Lippe regional church

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Logo of the regional church of Lippe
map
Map of the Lippe Regional Church
Basic data
Area : 1,157.74 km²
State superintendent : Dietmar Arends
Membership: Union of Evangelical Churches
World Community of Reformed Churches
World Council of Churches
Classes : 5
Parishes : 69
Parishioners: 159,396 (December 31, 2017)
Share of the
total population:		 46.0% (December 31, 2017)
Website: www.lippische-landeskirche.de

The Lippe regional church is one of 20 member churches ( regional churches ) of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). Like all regional churches, it is a corporation under public law , with its seat in Detmold . The Church of Lippe has 159,396 community members (as of 2017) in 58 reformed and 10 Lutheran churches and a non-denominational moderately specified Lutheran congregation. It is one of three Protestant regional churches in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia , the others are the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland and the Evangelical Church of Westphalia .

The Lippe Regional Church is a church with two equal Protestant denominations (Lutheran and Reformed), but predominantly reformed. She is a member of the World Community of Reformed Churches and the Reformed Covenant . The 58 Reformed congregations are regionally grouped into four classes (districts). The ten Lutheran congregations form a separate Lutheran class within the regional church. This class is a member of the Lutheran World Federation , of which it is listed as a member church. As a church with two different denominations, the Lippe Church also joined the Union of Evangelical Churches in 2003 .

The main church of the Lippe regional church is the Erlöserkirche in Detmold . The two largest churches are the Evangelical Reformed Christ Church (Detmold-West) and the Evangelical Reformed Kilian Church in Schötmar . The largest and oldest Lutheran church is St. Nicolai in Lemgo .

Territory of the regional church

The area of ​​the Lippe Regional Church is the part of North Rhine-Westphalia , which includes the state of Lippe , which existed until 1947 , which belonged to the British occupation zone after the Second World War and was incorporated into the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Here it initially comprised the two districts of Detmold and Lemgo , which were united in the district reform of 1973 by the Bielefeld law to form the Lippe district (district seat in Detmold ), so that the area of ​​the regional church essentially comprises the new Lippe district within the Detmold administrative district.

There are some deviations between the Lippe district area and the area of ​​the regional church. In the area of ​​the city of Lügde , only the Reformed parishes of Elbrinxen and Falkenhagen belong to the Lippe regional church. The old town area with the Evangelical Lutheran parish of Lügde is still an exclave of the Westphalian church district of Paderborn . The Lower Saxon village of Goldbeck belongs to the Reformed parish of Bösingfeld in Extertal. The village of Hagedorn, part of the town of Steinheim in the Höxter district, belongs to the Reformed parish of Schwalenberg .

history

Simon VI. zur Lippe introduced the Reformed denomination in 1605

The history of the Lippe regional church is inextricably linked with the history of the state of Lippe, which before the Reformation belonged to the dioceses of Minden and Paderborn . From 1522, however, the Lutheran order of preaching was carried out in Lemgo , and in 1533 the Reformation took hold throughout the country. In 1538 the Lutheran church order was adopted by the state parliament in Cappel for Lippe. This church ordinance was revised again in 1571 and is still valid today as the Lippisch-Spiegelberg church ordinance for the confessional status of the Lutheran congregations in Lippe. In 1605 Count Simon VI. to the Reformed Confession. He filled pastoral posts that became vacant with Reformed pastors. The current church order and Luther's catechism remained in effect for the time being. From 1605 there were unrest and revolts against the introduction of the Reformed creed in several places in Lippe. Lemgo, parts of the Lippe nobility and the townspeople in Detmold remained Lutheran. In 1854, Catholic parishes were allowed into law, and Lutherans were given the same status as Reformed parishes. In 1877 the church gave itself a synodal order, although the synod initially had little significance. It met for the first time in 1878.

Head of the church was the respective ruler of the principality of Lippe as summus episcopus . The spiritual director was a general superintendent. After the end of the First World War the newly created regional church council with the general superintendent (from 1936 regional superintendent) took the place of the sovereign church regiment. In 1931 the church adopted a new constitution.

In the church struggle from 1934 the regional church was one of the intact churches that were not ruled by the German Christians . In particular, the Lippe Church ordained trained pastors of the Confessing Church .

Even after the Second World War , the state of Lippe initially existed and only became part of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1947. The Lippe regional church was not affected. She joined the Evangelical Church in Germany in 1948 . The church administration (regional church office) was located in Detmold from the beginning.

In 1973 the Lippische Landeskirche was the first church to sign the Leuenberg Agreement . This commits the member churches to mutual pulpit and communion fellowship . The ordination of women and the blessing of same-sex couples are allowed.

Head of the regional church

Ludwig Friedrich August von Cölln
Georg Althaus

Senior clergyman

Outside the meetings of the regional synod, the regional superintendent (until 1936 “general superintendent”), who is elected by the regional synod , is at the head of the Lippe regional church . The state superintendent usually retires at the age of 65. The state superintendent is also the spiritual director of the Reformed in the Lippe regional church. The Lutheran Superintendent acts with the same rights and duties for the 28,000 Lutheran Christians and 10 Lutheran congregations in Lippe (Lutheran Superintendent since May 1, 2005: Andreas Lange ).

General superintendent or state superintendent

The information up to 1881 comes from the work of August Dreves'.

  • 1538–1563: no office occupation
  • 1563–1599: Johann von Exter / Joannes Exterus, last Lutheran general superintendent
  • 1599–1618: Henrich Dreckmeyer / Heinrich Dreckmeier († 1618)
  • 1619–1626: Erasmus Phoenius († 1640)
  • 1626–1631: Johann Mutius († 1631, 42 years old)
  • 1631–1637: Johann Obenolius
  • 1638–1650: Henrich Thulemeyer († 1657), disputed because of his temperament, retired
  • 1650–1677: Conrad Sustmann († 1677, 65 years old)
  • 1677–1691: Jacob Zeller / Johann Jakob Zeller (Zurich, March 2, 1626 - October 12, 1691, Detmold)
  • 1692–1714: Johann Vineator / Weingärtner († 1714)
  • 1715–1722: Johann Conrad Schieß († 1725 in England), suspended in the late summer of 1721 because of “annoying performance and objectionable way of life”, moved away in 1722 without permission
  • 1722–1727: Hermann Diederich Rickmeyer (1678–1751), dismissed for negligence
  • 1728–1743: Dietrich Köhler
  • 1744–1746: Friedrich Christian Müller († 1746)
  • 1746–1761: Caspar Curtius (1700–1761)
  • 1762–1770: Christoph Philipp Erp-Brockhausen (1712–1770)
  • 1771–1780: Ferdinand Stosch (1717–1780)
  • 1781–1796: Johann Ludwig Ewald
  • 1796–1804: Ludwig Friedrich August von Cölln
  • 1805–1837: Ferdinand Weerth
  • 1837–1857: Georg Friedrich Althaus (1789–1863), resignation
Dietmar Arends 2014

State Synod

As a "parliament", the regional church has a regional synod . Its members, the synodals, are elected for four years by the class synods or appointed by the regional church council. You belong u. a. the superintendents of the eight classes. The task of the synod is similar to that of political parliaments. The regional synod represents the actual leadership of the church. The chairman of the synod is the praeses . Michael Keil, pastor of the Evangelical Reformed parishes of Barntrup , Alverdissen and Sonneborn , has been the acting president since January 2019 .

Administration of the regional church

Regional church office and administrative hierarchy

The state superintendent has his official seat in Detmold. He is the chairman of the college, which consists of the state superintendent as well as a legal and a theological church council and has its seat in the regional church office in Detmold. The college in turn, together with the president (chairman of the synod) and three other synodals, form the regional church council, i.e. the church leadership (“government of the church”), whose chairman is also the regional superintendent. The regional church council is the main organ of the regional church. He represents the synod when it is not in session.

Regional church office of the Lippe regional church, old and new building

In the administrative hierarchy, the regional church is structured from bottom to top as follows:

At the base are the parishes with church councils elected for four years , the members of which are the "church elders". The church council also includes the respective pastors of the parish and other members with an advisory vote.

Several parishes together form a class (district) (in general administration comparable to a district ), at the head of which there is a superintendent. The classes have the class days as a body, the members of which are sent by the respective church councils of the parishes, as well as a class council, which includes the superintendent, the deputy superintendent, a pastor as secretary and two church elders from the parishes. By the end of 2014 there were six Reformed and one Lutheran class. As of January 1, 2015, the number of reformed classes was reduced to four.

The classes together form the regional church (in general administration comparable to the federal state ). There is no middle instance ( comparable to an administrative district in general administration ) in the Lippische Landeskirche. Regardless of the classes and in addition to the constitutional order, the pastors of the parishes in many municipalities have come together to form a city convention in which Reformed, Lutheran, but also free church and Roman Catholic parishes participate.

The Lutheran class, which is independent in liturgical matters, has its own superintendent and board. This superintendent represents the class externally, e.g. B. in the Lutheran World Federation.

Parishes

The four Reformed classes belong to 59 and the Lutheran class to 11 congregations ; one of these congregations belongs to both the Western Reformed class and the Lutheran class. In the 1930s in particular, many new parishes were created by dividing the existing parishes.

The four reformed classes

  • North (14 municipalities)
  • South (13 municipalities)
  • East (18 municipalities)
  • West (14 municipalities)

The Lutheran class

The Lutheran class is a supraregional church district to which around 28,000 Lutheran members of the Lippe regional church belong. There are Lutheran parishes in Lemgo ( St. Nicolai , St. Marien , Eben-Ezer), Detmold (Detmold, Hiddesen), Bergkirchen, Bad Salzuflen, Lockhausen-Ahmsen, Lage and Blomberg. The Lutheran class is headed by the Lutheran Superintendent (since 2005: Andreas Lange ) and a board of directors.

Hymn books

The parishes of the Lippische Landeskirche sing or sang in the last decades mainly from the following hymn books:

  • New hymnbook for the Evangelical Lutheran. Parishes of the Principality of Lippe from the best collections of songs with an appendix and prayer book , 1844
  • Hymnal for ecclesiastical and domestic devotion of the Protestant parishes in the Fürstenthume Lippe , Lemgo 1830
  • Hymnal for the church and domestic devotion of the Evangelical Reformed congregations in the Principality of Lippe - New edition , Detmold 1918
  • Evangelical hymn book for Rhineland and Westphalia ; with the main part "Songs of the German Evangelical Hymn book according to the resolutions of the German Evang. Church Committee "; Dortmund 1929, with its own Lippe appendix
  • Evangelical church hymn book , edition for the regional churches of Rhineland, Westphalia and Lippe; Bielefeld u. a. 1969
  • Evangelical hymn book , edition for the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, the Lippische Landeskirche, in community with the Evangelical Reformed Church (Synod of Evangelical Reformed Churches in Bavaria and Northwest Germany), also in use in the Protestant churches in the Grand Duchy Luxembourg; Gütersloh / Bielefeld / Neukirchen-Vluyn 1996

Theological attitudes

In 2012 the Lippe Regional Church issued the declaration "Indestructible Human Dignity". It describes the witch hunt as a crime against humanity and abuse of the Christian faith .

Publications

The supplement Evangelisch in Lippe appears regularly in the Lippische Landes-Zeitung , in which monothematic ecclesiastical topics such as mourning, diakonia, missions and baptism are dealt with. The weekly newspaper Our Church appears in Lippe with a regional section of the regional church.

Web links

Commons : Lippische Landeskirche  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Evangelical Church in Germany - Church membership figures as of December 31, 2017 , ekd.de, accessed on January 17, 2019.
  2. ↑ Free for the future lippische-landeskirche.de
  3. ↑ Lippe regional church
  4. ↑ Lutheran Class - in short. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 20, 2016 ; accessed on May 23, 2016 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lippe-lutherisch.de
  5. ↑ August Dreves: History of the churches, parishes, spiritual foundations and clergy of the Lippe region. Wagener, Lemgo 1881, especially the chapter The General Superintendents from p. 30 , accessed on April 5, 2013.
  6. ^ Lippische Landeskirche is looking for a new superintendent lz.de, July 1, 2013
  7. ↑ Michael Keil is President - Lippische Landessynod has elected a new Synodal Board lippische-landeskirche.de, January 28, 2019, accessed on January 28, 2019
  8. ^ A b Reform comes into force lippische-landeskirche.de, December 17, 2014
  9. ↑ Lippe Lutheran. Retrieved May 23, 2016 .
  10. ^ Declaration by the Lippe Regional Church on the subject of witch hunt , 2012
  11. ^ "Evangelical in Lippe" on the homepage of the Lippe regional church

Coordinates: 51 ° 56 ′ 4.7 "  N , 8 ° 52 ′ 59.2"  E