Church district Simmern-Trarbach

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The Simmern-Trarbach parish is part of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland . It was created in 1972 through the merger of the Trarbach and Simmern church districts . It includes 27 parishes with a total of around 34,700 parishioners.

Area of ​​the church district

The church district mainly includes territories in which the Electoral Palatinate formerly owned shares, such as the Front and Back Counties of Sponheim , the Kröver Reich or the Duchy of Simmern .

The geographical center of the church district and the seat of the superintendent is Kirchberg . Other towns in the church district are Kastellaun , Simmern , Traben-Trarbach and Zell . The communities are located in the districts of Bad Kreuznach , Bernkastel-Wittlich , Birkenfeld , Cochem-Zell , Mayen-Koblenz and the Rhein-Hunsrück district . The largest economic factors are Frankfurt-Hahn Airport , Moselle tourism and a few industrial companies in Rheinböllen and Simmern.

Embossing

Confessional tradition

The Heidelberg Catechism is in lively use in some parishes in the parish , and several parishes are members of the Reformed Covenant . A total of nine congregations - the Moselle congregations, Dill, Ober Kostenz and the congregations around Kastellaun - have the Lutheran catechisms, five have a united catechism and one congregation has an evangelical catechism. All congregations state the uniate as their confession.

Church in the rural area

In addition to this traditional denominational expression, the rural and rural situation determines life in the parishes and in the church district. The strong identification of the people with their places and the stability of the place are also expressed in a greater participation in church life than is often observed elsewhere. On the other hand, there are often long journeys to work, through which some church offers are pushed back. This was noticeably different until the 1970s due to the widespread agriculture, as it was not uncommon for a majority of the village population to live and work in the village. Nevertheless, agriculture and viticulture are important factors for life in the church district.

In accordance with the village-like and decentralized character, many parishes have long refrained from mergers, which elsewhere are seen as a necessary measure for parishes that are becoming smaller. Most parishes, some of which have fewer than 200 parishioners and to which only one place belongs, are connected to others through the parish, so several of them are cared for by a pastor.

Confessing Church

The story of Pastor Paul Schneider from Dickenschieder is of great importance for the church district . He was involved in a Hunsrück parish fraternity within the Confessing Church , which included about half of the pastors of the parish of Simmern a. a. Friedrich Langensiepen in Gödenroth. The other pastors were mostly unorganized, only a few adhered to the German Christians . Superintendent Gillmann, himself not a member of the Confessing Church, campaigned for Schneider several times.

Peace movement

From 1986 cruise missiles were to be stationed on the US missile base in Pydna between Bell and Wüschheim . In the peace movement that opposed this plan, the Protestant church was represented in the person of its Beller pastor August Dahl and his wife Jutta in a leading position. A permanent vigil, a demonstration with around 200,000 people, including around 10,000 Hunsrückers, on October 11, 1986, and memorial crosses on the so-called Friedensacker were events that shaped the parishes to a large extent .

Immigration

Since around 1990, many repatriates from the successor states of the former Soviet Union have found accommodation in the area of ​​the church district. Their share in the Protestant population is more than a quarter. In some places, such as Blankenrath , it was only in this way that evangelicals were settled in a significant way. In other communities such as Sohren , the community profile has changed significantly. For several years, integration was promoted through the establishment of a separate pastoral office for this group of people.

Diakonia

In the church district of Simmern-Trarbach, Schmiedel e. V. an independent diaconal institution. Others such as the Martin-Luther-King-Jugendhof, the kindergarten in Wolf an der Mosel (part of Traben-Trarbach) and the nursing home in Traben-Trarbach belong to the Rheinische Gesellschaft für Innere Mission und Hilfswerk GmbH, Leichlingen, the nursing homes in Sohren and Simmern and the Evangelical Hospital Simmern are facilities of the kreuznacher diakonie ; the two evangelical carriers have their seat outside the church district.

Most diaconal offers - including the Ev. Marriage, parenting and life counseling, pregnancy counseling and work with foreigners - are part of a joint diaconal work with the Trier church district.

partnership

Since 1983, the Simmern-Trarbach parish and the south-western parish of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Botswana (ELCB) have maintained a partnership in which regular meetings take place.

management

According to Rhenish church law, the church district is led by the district synod, which usually meets twice a year, by the district synodal committee and by the superintendent.

The superintendents since the founding of the church district were:

  • 1972–1988 Günther Kempgen, Neuerkirch-Biebern (previously Superintendent of the Simmern parish since 1967)
  • 1988–2000 Winfried Oberlinger, Simmern I / Altweidelbach
  • 2001–2018 Horst Hörpel, Simmern III / Trinity Parish
  • 2018– 0000Hans-Joachim Hermes, Soonblick

Communities

literature

  • Dieter Diether: The houses of God in the Evangelical Church District Simmern-Trarbach . Church district Simmern-Trarbach, Kirchberg (Hunsrück), 1998
  • Evangelical children's home Schmiedel: Hunsrück children's home Auf'm Schmiedel, hostel in the desert. 120 years, 1850-1970; a commemorative publication and a gift from friends . Auf'm Schmiedel children's home, Simmern, 1970
  • Ernst Gillmann (ed.): Our church in the Rhenish Oberland . Verlag Glaube und Heimat, Simmern 1954, DNB 965999386 .
  • Horst Hörpel: Schmiedel yesterday and today. Contributions to the past and present . Argenthal 2007
  • Andreas Metzing: The development of the denominational landscape in the area of ​​today's church district Simmern-Trarbach between the Augsburg religious peace and the Palatinate religious declaration (1555–1705). In: Monthly Issues for Evangelical Church History of the Rhineland , 55 (2006), pp. 219–232 (also on regionalgeschichte.net ).
  • Andreas Nikolay: Pastor Richard Oertel (1860–1932) and the Hunsrück Farmers' Association . A socio-historical-biographical study (= series of publications by the Hunsrücker Geschichtsverein, 32). Hunsrück History Association, Mengigart, 2001. At the same time, Univ.-Diss. Mainz, 2001, ISBN 3-9804416-9-5
  • Albert Rosenkranz: The Evangelical Rhineland. a Rhenish parish and pastor's book (= series of publications by the Association for Rhenish Church History, 3). Church in Time, Düsseldorf, 1966, p. 532ff
  • Gustav Schellack, Willi Wagner: Festschrift for the 425th anniversary of the Reformation. 1557–1982 (Moselle - Hunsrück - Nahe) . Church district Simmern-Trarbach, Kirchberg (Hunsrück), 1982

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. Jump up ↑ Evangelical Church in the Rhineland: parishioners and denomination share by church district . ( Memento of February 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) EKiR statistics for the Synod 2016, as of January 1, 2015, p. 2 (pdf; 251 kB).
  2. ↑ Evangelical Church in the Rhineland: EKiR statistics for the synod 2014: 5.6 parishes by confessional status ( Memento from January 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ); P. 6 (pdf; 60 kB).