New Apostolic Church USA

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District Apostle (President): Leonard R. Kolb
Predecessor: Richard C. friend
District Apostle Helper: John W. Fendt II
Apostle: William George Hammer
Reinhard Hecht
Wilbert K. Hoffmann
Thomas Robert Schmidt
Founding: 1901 (then District Church North America)
Administrative location: Chicago

The New Apostolic Church USA (English New Apostolic Church USA ) is a District Apostle division of the New Apostolic Church , which is headed from Chicago by District Apostle Leonard R. Kolb as Church President and by four District Apostle Helpers and 47 Apostles. Under Chief Apostle Friedrich Krebs , the District Church was founded by Friedrich Mierau's Apostle Ordination in April 1901. On May 14, 2000, then Chief Apostle Fehr held a divine service in Boston , in which Richard C. Freund was ordained District Apostle and Church President.

(All figures published in this article are as of December 31, 2004.)

NAK in the USA

On May 14, 2000 Chief Apostle Richard Fehr announced one of the most decisive decisions of his term in office. During a divine service in the Pasadena congregation , he announced to the believers who attended the divine service either directly or via broadcast that the North America District Church should be divided again into two independent District Apostle areas. Thus, on that day, Apostle Richard C. Freund was ordained District Apostle .

In an interview with District Apostle Freund a good four years later, he describes that the separation brought advantages in that one no longer had to look after five million siblings and that he was able to make some changes in his District Apostle area in order to adapt to American traditions. Church Thanksgiving Day was previously z. B. According to Canadian tradition, it was celebrated on the first Sunday in October; it was set on the US national holiday, the fourth Thursday in November.

For the ordination of the District Apostle, Chief Apostle Fehr expressed the wish that 30,000 believers should join the non-missionary countries ( USA , Mexico , Ireland , Great Britain ), so Richard Freund changed the mission concept. This includes a wide variety of activities such as choir and orchestral concerts, blood donation drives, etc. "There is also a guest invitation program where we believe that personal contact with our siblings is the most effective way of attracting guests," said Richard Friend in an interview. Another program is about welcoming guests. In every New Apostolic congregation in this District Church, certain brothers and sisters welcome you and take care of your guest. You are shown the church there as a guest and receive a “guest pack”. This includes copies of the Lord's Prayer and the ten Articles of Faith, a brief outline of the course of the service, a short teacher's declaration regarding the second coming of Christ, and information about church life . Often guests are invited to a snack or a party.

The New Apostolic Church has congregations in almost all states of the USA, with the exception of Delaware , North and South Dakota and Wyoming . There is only one mission station in Delaware where services are occasionally held. The last three states mentioned are sparsely populated and so far no New Apostolic Christians have moved to these states.

The New Apostolic Church is perceived by the US public as a church that has all age groups. It is considered an established church with a good reputation in society. From time to time the Church establishes contact with local figures and important community institutions. However, since it is neither arch-conservative fundamentalist nor ultra-liberal, it is hardly noticed by the public. Ecumenical contacts do not exist and are only slowly supported by the world church leadership in Switzerland. “We have had different experiences, some positive and some that did not meet our expectations. We still have open doors and hearts, ”said District Apostle Freund in an interview. Where necessary, the NAK has joined forces with other churches in various actions for the benefit of the general public.

On critical NAK websites it is often mentioned that the congregations in the USA, in contrast to the European and especially German congregations, are very conservative and defend the New Apostolic special faith particularly tenaciously. There are also rumors that have to be taken seriously that many of the resolutions and plans of the Chief Apostle and the European District Apostles could not be implemented or only to a limited extent, taking into account the positions of the Americans. It is said to have been threatened with a split several times.

history

“The work of God will grow in North America and will reach from one ocean to another.” Apostle Friedrich Mierau had this “vision” at the beginning of the 20th century. But it would be a few more decades before New Apostolic congregations came into being in North America . As in Europe, Catholic apostolic congregations emerged in North America in the mid-19th century . The cornerstone of the New Apostolic Church in North America was laid in the 1860s by Priest Jakob Westphalen and his family, who immigrated from Germany to Chicago, Illinois . The trained carpenter got to know a New Apostolic Christian at his workplace and had thus become a New Apostolic himself.

In written sources, Jakob Westphalen expresses that he experienced a miracle healing with the apostle Carl Wilhelm Preuss. He reported this to his brother Johann Abel Westphalen, his mother and the other relatives who had emigrated to Chicago before him. They were very impressed and sent Jakob Westphalen money for the shipping so that he could plant a church in Chicago. Services were initially held in apartments, in German. In addition, there was a regular exchange of letters with Apostle Carl Preuss in Hamburg . In it he was urged to send an apostle to seal people who had believed . Apostle Preuss complied with this request in 1872 when he sent the Apostle Heinrich Hoppe to North America. The congregation grew, and the First General Apostolic Church's first building was erected for the approximately 50 ward members in Chicago. Apostle Hoppe found it difficult to make a living and ran into financial difficulties. In 1880 he moved to New York . There he held services for a small group of German and Dutch immigrants who made up the New York congregation. In the mid-1890s, financial troubles had led him to resign and leave the Church.

Meanwhile, the small Chicago community was struggling to survive. The church building was sold in 1905 and the congregation moved to North Troy Street, where they still have their church today. Chief Apostle Krebs sent some priests from Germany to the USA to look after the young congregations in the United States . New Apostolic divine services were always held there in German until the 1930s. In January 1899, Apostle Georg Ruff visited the New York congregation, appointed Priest Kohlhage as head and sealed 19 people, including the Fendt family, who still play an important role in the New Apostolic Church in the USA to this day. Father John Peter (later a priest), his wife and three sons Charles (six years old), John (three years old) and Wiliam (two years old). On another visit in November of the same year, Apostle Ruff sealed 31 people, including the future Apostle John Erb. The Chief Apostle recognized the need and the new possibilities in the USA and in April 1901 appointed the Evangelist Friedrich Mierau as Apostle for North America - the hour of birth of this District Church .

Mission areas

East Africa

In East Africa, the District Church of the USA looked after New Apostolic Christians in Kenya , Tanzania and Uganda through District Apostle Helper Shadreck Mundia Lumbasi . On March 29, 2009 Chief Apostle Wilhelm Leber conducted a divine service in Kampala, Uganda, in which he ordained Shadreck Mundia Lumbasi as District Apostle and founded the independent District Church of East Africa, to which Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda belong.

Kenya

The first contacts between the New Apostolic Church and Kenyans were made in 1970 by students from Kenya at the university in Frankfurt am Main . Some of them regularly attended divine services there and got to know the then District Apostle Rockenfelder and the then District Evangelist and now District Apostle Hagen Wend . The shepherd of this Frankfurt congregation, Shepherd Groß, was one of the first New Apostolic missionaries in Kenya. The highlight in the history of the NAK Kenya so far was the Pentecost service in 1996, which was held by Richard Fehr. For the first time, siblings from several continents took part via internet and television transmission.

British Islands

The British Isles have been part of the District Church of Northern Germany under District Apostle Schumacher since February 15, 2009 .

Other mission areas

Chinese communities

37 years ago Evangelist Ramon Strang held the first Chinese service in New York, which was translated word for word into Chinese by his barber.

Missionary work among the Chinese in New York began in November 1967. Chief Apostle Walter Schmidt had asked the Apostles in a letter to look for the last souls in peoples in places and among peoples that might have been overlooked in the past. A few weeks later, on December 22nd, 1967, Evangelist Strang came to Apostle Fendt with a plan to begin “preaching” to Chinese residents of New York. Today there are six Chinese congregations of the New Apostolic Church in New York. They are among the fastest growing in the United States. Each has a self-developed publicity program; Many guests attend services on Sundays.

In August 1969 the first 58 Chinese were sealed, ie accepted into the New Apostolic Church. At that time, services were already being held in Chinatown. Although the very first of these New Apostolic Christians of Chinese descent came from Long Island, Chinatown was and is the center of these New York believers.

In November 1970, the first Chinese minister was ordained: Deacon Ng. Shortly afterwards he died of illness. Eight years later, the first Chinese priest was installed, today's evangelist Leung.

literature

  • Our Family - 2005 / Special Edition

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Our Family - Calendar 2005. P. 82.