Jan Janssen (theologian)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jan Janssen (2015)

Jan Janssen (born April 23, 1963 in Bevensen ; full name: Jan-Dietrich Janssen) is a German Protestant - Lutheran theologian and was bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg from 2008 until his resignation in November 2017 .

Life

Jan Janssen grew up as the son of pastor Rudolf Janssen and church musician Edelgard Janssen, b. Eisenberg, among others in Sengwarden near Wilhelmshaven . After graduating from high school and studying theology at the universities of Münster , Bern and Göttingen , Janssen completed his vicariate in Oldenburg from 1992 to 1994 . After his ordination in 1994 Janssen took over the pastorate of the church in Wiefelstede , which he held until the 1996th From 1996 to 1997 he was head of the project department at the 1997 German Evangelical Church Congress in Leipzig . In 1997 he went to the Christ Church in Wilhelmshaven as a pastor . In this position he was in Wilhelmshaven for the church by the sea as an action of the Expo 2000 in charge. After already working as a representative and department head for church convention projects at the church convention in Hamburg and Leipzig in 1995 and 1997 , he was appointed pastor at the German Evangelical Church convention in Fulda in 2002 .

bishop

On May 23, 2008 he was elected Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg by the synod in Rastede . He was inducted into his office on September 29, 2008, and his predecessor Peter Krug retired. Janssen has been chairman of the board of the Evangelical Mission in Germany (EMW) since October 1st, 2010. He was re-elected in this office on September 23, 2015 for a further six years. From 2011 to 2015, Bishop Jan Janssen was also the representative of the EKD Council for Protestant voluntary services . Furthermore, from 2011 to 2017 he was chairman of the board of the Evangelisches Literaturportals eV, association for library work and reading promotion. Since November 2016 he has been a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches .

In the discussion initiated by the then Braunschweig regional bishop Friedrich Weber († 19 January 2015) in spring 2009 about the further development of the Confederation of Protestant Churches in Lower Saxony into a Lower Saxony Protestant regional church, Bishop Jan Janssen steered a theologically justified point of view with the "Oldenburg location" there was a purely economic-demographic structural debate and at the same time invited the Protestant “sibling churches in Lower Saxony to conduct the upcoming discussions based on their theological character” (preface “Oldenburg location determination” from November 30, 2009). With the treaty dated March 8, 2014, the Confederation adopted a new constitution while retaining the independence of the five Lower Saxony member churches, whose synods gained in importance with the abolition of the Confederation Synod.

Janssen initiated and shaped the future congress of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg from July 6th to 8th, 2012 under the biblical phrase "A country that I want to show you" (Genesis 12, 1) and is the author of the book of the same name. It stands for the beginning of a spiritual and theological renewal movement for a perceptible Protestant church in the world. As a result, the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg made substantive and structural resolutions to strengthen church music, the work of the pastors and parishes by expanding and systematizing the parish offices. Under the direction of Bishop Jan Janssen, the Upper Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg presented a parish plan for the entire Oldenburg Church. This means that the Evangelical Lutheran Church has for the first time a systematic basis for full-time theological work. The synod secured the further work on the results of the future congress by appointing synodal working groups.

On November 30, 2014 Janssen celebrated with church President Martin Heimbucher in the previously Lutheran shaped by the Protestant fair Garrison Church Oldenburg the first Reformed worship, which henceforth liturgical in regular offer besides the Lutheran Mass occurs at this church and the Reformed Evangelical Church in Empty is offered on the first Sunday of each month and on all major religious holidays. Janssen thus renewed the Oldenburg commitment to denominational openness within the Evangelical Church in Germany , which already stems from the incorporation of the former Kniphausen rule into the county of Oldenburg in the 18th century, with the Grand Duke of Oldenburg setting up a Reformed preaching office in Accum that still exists today .

Janssen has been committed to world peace as the church ambassador of the World Council of Churches for years . At the 10th General Assembly of the World Council in Busan in November 2013 , he took part in his own Bible study and, with a view to the troubled missionary history of the church, advocated that mission should begin with listening and not with surprise. He regularly expresses his solidarity with the victims of armed conflicts in crisis areas on the ground. During his visit to Christian communities in Lebanon in March 2015, Janssen criticized the Middle East reporting as a threat to the interreligious dialogue in the region. As Janssen already in 2015 during his visit to the Ukraine a contribution of Christian churches demanded to peace, then Janssen began in March 2016 shattered by civil war Burundi of locally based Christian churches for the performance of the mediator roles. On the occasion of his trip to Ghana with the North German Mission in August 2016, he pointed out the fundamental importance of the mission's educational work for the development of the country.

Resignation and consequences

On November 23, 2017, he announced that he was stepping down from his position with immediate effect. The Joint Church Committee commissioned “Pastor Jan Janssen” with the provisional performance of the bishop's duties until January 31, 2018. The 48th Synod held a special session in January 2018 on the occasion of the resignation, from which the Upper Church Council was asked in an audit order to prepare a bill by 2023, which basically makes statements about the appointment to the episcopate for life. This indicates that Janssen's successor is still being called to the office of bishop for life. Janssen had repeatedly called for the bishop's term of office to be limited in connection with his resignation. Janssen was taken into temporary retirement on February 18, 2018 by Church President Volker Jung as the representative of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Lower Saxony's minister of culture, Grant Hendrik Tonne , gave a welcoming address, underscoring the socio-political importance of Janssen's work during his time as bishop. Probably the best-known Oldenburg theologian since Rudolf Bultmann had made a name for himself well beyond Oldenburg, above all as an uncomfortable critic of undesirable social developments. In his sermon in the farewell service, Janssen warned against fantasies of absolute world domination.

Pastor

Janssen took over the management of the Rotterdam station of the German Seamen's Mission as pastor in autumn 2018 .

Personal

Janssen is married and has three children.

Publications

  • ed. with Ulrike Suhr: Developing the Our Father. Liturgical steps between the Kirchentag and the congregation. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2006, ISBN 3-579-05572-0 .
  • with Uwe Appold: So free. The I Am words of Jesus in interpretations and pictures. Presence, Hünstelden 2007, ISBN 978-3-8763-0534-9 .
  • Invite. LVH, Hannover 2010, ISBN 978-3-7859-1018-4 .
  • ... a country that I want to show you. Biblical places in the Oldenburger Land. LVH, Hannover 2012, ISBN 978-3-7859-1069-6 .
  • What is man ... that you think of him? (Psalm 8, 5) in: Ralph Hennings (ed.), What is man? Wilhelmshaven 2016, ISBN 978-3-9419-2970-8 .
  • At your service with all freedom. in: Church - Power - Politics. Anhalt knowledge volume 2. Ed. By Albrecht Lindemann u. a. Hanover 2015, ISBN 978-3-7859-1190-7 .
  • Biblical contours of invisible borders. in: (in) _visible limits. Book for the exhibition of the Stuttgarter Kunstverein. Freiburg i.Br. 2017, ISBN 978-3-8683-3210-0 .

literature

  • Thomas Krüger et al. (Ed.): Who is where in the Protestant Church? People and functions. Joint work of Protestant journalism, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-932194-29-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ EMW board of directors: Oldenburg bishop elected , emw-d.de, message from September 22, 2010.
  2. ↑ http://www.kirche-oldenburg.de/kirche-gemeinden/bischof.html
  3. ↑ EKD press release of November 7, 2013 ( Memento of September 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Jan Janssen on the 10th full conference of the WCC
  5. ↑ Oldenburg Bishop visits Christians in Lebanon
  6. ↑ Janssen: Middle East reporting endangers interreligious dialogue
  7. ↑ Janssen: Churches can contribute to peace in Ukraine
  8. ↑ Janssen is a member of the delegation
  9. ↑ Interview with Jan Janssen from March 30, 2016
  10. ^ Educational work is the most important task of the Mission in Africa
  11. ↑ The bishop's term of office remains indefinite
  12. ↑ "Because ten years are good"
  13. ↑ Ex-Bishop of Oldenburg
  14. ^ Farewell to Janssen from the episcopate
  15. ^ NWZ to say goodbye to Jan Janssen
  16. ↑ Janssen becomes a seafarer's pastor in Rotterdam.
personal data
SURNAME Janssen, Jan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lutheran theologian
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Bevensen