Mor Gabriel (Kirchardt)

Mor Gabriel in Kirchardt

Mor Gabriel in Kirchardt in the Heilbronn district in northern Baden-Württemberg is a church building of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch , built from 1994 and consecrated in 2005.

history

Since the 1970s, many Christian Aramaeans from Turkey have been among the inhabitants of Kirchardt, who first came to Germany as guest workers and later as asylum seekers persecuted for their beliefs . The Arameans in Heilbronn and in the north-western district of Heilbronn formed the first sports and cultural association in the 1970s. In 1979 there were enough Arameans in Kirchardt to separate the clubs in Heilbronn and Kirchardt, and since 1988 the Aramaic Sports and Culture Association has been in Kirchardtits current name. In the years that followed, several Aramaic sports and cultural associations were established in Heilbronn. From the circle of the Aramaic cultural associations the establishment of several church congregations, also organized as associations, emerged. The Kirchardt Arameans first celebrated their services in the local Catholic church. The Kirchardter Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, founded in 1989, Mor Gabriel e. V. , who applied for the construction of the Mor Gabriel church in 1993, belonged to between 200 and 400 Arameans in 2011, according to various information. The Arameans from Heilbronn also founded church associations and set up the Mor-Ephräm Church in the core city in 1995 and the Church of St. Jakob von Nisibis in the Heilbronn district of Kirchhausen in 2000 .

In 1993, the Syrian-Aramaic community in Kirchardt applied for the construction of a church in the industrial area on the southeastern outskirts of Kirchardt. The building application was approved in 1994 and the 300-member church was built in the following years with a lot of personal contribution and with the support of regional companies. The distinctive domes of the church were made in 1997 by the Reinhardt Flaschnerei from Fürfeld . The church was consecrated in 2005 by Hasjo Isa Gürbus ( Mor Dionosios ) and Hasjo Jeorg ( Mor Theofilus ).

The church became a supraregional political issue from 2005, when the community wanted to convert a room, which was still designated as a storage room in the old building application, into a crypt for ten people and, following Syrian Orthodox custom, wanted to start the burial of clergy in the church, whereas the political one The community and the citizens protested. The resistance was justified in particular by the fact that they did not want a pilgrimage site in the industrial park that would disrupt the operations of the surrounding companies. There were other concerns about the applicable funeral law and compliance with the dead rest , which could not be guaranteed in the immediate vicinity of a wood processing company, which also had expansion plans around the church. In addition, the political community criticized the fact that the responsible regional council had once recommended to the Syrian Orthodox community that the use of the space, which had been intended as a crypt from the beginning, should be concealed in the building application from 1993.

A legal dispute arose, which initially reached the Baden-Württemberg Administrative Court, which refused the matter and ruled in 2009 that the establishment of a crypt in a commercial area was incompatible with the area. The Syrian Orthodox community, on the other hand, filed a lawsuit with the Federal Administrative Court , which, however, only ruled the same way in November 2010 and referred the matter back to the administrative court of the country. There they first tried to strive for a comparison that only clerics from the parish may be buried in the church, that there should be certain access regulations to the crypt and that processions should be completely dispensed with. But the political community also contradicted this compromise proposal and successfully defended itself against any burial plan. The Administrative Court finally ruled again in August 2011 against the establishment of the crypt and did not allow an appeal. A complaint by the Syrian Orthodox community against the non-admission of the appeal was rejected by the Federal Administrative Court in 2013. In June 2016 this judgment was overturned by the judges in the Karlsruhe Federal Constitutional Court. The crypt ban violates the freedom of religion and belief anchored in the Basic Law. According to a ruling by the 3rd Senate of the Mannheim Administrative Court on November 30, 2016, the Syrian Orthodox community Mor Gabriel is allowed to bury its clergy in the crypt under the church in the industrial area.

In the course of the dispute, the fronts hardened and a general discussion about the integration of the Arameans living in Kirchardt began. With 780 people, these make up around 14 percent of the approximately 5500 inhabitants of the place. According to the Kirchardter Mayor Rudi Kübler, the Aramaic community is only slightly integrated because it is afraid of losing the connecting Aramaic language and because the Aramaic community is so large that there is “no pressure to integrate”. Despite isolated successes in integration, the relationship between the ethnic groups is just "side by side". In addition, there has been no contact between Kübler and the Syrian Orthodox pastor Isa Demir since the pastor was sentenced to three years in prison for the sexual abuse of children.

The networking between the various Syrian-Aramaic cultural, sports and church associations is good, although the boundaries between sports and church associations are fluid. The Mor Gabriel Church maintains its own football team, which in 2012 hosted the Aramaic Sports Association's indoor championship tournament. The Aramaic Sports and Culture Association Kirchardt hosted the annual general meeting of the Syriac Federation in November 2013 in the Church of St. Jakob in Heilbronn-Kirchhausen. Celebrations of the parishes and sports clubs are usually accompanied by a traditional cultural festival ("Hago").

Individual evidence

↑ Fürfeld - From the past and present of the former imperial knighthood town . City of Bad Rappenau, Bad Rappenau 2001, ISBN 3-929295-77-6 , p. 502.
↑ 567 signatures against the crypt in Kirchardt . in: Heilbronn voice from May 17, 2011.
↑ 567 signatures against the crypt in Kirchardt . In: Heilbronner Voice of May 17, 2011.
↑ Press release of the Federal Administrative Court of November 18, 2010.
↑ http://vghmannheim.de/pb/,Lde/1213772/?LISTPAGE=1213620
↑ Announcement in the Kirchardt municipal council, July 8, 2013.
^ Karlsruhe judges overturn crypt ban. In: Schwäbisches Tagblatt online. Retrieved June 18, 2016 .
↑ Kirchardt: Crypt allowed in the industrial area. The verdict in the legal dispute came at noon in Mannheim. In: Heilbronn voice . November 30, 2016 ( from Stimme.de [accessed November 30, 2016]).
↑ burial niches disturb village peace . In: Südwestpresse from January 31, 2013.