New Apostolic Church West Germany

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New Apostolic Church West Germany
Church President District Apostle Rainer Storck
other apostles
  • Clement Haeck
  • Wilhelm Hoyer
  • Jens Lindemann
  • Gert Opdenplatz
  • Franz-Wilhelm Otten
  • Walter Schorr
  • Wolfgang Schug
founded 1872
Church districts 41
Members 84,944 (Dec. 31, 2012)
Communities 497 (Oct 16, 2018)
address

New Apostolic Church
West Germany K. d. ö. R.
Kullrichstrasse 1
44141 Dortmund

Website

www.nak-west.de

The New Apostolic Church of West Germany (formerly New Apostolic Church of North Rhine-Westphalia ) is an administrative district of the New Apostolic Church , which includes most of North Rhine-Westphalia (excluding Siegen and Siegerland) and parts of northwestern Lower Saxony , and since January 1, 2018 also the areas of the former New Apostolic Church Hesse / Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland . According to members, it is the second largest district church in Germany and Europe.

history

Headquarters New Apostolic Church West Germany Dortmund

The district church of North Rhine-Westphalia became a separate district church as early as 1872 through the ordination of Apostle Menkhoff. Friedrich Wilhelm Menkhoff worked here from 1867 on behalf of the Dutch Apostolic Zending under Apostle Friedrich Wilhelm Schwarz as a mission evangelist and later as an "angel" and had founded a number of congregations, especially in the Bielefeld area.

Over the years New Apostolic congregations emerged from Bielefeld in Westphalia and the Ruhr area. New Apostolic congregations also emerged in the Rhineland from 1890 onwards. After 1905, the East Westphalian spring developed into a center of the New Apostolic faith, the now Chief Apostle Niehaus lived there and the administration of the worldwide New Apostolic Church was also located here.

Due to the strong growth of the church in what is now North Rhine-Westphalia, it was divided into two district churches. Around 1920 there was an Apostle District Düsseldorf, which was initially headed by Apostle Paul Dach. In addition, there was the Apostle District Bielefeld and later the Apostle District Dortmund. District Apostle Dach's successor in the Düsseldorf Apostle District was Peter Kuhlen in 1938 , who also died after District Apostle Hermann Magney senior (after an Allied bombing raid on Dortmund on May 5, 1943) and District Apostle Hermann Schüring (died on February 1, 1944 after a heart attack) took over the management of the Apostle District Dortmund.

As a result of the so-called message of Chief Apostle Bischoff and the diverging views of the apostles of the Düsseldorf district, Kuhlen , Dunkmann and Dehmel, tensions arose within the New Apostolic District Church of the Rhineland and finally in 1955 the Düsseldorf apostles, bishops and elders were excluded from the New Apostolic Church Church. As part of this exclusion, many congregations in the Rhineland split up and the Apostolic Community was founded . Because of the split, the New Apostolic Church had to record a strong decline in membership there, because it had also lost the entire management level of the district. In the Essen district z. B. only a few presidents in the priesthood, while the elders, shepherds and evangelists all left. Therefore, the district church was dissolved as an independent district church and incorporated into the then Apostle district of Dortmund . In 1955, the District Church of North Rhine-Westphalia found its present form.

When the then District Apostle Schmidt was called to the office of Chief Apostle in 1960 , Dortmund also became the seat of the New Apostolic Church International until 1975.

On January 1, 2018, the New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia and the New Apostolic Church Hesse / Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland merged. The entire assets of the New Apostolic Church Hesse / Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland, including all rights and obligations as well as all employment relationships, have been transferred to the New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia; its name was changed to New Apostolic Church West Germany.

Members

Germany

In 2017, the District Church of West Germany had more than 116,000 members nationwide, 80,000 of them in North Rhine-Westphalia , making it the second largest of the New Apostolic Church in Germany. It is a corporation under public law and therefore has its own constitution.

The 41 districts of the New Apostolic Church West Germany are looked after by seven apostles and twelve bishops. Its areas include the federal states of Saarland , Rhineland-Palatinate , most of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse within the federal German territorial division and southern areas of Lower Saxony .

Supervised areas abroad

The District Apostle Area also includes the District Churches in the following countries: Albania , Angola , Armenia , Azerbaijan , French Guiana , Georgia , Guadeloupe , Guinea-Bissau , India , Cape Verde , Kosovo , Latvia , Lithuania , Malta , Netherlands Antilles , the Netherlands , Martinique , East Timor , Portugal , Sao Tome and Principe, and Suriname .

In 2008 the New Apostolic Church in Angola celebrated its 25th anniversary. In 1983 Chief Apostle Hans Urwyler, then head of the international church, commissioned the New Apostolic Church of North Rhine-Westphalia to look after the state of Angola as a mission area.

Since 2011, the New Apostolic Church in the Netherlands, with its District Churches in Malta, Netherlands Antilles and Surinam, has also been part of the District Apostle Area.

country Members (2012) Districts Communities Public officials Active in the country since
Albania 002.113 001 0.009 0.017th 1990
Angola 233.076 122 2.113 7,459 1983
Armenia 001,394 001 0.010 0.025th 1991
Azerbaijan 000.466 001 0.003 0.008th 1990
Georgia 001,084 001 0.009 0.019th 1994
Guinea-Bissau 043,622 030th 0.666 2,756 1982 (NAK-NRW since 2008)
India (parts) 031,164 032 0.214 0.266 Rajasthan since 1986, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura since 1994
Cape Verde 006,439 011 0.067 0.212 1982
Caribbean 000.564 001 0.005 0.018th 1987
Latvia 000.742 001 0.011 0.007th 1991
Lithuania 003,767 001 0.022nd 0.052 1990
Malta 000.013 001 0.001 0.001 NAK-NRW since 2011
Netherlands Antilles 000.073 001 0.003 NAK-NRW since 2011
East Timor 000.559 001 0.015th 0.039 2004
Portugal 005,822 004th 0.032 0.077 1981
Sao Tome and Principe 018,906 008th 0.227 0.712 1983
Surinam 001,756 001 0.007th 0.040 NAK-NRW since 2011

organization

administration

The administration of the New Apostolic Church in North Rhine-Westphalia has been based in Dortmund's Kullrichstrasse 1 for more than 60 years for compliance with the legal framework. The aim of all work is to facilitate and support the work of pastors and representatives on site and to relieve them of administrative work. The employees are available for questions and tasks that cannot be fulfilled in the communities on a voluntary basis alone.

For the church leadership, the administration prepares information for decision-making, such as financial data on income or expenditure or preliminary planning for construction projects. Since the congregations are legally dependent, only those responsible for church administration can conclude binding legal transactions for the church. The background to this is that the corporate rights of the New Apostolic Church in North Rhine-Westphalia have been granted at state level.

The ongoing tasks of the church administration include, among others

  • Construction planning and supervision
  • Property and building management
  • Bookkeeping and controlling
  • Management of member data
  • Travel booking
  • Coordination of work in the supervised areas, interface to external offices
  • Organization of central events and services as well as satellite broadcasts
  • central shopping
  • public relation

A first administration for the Apostle District Westphalia was founded in Dortmund after the Second World War. The first employees moved into their own premises in January 1950 on Braunschweiger Straße next to the church building of the Dortmund-Nord community. This was completely destroyed in the war and rebuilt between 1946 and 1948.

In 1960 Dortmund became the international seat of the New Apostolic Church. The head of the church at the time, Chief Apostle Walter Schmidt, had his residence and office at 88 Westfalendamm, at the corner of Kullrichstrasse. With the retirement of Chief Apostle Schmidt and the appointment of a successor in 1975, the international administration moved to Zurich, Switzerland.

At the beginning of the 1980s, District Apostle Hermann Engelauf, the then head of the New Apostolic Church in North Rhine-Westphalia, was looking for a plot of land to build a new administration building. At the previous location of the district church administration on Braunschweiger Strasse in Dortmund, the premises were no longer sufficient. The new administration building was built between September 1982 and Whitsun 1984 in the garden and park landscape of the property at Kullrichstrasse 1. On Pentecost Saturday in 1984, the new building was inaugurated by the then Chief Apostle Hans Urwyler. In 2012, after more than 27 years, the building was extensively renovated and modernized.

Regional institutions

The New Apostolic Seniors Center in Fröndenberg is a facility that is unique in Germany to date. It was opened in 1998 and offers 76 home places and 33 apartments.

In autumn 2011 the “Good Hope - A Living Space for Young and Old” opened in Oberhausen- Terkrade. The construction time was just under two years. The New Apostolic Church invested around 20 million euros. The result is a residential and care center ("Gute Hope Leben") with 80 care places, four residential buildings with 60 apartments for families ("Gute Hope Wohnen") as well as the first New Apostolic day care center in Germany ("Gute Hope Learn") with space for 55 Children. The "Vier Jahreszeiten" bistro with a large hall that can be rented for events is integrated into the senior citizens' center.

At the topping-out ceremony on July 7, 2010, the name and logo of the Oberhausen project were presented: The entire area is entitled “Good Hope - A Living Space for Young and Old”. The tenants gradually moved into the apartments in 2011, and the senior citizen center has been fully occupied since 2012. In the meantime, “Gute Hope” has become an integral part of Sterkrade.

Supraregional institutions

There is a New Apostolic host bakery in Bielefeld, which supplies all New Apostolic congregations in Europe with hosts.

Dortmund is the seat of the New Apostolic relief organization NAK-karitativ .

Events

In 2009 the New Apostolic Church's first Europe-wide youth convention took place in North Rhine-Westphalia from May 21 to 24. For the European Youth Day of the New Apostolic Church in 2009, more than 35,000 young people and their carers came to Düsseldorf. More than 2,500 voluntary helpers, mostly from the parishes of the District Church of North Rhine-Westphalia, ensured that everything went almost smoothly. Numerous media reported on the major event.

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the New Apostolic Church, the first New Apostolic Church Congress took place in Dortmund in 2013. On the Corpus Christi weekend, May 30th to June 2nd, 2013, more than 20,000 visitors came to Dortmund's Westfalenhallen . In addition to church services in Hall 1 (opening church service, church service for senior citizens and church convention visitors, church service for children, youth convention), more than 120 individual events such as lectures, workshops and panel discussions were offered. A highlight for the visitors was the Westfalenhalle 3B, the “meeting hall”. Here the districts and organizations of the New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia presented themselves and showed the diversity of their region, congregations and offers. A highlight of the weekend was the performance of the pop oratorio “I am - Jesus in words and wonders”.

Head of the District Church

On November 16, 1926, the apostle district of North Rhine-Westphalia was divided into the districts of Westphalia and Rhineland. The Apostle District Rhineland was under the following leadership:

The Apostle District Westphalia was headed by:

In January 1955, the Apostle districts of Westphalia and Rhineland were reunited.

Controversy

2012 investment fraud

In 2012, an investment fraud case became public in which the then NAK North Rhine-Westphalia had been involved since 2007 with an investment amount of 10 million euros. These were allegedly high-yield bonds on an over-the-counter trading platform that were supposed to finance social and humanitarian projects and whose potential returns would result from special government subsidies . Providers were the later convicted financial fraudsters George Katcharian, Cemal Esmene, Arthur Ford-Batey and Alan Hunt under the bogus coat of the company "HBF Capital", who convinced the then District Apostle Armin Brinkmann of the system at a meeting in London; Another victim was the British entrepreneur and millionaire Graham Dacre. On October 7, 2012, following a service in Duisburg , Brinkmann publicly apologized for the failure and the unlawful procedure. The original recommendation for the system came from the then District Elder and confidante of Brinkmann, Frank Zisowski, who was suspected of complicity by the public prosecutor's office in Norwich, at least at times , and who, according to him, received a payment of 250,000 euros from an account of the fraudsters. A formal charge against Zisowski was never brought. A criminal case against Armin Brinkmann has been set. In December 2012, the state assembly of the NAK NRW waived claims for damages against any church members involved.

Since a court ruling in 2014 and various seizures , the NAK NRW has received repayments several times, with the result that the recovery rate of the depreciated system has increased to around 20% over the years.

The then spokesman for the NAK NRW, Frank Schuldt, and Brinkmann called the system “a credible and coherent concept” from the point of view of the time; the Bochum public prosecutor replied that the lack of seriousness of the offer was transparent.

District elder Frank Zisowski was given leave of absence in the course of the affair and in July 2013 - according to the church at his own request - he was replaced in his function by Markus Krebs.

Case of abuse in Aachen 2019

In the first half of 2019, a case of abuse in Aachen made headlines regionally and nationwide. In May 2019 a priest of the New Apostolic Church in Aachen (at the time of the crime 2001 to 2003) admitted to the regional court the sexual abuse of his two granddaughters in four cases and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison; he was accused of 73 assaults. In addition to the special circumstances surrounding the alleged aiding and abetting of the wife, the behavior of the church officials, who knew about the allegations at an early stage and are said to have advised the victim family against reporting them for reasons of reputation, was discussed. Internally, victim protection measures were only taken when the official investigation became known .

The NAK West Germany initially clearly contradicted this representation in its statement of June 5 and thus contrasted statements by the presiding judge Regina Böhme and the victim's lawyer; Among other things, press spokesman Frank Schuldt alleged that officials of the NAK failed to file a criminal complaint out of respect for the wishes of the victim family. On August 16, the NAK West Germany revoked these statements by the chief of staff and Bishop Manfred Bruns, apologized for the “incorrect presentation” of June 5 as well as for the serious omissions in the past and expressed that the guidelines that had existed since 2009 Require NAK officials to report within the church in the event of suspicion. Bruns, however, stuck to the position that, contrary to the descriptions of the victim family, the church leadership did not try to influence the reporting behavior inappropriately.

As early as 2011, the then NAK North Rhine-Westphalia called internally via its “letter to parents” to notify external counseling centers, the youth welfare office or the criminal police if there were any suspicions .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Data & facts. In: New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia. Retrieved August 10, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Church districts with parishes of the New Apostolic Church West Germany , church districts and parish numbers on the website of the New Apostolic Church West Germany, accessed on October 16, 2018.
  3. ↑ Status before the merger in 2018
  4. ↑ Review of 1948: Ordination in Bielefeld. In: New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia. August 18, 2008, accessed August 10, 2014 .
  5. ^ History of the New Apostolic Church in North Rhine-Westphalia. Retrieved August 10, 2014 .
  6. ^ Association of the New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia K. d. ö. R. and the New Apostolic Church Hesse / Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland K. d. Ö. R. to the New Apostolic Church West Germany with seat in Dortmund K. d. published on January 17, 2018 ( GV.NRW, p. 88 )
  7. ↑ Annual Report 2017, pp. 29, 56.
  8. ^ Constitution of the New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia. Retrieved August 10, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Bishops of the New Apostolic Church West Germany , accessed on October 16, 2018.
  10. ↑ See also nak-nrw.de: Supervised foreign areas
  11. ↑ See also nak-nrw.de: 25 years of the New Apostolic Church in Angola
  12. ↑ See also nak-nrw.de: Tax change in the Netherlands
  13. ^ Website of the New Apostolic Seniors' Center in Fröndenberg
  14. ↑ see also nak-nrw.de: "Good Hope" opened in Oberhausen
  15. ↑ see also nak-nrw.de: Good luck for the Oberhausen project
  16. ↑ Topping- out ceremony at the "Good Hope". In: New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia. July 7, 2010, accessed August 10, 2014 .
  17. ↑ see also nak-nrw.de: Logo for Project Oberhausen presented
  18. ^ Website Gute Hope Oberhausen-Sterkrade
  19. ↑ Further information: nak-nrw.de: Hostienbäckerei Bielefeld
  20. ^ Website of NAK-karitativ
  21. ↑ European Youth Day 2009 website
  22. ↑ see also nak-nrw.de: Opening service for the Kirchentag
  23. ↑ see also nak-nrw.de: Divine service for seniors
  24. ↑ see also nak-nrw.de: KiGo_10-14 for the Kirchentag
  25. ↑ see also nak-nrw.de: 55th Youth Day in the Westfalenhalle
  26. ↑ see also nak-nrw.de: Impressions from the meeting hall
  27. ↑ Website nak-nrw.de: Pop oratorio "Jesus in Words and Miracles"
  28. ↑ Frank Schuldt: Church is victim of investment fraudsters. In: NAK NRW. February 15, 2012, accessed October 12, 2019 .
  29. ^ Dan Grimmer: Graham Dacre fraud case: German church reveals it lost 10m euros. In: Norwich Evening News. February 23, 2012, accessed October 12, 2019 .
  30. ↑ Frank Schuldt: Brinkmann: Fraud shocked me! In: NAK NRW. February 21, 2012, accessed October 12, 2019 .
  31. ↑ New Apostolic Church NRW gambled away 15 million euros. In: Goldman Morgenstern & Partners Financial Intelligence Service. February 15, 2012, accessed October 12, 2019 .
  32. ↑ Michael Koch: Statement on the million dollar fraud case Brinkmann asks members to apologize. In: faith culture. October 7, 2012, accessed October 12, 2019 .
  33. ↑ Michael Koch: Richter: "Smart, but not exactly elegant" NAK NRW could get back almost half of the 10 million fraud. In: faith culture. October 5, 2014, accessed October 12, 2019 .
  34. ↑ Michael Koch: Professor cheats on fraudsters. In: faith culture. February 24, 2012, accessed October 12, 2019 .
  35. ^ Frank Schuldt: State assembly exonerates the board. In: NAK NRW. December 20, 2012, accessed October 12, 2019 .
  36. ^ Tom Bristow: Two guilty of £ 12m Norfolk fraud on Christian businessman. In: Eastern Daily Press. June 1, 2012, accessed October 12, 2019 .
  37. ↑ Frank Schuldt: Fraudsters of millions sentenced to repayment. In: NAK NRW. February 21, 2015, accessed October 12, 2019 .
  38. ^ Ruhr-Nachrichten (ed.): Put on the cross by investment fraud. Loss of millions for the New Apostolic Church . May 22, 2012.
  39. ^ Frank Schuldt: New district elders in Bochum and Gelsenkirchen. In: NAK West Germany. July 7, 2013, accessed April 3, 2020 .
  40. ↑ Christoph Pauli: District Court imposes prison sentence: Ex-lay preacher wronged his granddaughters. Aachener Zeitung, June 14, 2019, accessed on August 22, 2019 .
  41. ^ Spiegel Online: Verdict in Aachen: Ex-lay priest abuses granddaughters - three and a half years imprisonment. In: spiegel.de. June 14, 2019, accessed August 22, 2019 .
  42. ^ WDR: Child abuse: lay preacher must go to prison. In: wdr.de. June 14, 2019, accessed August 22, 2019 .
  43. ↑ The original statement was available until the beginning of August 2019 under statement on the abuse case: traded within a few days . The original wording can still be seen in blocks of quotations on the NAK-critical blog Canities-News under the entry Frank Schuldt mocked the victims of June 6, 2019.
  44. ↑ Manfred Bruns: Statement on the abuse case: internal processing completed. In: nak-aachen.de. NAK West Germany, August 16, 2019, accessed on August 22, 2019 .
  45. ^ New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia: Parents letter of the New Apostolic Church North Rhine-Westphalia. March 2011, issue 3.