Church of the Holy Apostles (Dortmund)

Church of the Holy Apostles main entrance Luisenstrasse

The Church of the Holy Apostles in Dortmund ( Greek Ι.Ν. Αγίων Αποστόλων Ντόρτμουντ I.N. Agíon Apostólon Dortmund ) is a community in the Greek Orthodox metropolis of Germany . She looks after the members primarily in the eastern Ruhr area .

history

Although Greek Orthodox church services in Germany have been documented since 1700, the presence of Greeks in the Ruhr area is in the context of the recruitment agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and Greece of March 30, 1960.

The presence of Greeks in Dortmund led to the opening of a Greek consulate in 1960 (which was closed around 2000 as part of a cost-saving measure). In 1961, under the Archimandrite Ánthimos Drakonákis, the decision was made to found a Greek Orthodox community in Dortmund. It is therefore probably the first establishment of a Greek Orthodox community in connection with the recruitment of guest workers. Until then, there had only been communities where Greeks had settled as merchants for over 200 years.

A marriage at the Church of the Holy Apostles on July 7, 1963 became the subject of a legal dispute in 1970. The judge was of the opinion that a marriage under German law had only come about if the clergyman had been authorized by the Greek state to marry. In fact, the formal appointment took place a short time later, and the divorce suit was dismissed as the marriage was considered incomplete.

The then Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Germany Polyeuktos (Finfinis) ( Greek Πολύευκτος Φινφίνης ) assigned the newly founded Greek Orthodox communities in Germany to their respective districts. At the end of 1965, he handed over the parish of Dortmund to the newly consecrated presbyter Tilémachos (Margarítis) and thus the pastoral responsibility for the Orthodox Christians of the eastern Ruhr area. Tilemachos held this office until October 2006. He was followed by the archimandrite Dr. Filótheos.

Organization and statistics

February 5, 1963, the congregation of the reports to the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Germany ( Greek Ιερά Μητρόπολις Γερμανίας iera Mitrópolis Germanías ) and the Exarchate of Central Europe ( Greek Εξαρχία Κεντρώας Ευρώπης Exarchia Kentróas Evropis ). The Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Germany, currently under the leadership of the Metropolitan AVGOUSTINOS ( Greek Αυγουστίνος ), in turn, reports to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Opel ( Greek Οικουμενικό Πατριαρχείο Κωνσταντινουπόλεως Ikoumenikó Patriarchío Konstantinoupoleos ). In addition to the city of Dortmund, which has the strongest Greek Orthodox group, the "Holy Apostles" parish looks after the cities of Bochum , Witten , Holzwickede and Menden (Sauerland) . The Menden church members were only assigned to the Dortmund parish in 2009. The members living in Castrop-Rauxel have been looked after by the Greek Orthodox community in Herten since then .

The Statistical Yearbook leads to the following conclusions regarding the Greek Orthodox Christians:

Dortmund: 3,255 Greeks
Bochum: 1,129 Greeks
Witten: 642 Greeks
Menden (Sauerland): ü. 1000 members
Holzwickede: no information

If you add the information from the statistical yearbooks and the information from the article from derwesten.de , the Internet portal of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , you get a community membership of around 6,026 people. However, the following points must be observed:

Missing information about the city of Holzwickede.
Cyprus-Greeks , Northern Epirus-Greeks and Greeks who represent minorities in other Balkan countries, in Turkey and Italy, cannot be recorded by the statistical offices due to their nationality.
Greeks who have only one German or dual citizenship are formally listed by the FRG only as Germans.
The community partly includes members of other Balkan states and Russia.

The number of members is estimated at around 12,000-15,000 people. In the past few decades, the number of parishioners has exceeded 20,000.

List of priests

Ánthimos Drakonákis (Archimandrite) ( Greek Άνθιμος Δρακωνάκης ), term of office 1961–1964
Tilémachos Margarítis ( Greek Τηλέμαχος Μαργαρίτης ), term of office end 1964–2006
Filótheos Maroúdas (Archimandrite, Dr.) ( Greek Φιλόθεος Μαρούδας ), term of office since October 2006

Church building

Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Apostles

The "Holy Apostles" parish does not own its premises. Since 1968 she has been using the center at Luisenstrasse 17 owned by the Evangelical Church in Dortmund. The rooms there have been painted with Byzantine iconography over the years. The seating also shows Byzantine symbolism. This includes the double-headed eagle , symbol of the palaeologists and also the Christogram .

In January 2009, a mosaic was placed in front of the entrance to the Holy of Holies ( Greek Ιερό Βήμα Ieró Víma ), a copy of a mosaic from the Palace of Constantinople , which depicts an eagle's fight with a snake. The exterior of the church, which until then had been kept largely simple, was given a historicizing orthodox character in spring 2013. The work began on December 23, 2011 and was ceremoniously concluded on May 9, 2013, with the so-called celebration of ( Greek Τα Θυρανοίξια Ta Thiraníxia ) ("The Gate Opening ").

A cross and the church bells were installed in the redesigned church. The main entrance was moved from the north of the church building to the east side of the church and an icon of Christ was placed above the entrance area. The windows were decorated with semicircular arches.

In Menden the Greek-Orthodox parish "Saint Georgios" ( Greek Ι.Ν. Αγίου Γεωργίου Μέντεν I.N. Agíou Georgíou Menden ) the Roman Catholic Holy Cross Church (at the Holy Cross Church 9) is available.

literature

Tilemachos Margaritis, Georgios Galanis, Dimitrios Georgiou, Konstantinos Mitsialos, Spyros Papaspyrou, Ioannis Verigos (text), Axel M. Mosler (design): 25 years of orthodoxy in Dortmund. Greek Orthodox parish 'The Hll. Apostle in Dortmund '1964-1989. Published by the Greek Orthodox Church Community “The Hll. Apostel “in Dortmund, text in German and Greek, German translation: Anna Zimmermann, Emmanuel Margaritis, Christodoulus Margaritis, printed in Greece, 48 pages.

Web links

Orthodoxie-Net: Dortmund ; Accessed July 31, 2013

Individual evidence

^ Greeks in Duisburg: a second home . The West, November 11, 2010; Retrieved June 25, 2013

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g history. "Holy Apostles" parish website; Retrieved June 25, 2013

^ Carl Joseph Hering: Decisions in Church Matters since 1946 . Pp. 165 f., Books.google.de

↑ Statistical Yearbook Dortmund 2011 ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) City of Dortmund, June 19, 2013 @1@ 2

↑ Statistisches Jahrbuch Bochum 2011. ( Memento of the original from 23 September 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) City of Bochum, June 19, 2013 @1@ 2

↑ Statistisches Jahrbuch Witten 2012. ( Memento of the original dated November 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 35 kB), City of Witten, June 19, 2013 @1@ 2