Christians for Socialism (CfS),
- Christ the King parish Eschborn ,
- Christian Initiative Romero (CIR),
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer Association (dbv),
- Essen district ,
- Evangelical Student Congregation (ESG),
- Evangelical Wicherngemeinde Frankfurt am Main
- Catholic Theology Student Council of the University of Regensburg ,
- Freckenhorster District (FK),
- Freiburg East ,
- Congregation in the Oscar Romero house ,
- IKvu Bremen-Oldenburg-Ostfriesland ,
- Christian Rights Initiative in the Church ,
- Christian Left Initiative (ICL),
- Religious for Peace Initiative (IOF),
- Initiative group of women affected by celibacy ,
- Catholic Community Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld (KGSpee),
- Readers' initiative Publik e. V. (LIP),
- Mary of Magdala - Initiative Equal Rights for Women in the Church ,
- Network of Catholic Lesbians (NkaL),
- Rhine-Neckar network ,
- Ecumenical Working Group Homosexuals and the Church (HuK) e. V.
- Snake brood - magazine for women interested in feminism and religion,
- Solidarity group Paderborn (SOG),
- Association of Catholic Priests and their Wives (VkPF)