Karl Heinz Voigt

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Karl Heinz Voigt (born August 31, 1934 in Delmenhorst ) is a pastor emeritus of the United Methodist Church (UMC) . He held leading positions in his church as well as in various non-denominational associations and organizations. He is an author on church history known works far beyond his church addition.

Career

After completing a commercial apprenticeship, Karl Heinz Voigt completed a course of study at what was then the technical college of the German food retail trade in Neuwied, and after an internship in Westerstede (Oldb.), He began his theological training on the second educational path. From 1955 to 1959 he studied at the Methodist seminary in Frankfurt / Main . Then he attended the "seminar for church service in industry" in Mainz-Kastel with the theologians of the regional church under the direction of Pastor Horst Symanowski . From 1960 to 1963 he worked in Hamburg . From 1963 Karl Heinz Voigt took over the management of the aid organization of the Methodist Church, whose seat was in Frankfurt am Main, and the management of the free church branch of the Diakonisches Werk der EKD ( Evangelical Church in Germany ), which was also based in Frankfurt. Since that time he has been active in the care of conscientious objectors and was a member of the working group "Care of conscientious objectors" in the Association of Evangelical Free Churches (VEF) . At this time he began to work in the VEF radio and television working group, for which he later made contact with the community organization of Protestant journalism . In 1966 Voigt was a delegate of his church at the World Conference for Church and Society in Geneva, convened by the World Council of Churches . Ahead of the church union between Protestant community and the Methodist Church to Methodist Church (worldwide United Methodist Church), he worked with in various working groups. After working in the aid organization, which involved many contacts with the East and regular trips to the GDR , from 1968 to 1984 he worked in the oldest methodist episcopal community on the European continent in Bremen . The work was connected with the city ecumenism. So it came about that Voigt was temporarily chairman of the “Ecumenical Working Group ” (today: Working Group of Christian Churches ). After being elected and appointed to the position of superintendent , Voigt headed the Berlin (West) district from 1984 to 1993, again with many contacts to the East. He was commissioned by the church council to lead the nationwide project “Diakonie '86”, with which the Methodist Church concretized its understanding of mission at the level of the local congregations as a unity of word and service after the ecumenical “Missionary Year”. During the time as superintendent, Karl Heinz Voigt was a member of the church council.

In Berlin he was the first free church to be elected chairman of the Berlin Ecumenical Council (today: Ec. Council Berlin-Brandenburg ) formed under the influence of Bishop Kurt Scharf . After the end of the GDR Voigt worked in the central commission for the reorganization between the church parts in East and West.

With the end of the temporary church leadership activity as superintendent in the Methodist Church, a parish work in the Schleswig-Holstein state capital Kiel followed . At the same time, since 1992, he took on the duties of a church-wide ecumenical commissioner. The representation in the Working Group of Christian Churches in Germany was connected with it. The Association of Evangelical Free Churches commissioned him for almost ten years to represent them at the EKD Synods and at the same time to work alongside a Catholic representative in the EKD's "Ecumenical Commission" at the time .

In addition to the diverse ecumenical effectiveness, Voigt was always interested in a theological penetration of his work, which he combined with historical studies. In addition to the distinctive profile of the church, which is particularly necessary for a minority church in an ecumenical context in order to be able to be a critical partner, the role of the formative church environment was important to him. That is why he has published various studies on movements that have accompanied the Methodist Church in the course of its history: on the Evangelical Alliance (1990), the Sanctification Movement (1996), Free Churches in Germany (2004), the relationship between Sunday school and children's worship (2007 ) and the Community Movement (2008 and 2014); afterwards two volumes appeared with an overview of the history of ecumenism in Germany (2014 and 2015) with prefaces by the ACK chairmen Bishop Friedrich Weber and Bishop Karl Heinz Wiesemann. Most recently, in the context of the bilateral look back at the Reformation, an overview study with a preface by Professor Hartmut Lehmann was published, which outlines a line of church minorities from before 1517 to after 2017 (2018). For decades Voigt worked in the historical commission of the Council of Methodist Churches in Europe and the organization of congresses in Bad Klosterlausnitz (then still GDR), Reuti Hasliberg ( Switzerland ), Holstebro ( Denmark ), Tallinn ( Estonia ) and Budapest ( Hungary ). In 2007 the historically interested pastor in Chevy Chase (Maryland) received the annual Distinguished Service Award for his extensive research on the history of the Methodist Church in Europe . Voigt is a member of the advisory board of the journal Freikirchenforschung and published a number of studies on free church and ecumenical topics. He has contributed to eight encyclopedias, for the Biographisch-Bibliographische Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) there will soon be 300, some of which show international church relationships.

In Bremen he has been a member of the Bremen Church History Association for decades . He lives his retirement in the Hanseatic city .

Private

Voigt married Marlene Viet in 1960. The couple have three children and live in Bremen.

Works

  • Free churches in Germany (19th and 20th centuries) (= church history in detail, vol. III / 6). Leipzig 2004, ISBN 978-3374022304 .
  • International Sunday school and German children's church service. An ecumenical challenge (= Church-Denomination-Religion series, Vol. 52). Göttingen 2007.
  • Theodor Christlieb (1833-1889). The Methodists, the Community Movement, and the Evangelical Alliance . Göttingen 2008.
  • Methodist mission in Hamburg (1850-1900). Transatlantic Influences . Göttingen 2010.
  • Ahead of the times. The community movement as a step into modernity? Considerations on the prehistory and early history of the Gnadau community association . Leipzig 2014, ISBN 978-3-374-03748-3 .
  • Ecumenism in Germany. International Influences and Networking - Beginnings 1848-1945 (= Church-Confession-Religion Series, Vol. 62). V&R unipress publishing house, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-8471-0269-4 .
  • Ecumenism in Germany (Vol. 2). From the founding of the ACK to the Charta Oecumenica (1948–2001), Göttingen 2015, KKR 65, 705 S., Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht - academic, preface Bishop Karl-Heinz Wiesemann.
  • The United Methodist Church in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. From the refugee movement to community building (with an appendix about the former West Prussia and Silesia), Hamburg 2016, 268 p., Angelibri Publishing, Hamburg.
  • Church minorities in the shadow of the Lutheran Reformation - before 1517 until after 2017, Göttingen 2017, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht - academic, KKR 73, preface Hartmut Lehmann, 382 pp.
  • Martin Luther and John Wesley. Similarities and differences with an impact on the understanding and practice of the church, Stuttgart 2017, EmK-Forum 43, preface Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, 56 pp.

bibliography

Web links

literature

  • Walter Klaiber : Karl Heinz Voigt - Facets of his work , in: Free Church Research, Volume 23/2014, pp. 13–23.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Klaiber : Karl Heinz Voigt on his 80th birthday (pages 13–56) in: Freikirchenforschung, Volume 23/2014, Verlag VFF, Erzhausen 2014.
  2. ↑ Ulrike Schuler: Glaubenswege - Bildungswege, 2008, p. 176.
  3. ↑ Karsten Mohr (ed.): Jedermanns Freund - nobody's enemy, Hamburg 2017, pp. 187-205
  4. ↑ Diakonische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Evangelischer Kirchen (Ed.): 40 years of Diakonische Arbeitsgemeinschaft Evangelischer Kirchen. Representation of the 'free churches' in the Diakonisches Werk of the EKD . Stuttgart 1997, p. 137 u. a.
  5. ^ Karl Heinz Voigt: Peace service with and without weapons? In: Yearbook for Free Church Research 13 (2003), pp. 180–197.
  6. ^ Association of Evangelical Free Churches (VEF): Reports from the work 1984-1987 . Stuttgart 1987, p. 27.
  7. ↑ World Council of Churches (ed.): Appeal to the churches of the world. Documents of the World Conference for Church and Society . Stuttgart 1968, list of participants.
  8. ↑ "Be one, that the world may believe ..." Methodist Church Union from 1968 - worldwide and voluntary. In: Yearbook of Free Church Research 18 (2009), pp. 66-101.
  9. ↑ Alan Walker (ed.): How they grow, Twelve communities on the move, Stuttgart 1980, 114–140. English edition: See How They Grow, Glasgow 1979, 90-99.
  10. ↑ "Diakonie '86": Living with Christ: thanking - thinking - serving, annual planner . Stuttgart 1986.
  11. ↑ Cf. resolutions in the minutes of the Presidium of the VEF and the reports to the free churches.
  12. ↑ Award ceremony to Pastor Karl Heinz Voigt , emk.de, message from July 28, 2007.
  13. ↑ Members of the Association for Free Church Research , freikirchenforschung.de, accessed on September 13, 2014.
  14. ↑ Karl Heinz Voigt turns 80 , emk.de, message from August 31, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Voigt, Karl Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant church historian and pastor of the United Methodist Church
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Delmenhorst