New Apostolic Church Canada
| District Apostle (President): | Mark Woll |
| Predecessor: | Leslie Latorcai |
| District Apostle Helper: | Frank Dzur John Sobottka David D. Devaraj |
| Apostle: | Kenneth Kreutner |
| Founding: | 1896 (then District Church North America) |
| Administrative location: | Waterloo / Kitchener |
| Municipalities: | 102 |
| Members: | 13.315 |
| Members (with mission countries): | 2,644,236 |
The New Apostolic Church Canada (English New Apostolic Church Canada ) is an administrative area of the New Apostolic Church , which is directed from Canada ( Waterloo (Ontario) ). It includes the country of Canada and 23 other overseen mission countries with a total of almost 2.7 million believers. Thus, the New Apostolic District Church of Canada is geographically as well as numerically the largest of the New Apostolic District Churches . Since the ordination in Canada on November 21, 2010, it has been led by District Apostle Mark Woll.
Current situation
The New Apostolic Church has existed in Canada since the first Chief Apostle Friedrich Krebs, who also visited the country, began his term in office.
The number of members has developed very little. The reasons for this are that at the beginning of the 20th century the NAK only gained a foothold in other countries through emigrants from Germany who were themselves New Apostolic. So church services or missionary activities were only carried out in German. In addition, the New Apostolic Church up to and including Erwin Wagner was driven very conservatively by the District Apostles and therefore only acquired an extremely low level of awareness in society.
Today a “church opening” has also taken place in Canada. Thus, she is now better known in Canadian society and viewed with a great deal of benevolence. It is particularly recognized by Canadians because of its offers for every age group, especially for children such as B. Bible schools and musical activities. It seems to be even better known among foreigners in Canada. There are several Cambodian, Spanish and Chinese communities.
The reason that the New Apostolic District Church Canada looks after so many believers is mainly the missionary work of Michael Kraus , Erwin Wagner's predecessor.
Supervised areas (mission countries)
Far East
District Apostle Urs Hebeisen, who was born in Switzerland, is the head of missionary work in 16 countries in Southeast Asia and the direct church administrator of the NAK Philippines.
In many of these countries the conditions for missionary work are very outdated and are reminiscent of those of the colonial times. Most of these countries have only limited freedom of religion and are closed to Christianity . The first believers in the Philippines were sealed a good 35 years ago.
Missionary activity and the associated growth decreased sharply with the new District Apostle and Chief Apostle , as the current Church President and Chief Apostle Wilhelm Leber in particular saves the money required, mainly for church building and expansion worldwide.
Another reason for the decline in growth to date is globalization in Asia , which strongly differentiates between two different social classes and thus poverty is an even greater problem. Even if roads and transport networks have been expanded in the countries covered, there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of infrastructure.
Since 2009 these areas have been independent and merged with the District Church of Indonesia to form the District Church of East Asia and Urs Hebeisen was ordained District Apostle on January 18, 2009.
Membership numbers of the countries supervised by Urs Hebeisen:
| country | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bangladesh | 14 747 | 14 965 | 15 105 |
| China | 18 912 | 19 941 | 21 058 |
| Japan | 106 | 108 | 115 |
| Korea | 4634 | 4609 | 4591 |
| Laos | 20th | 22nd | 22nd |
| Malaysia | 6233 | 6372 | 6378 |
| Myanmar | 3552 | 3592 | 3693 |
| Palau | 11 | 11 | 11 |
| Philippines | 123 798 | 125 579 | 127 080 |
| Singapore | 104 | 108 | 106 |
| Taiwan | 226 | 239 | 241 |
| Thailand | 12 278 | 12 203 | 12 128 |
| Vietnam | 498 | 502 | 71 |
India
District Apostle Helper David G. Devaraj has been responsible for India since February 2010.
| Supervising district church | Indian province | Membership figures 2007 |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | Central provinces | 865,000 |
| Central Germany | Kerala + Andaman Islands | 935 |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | Northern provinces + Rajasthan | 60,000 |
| Members total | approx. 925,000 |
Cambodia
| 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 74,668 | 76.158 | 79,524 | 81.015 |
Democratic Republic of Congo
District Apostle Michael D. Deppner is Church President of the New Apostolic Christians in the Dem. Rep. Congo in the following former provinces: Bandundu , Bas-Congo , Equateur and Kinshasa .
| 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,010,254 | 1,042,382 | 1,072,115 | 1,092,215 |
With more than 2.5 million statistically recorded members, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is home to almost every fourth New Apostolic Christian. Almost five million people live in Kinshasa, the capital. There are 1,700 New Apostolic congregations there and the number is growing steadily. However, there is a special reason for the enormous number. In Kinshasa, church services and other organizational activities cannot take place later than four in the afternoon. In order to hold a service on Wednesday evening anyway, it is held in the long afternoon break. In order to save the members time stress and overlapping working hours, a congregation for more than 100 members was founded in almost every residential area. The city is thus also divided into ten apostolic areas, which are run with the help of 8,000 officials. A total of 300,000 New Apostolic Christians live in the capital. There are about 90 built churches in Kinshasa, most of which have more than 500 seats. For District Apostle Helper Deppner, however, the current situation poses a problem, as it goes far beyond the financial means to provide churches for all those who are in care. So New Apostolic divine services in Kinshasa usually take place in huts, tents or on borrowed land. The New Apostolic Church is supported in this area by the city administration by lending land. The District Church of the DR Congo West has been independent since August 1, 2010 and Michael Deppner was ordained as District Apostle.
Central Africa
Frank Dzur looks after New Apostolic Christians in Central Africa in the following countries:
Membership 2006
| country | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Republic of the Congo | 63,190 | 64,031 | 67,579 |
| Rwanda | 39,749 | 40,368 | 40,778 |
| Chad | 73,586 | 75,920 | 76,007 |
| Central African Republic | 18,539 | 20,124 | 20,647 |
