Neukirchen Mission

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Neukirchen Mission
founding August 27, 1882
founder Ludwig Doll
Seat Neukirchen-Vluyn , Germany
Action space Tanzania, Uganda, Java, Kalimantan, Europe
people Michael Strub, Head of Mission
Employees about 20 employees in 5 countries
Members 160
Website www.neukirchener-mission.org

The Neukirchen Mission is a German evangelical mission society that was founded in Neukirchen in 1882 by the evangelical pastor Ludwig Doll after he had built an orphanage in 1878 . The first employees of the mission worked in Java and Egypt from 1884 and in Kenya from 1887 . Today it is represented in Tanzania , Uganda , Ethiopia , Java, Belgium , Latvia and Ukraine and has around 20 employees in 2020.

history

The Protestant pastor Ludwig Doll was once vicar of Andreas Bräm , pastor in Neukirchen am Niederrhein. In 1845 he founded the Neukirchen Educational Association. As his successor in office, Doll was also committed to the church tasks of diaconia and mission. In 1878 he founded the orphanage in Neukirchen and began training five missionaries in 1880. As a mission house, Doll acquired an inn in the village of Neukirchen with donations for 10,500 marks, which was renovated and moved into on February 16, 1882. On August 27, 1882, the mission house was inaugurated in the presence of the English orphanage father Georg Müller. Since then the work has been called “ Orphanage and Mission Institution in Neukirchen”.

Pastor Doll suffered from a lung disease and died on May 25, 1883 at the age of only 37. The missionary teacher Julius Stursberg took over the management of the plant and had the mission house rebuilt and expanded. As early as 1884, the first missionaries of the Neukirchen Mission began their journey to Java and Egypt. In 1888 a meeting room named after Ludwig Doll was built. In 1890 the existing limited partnership was converted into a general partnership.

The Dutch Elise Yohana Le Jolle had been teaching the gospel to her workers on her plantation in the Dutch colony in north central Java since 1849 . Because this preaching service expanded more and more, she asked the Dutch mission congregation Ermelo and a little later the Neukirchen mission for co-workers. In 1888 both mission societies founded the common union of the missionaries of the Salatiga Mission . In 1891 there were 606 baptized Christians there. Now the Chinese also worked with a Chinese evangelist, including in the larger port city of Semarang . In 1902 a polyclinic was set up in Salatiga , from 1906 schools were built and teachers' seminars founded.

The German missionaries in Egypt did not want to understand the cooperation with the Ermelo mission church and did not approve it for religious reasons. In search of a new mission field, they traveled to German East Africa , today: Kenya , where they began missionary work in 1887 on the Tana River among the Pokomo people . In 1893, the Lower Pokomo gave up their animistic view and adopted the Christian faith. The number of Christians increased and the New Testament was translated into the Pokomo language.

A secondary school was founded in Neukirchen in 1906, and in 1907 the orphanage and missionary organization were merged to form an orphanage and missionary institution. During a mission trip in 1909, the mission leader and inspector Stursberg died on the island of Java . His successor was Wilhelm Nitsch, who led the mission for 40 years, even through difficult political times. In 1913, the imperial donation could be received for the 25th anniversary of the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 1930 the first women's mission day was held in Neukirchen. In 1931 the secondary school was ceded to the Neukirchener Erziehungsverein and in 1940 passed to the Neukirchen-Vluyn municipality.

With the First World War the missionaries were transferred to British internment camps in India, so that missionary work among the Pokomo on the Tana River had to be stopped. It was not until 1926 that mission work of the Neukirchen Mission among the Pokomo became possible again. But even without white missionaries, the number of baptized Christians had more than doubled from 1914 to 1926. A smaller missionary work in Burundi was given to the Danish Baptist Missionary Society in 1927. In 1928, on the other hand, a new mission field was opened in the Uha region in western Tanzania with the stations Shunga, Kalinzi and Matyazo that were created later.

The mission leadership was initially grateful that the National Socialists took power in 1933 and created peace and order, but disillusionment soon spread. In 1937 the mission joined the working group of missionary and diaconal associations , which only loosely belonged to the Confessing Church . In 1939 all missions were stripped of their non-profit status and the Neukirchen Mission had to pay taxes for several years. At the beginning of 1941, the head pastor Wilhelm Nitsch was banned from writing by the National Socialists because he did not want to submit to the glorifying war rhetoric of the Reich Propaganda Ministry in the "Heidenbote" of the Neukirchen Mission after three issues (1940/41).

With the Second World War, missionary work came to a complete standstill. In Java the missionaries were interned by Dutch people who later took them to English camps in India. In Africa the workers were transferred to South African camps by the English.

In 1949 part of the former Salatiga congregations was merged into the Christian Church of North Central Java (GKJTU). The Pokomo churches in Kenya split up, who wanted to stay at the top of the river with the Methodists they had cared for during the war; those in the lower part wanted to become independent again and joined the Africa Inland Church in Kenya in 1967 with around 2200 members.

In Tanzania, Neukirchen missionaries started working again with the Africa Inland Church of Tanzania in 1965. Mainly in the children's worship service leadership training, the treatment of the sick in two own health centers, through faith-inspiring radio programs and literature sales. Around 40 church buildings for 600 to 1,600 people were also built. In 1965 the work shifted in favor of the Anglican Church of Tanzania, in the western part of the country with its seat in Kasulu (DWT).

In 1954, the existing close relationships in Germany on the historical, personal and Africa mission level with the Allianz mission after 1919 and 1946 were specifically evaluated for a third time. The boards of directors of both plants discussed the cooperation or merging of their theological training centers or the merger of the two plants several times. The board of directors of the Neukirchen Mission under the direction of Pastor Wilhelm Nitsch and Pastor Karl Rahn could not make up their minds to do so on either occasion. This was due to the fact that at that time the support groups of the Neukirchen Mission were still oriented within the church.

In 1967 Peru was added as a new country where radio broadcasts, literature and Bible correspondence courses were mainly produced and arranged.

In 1971 the mission seminar in Neukirchen for the 4-year theological training of future employees was closed. In 1972 the missionary work (donation-based) and the special school work, formerly orphanage, (supported by the state) were divided into two legally independent works. The "Neukirchen Mission" and the "Evangelical Children's Home" were created.

1974 to 2001 the Neukirchen Mission was a branch association with the community association of the Evangelical Society for Germany .

In May 1985, on the occasion of a public act in Neukirchen-Vluyn on the 40th day of commemoration of the end of the war, mission leader Wilfred Hoffmann read out a confession of complicity for the Neukirchen mission, which placed himself under the joint guilt of this time and the suffering and injustice that was inflicted on many peoples , lamented.

In Belgium, Italy, Latvia, Slovakia and the Ukraine, new areas of work were started and small Protestant parishes were founded.

In 1997 the mission committee decided to take over responsibility for the rehabilitation center for physically handicapped children in Namutamba (Uganda) with the Evangelical Church of Uganda, the German Medical Mission Team (DMÄT) and Ready to Aid Mission. The first employees started their work there the following year.

In 2001 the Neukirchen Mission left the "Evangelical Society for Germany" and re-established itself as a cross-church and community association mission that is open to all employees of the German Evangelical Alliance and became a member of the Evangelical Missions Working Group .

Work areas

In East Africa, the Neukirchen Mission runs a children's home, two health centers and a rehabilitation facility for physically handicapped children. It supports the local Anglican Church in Tanzania in training staff and provides a lecturer in the church's theological seminary. On the island of Java, employees of the local church GKJTU and its schools, which were created by the mission, are supported financially and ideally. In Latvia and the Ukraine, young Protestant congregations are supported in their work within national congregational associations.

Managers

  • 1878–1883: Pastor Ludwig Doll (1837–1883)
  • 1883–1909: Inspector Julius Stursberg (1857–1909)
  • 1909–1921: Mission inspector Pastor Gottfried Paschen
  • 1921–1947: Mission inspector Pastor Wilhelm Nitsch (1911–1921 theological director of the mission seminary)
  • 1947–1958: Mission Inspector Friedrich Schneider
  • 1958–1961: Mission Inspector Pastor Karl Rahn
  • 1961–1963: Pastor Paul-Gerhard Lohmann (provisional)
  • 1964–1967: Mission Inspector Pastor Walter Oelschner (1911–1990)
  • 1967–1969: orphanage father Hans Lenhard (provisional)
  • 1969–1970: Winfried Bluth
  • 1971–1976: Mission inspector Pastor Walter Nitsch (provisional) (1964–1971 theological director of the mission seminary)
  • 1976–1981: Pastor Ulrich Affeld (Director of the Evangelical Society) in the Ernst Stawinski and Klaus Seidlitz team
  • 1982–1993: Mission leader Wilfred Hoffmann
  • 1993–1996: Mission leader Bernd Brandl 1991–97 in a team with Herbert Poganatz
  • 1996–2000: Head of Mission Herbert Becker
  • 2000–2004: Head of Mission Ulrich Bombosch
  • 2004–2006: Management by the board
  • 2006–2015: Mission leader Siegfried Schnabel
  • 2017–: Mission leader Michael Strub

See also

literature

  • Blom van Geel and W. Quast: The Salatiga Mission in Central Java - a brief overview Beginning and progress of the Neukrichener Java Mission , Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1910
  • Wilhelm Nitsch: The sowing of tears and the harvest of joy in East Africa - a review of 25 years of Neukirchen missionary work at the Tana , Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1914
  • Wilhelm Nitsch: Under the open sky - from the history of the Neukirchen orphanage and mission institution 1878-1928 , Neukirchener, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1928
  • Ulrich Affeld: May he make us bold in faith - 100 years of Neukirchen Mission , Scripture Mission of the Evangelical Society for Germany, Wuppertal-Elberfeld 1978
  • Fritz and Hanna Gissel: One Hundred Years of Neukirchen Mission am Tana: 1887–1987 , Homo et Religio, Saarbrücken 1991, ISBN 3-812-30042-7
  • Bernd Brandl : The Neukirchen Mission. Your story as the first German faith mission , Cologne 1998.
  • Bernd Brandl: Ludwig Doll: Founder of the Neukirchen Mission as the first German faith mission , VTR, Nuremberg 2007. ISBN 978-3-937-96577-2
  • Kai Merten: Drumming on Tana - The indigenous religion of the Pokomo in Kenya , Volume 13, LIT Verlag Münster, 2015, ISBN 978-3-643-12799-0 , pp. 95–116: The Neukirchen Mission
  • Arndt Elmar Schnepper: Mission and Money: Faith Principle and Fundraising of the German Faith Missions, Genesis, Structure and Legitimation , University of South Africa (Unisa), Pretoria 2004
  • Arndt Elmar Schnepper: Mission and Money - Faith Principle and Fundraising of the German Faith Missions , Brockhaus, Wuppertal 2007.
  • Arndt E. Schnepper: The acquisition of donations by the German faith missions until 1939 , University of South Africa (Unisa), Pretoria 2009
  • Elmar Spohn : Between Adaptation, Affinity and Resistance , Volume 34, LIT Verlag Münster, 2016, ISBN 978-3-643-13213-0 , pp. 29–37: Which missions can be identified as faith and community missions?
  • Klaus Fiedler : The Faith Missions in Africa: History and Understanding of the Church , Luviri Press, 2018, ISBN 978-9-99606-600-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Julius Stursberg Gymnasium on website jsg-nv.de
  2. ↑ Shunga on youtube
  3. ↑ Matyazo on youtube
  4. ↑ GKJTU on the site Neukirchener Mission
  5. ^ Website Africa Inland Church Tanzania
  6. ^ Website of the Anglican Church of Tanzania
  7. ^ Website of the German Mission Doctors Team
  8. ^ Website Rehabilitation Uganda
  9. ^ History on the Neukirchen Mission website
  10. ^ Website of the Working Group of Evangelical Missions