Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Logo of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany
map
Map of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany
Basic data
Area : 40,227 km²
Leading clergy: Regional Bishop Kristina Kühnbaum-Schmidt
Seat of the
regional bishop:		 Schwerin
Seat of the
regional church office:		 Kiel with a branch in
Schwerin
Membership: EKD , VELKD , ÖRK , LWF ,
KEK , GEKE , UEK (guest status
for the Pomeranian
Evangelical Church District)
Sprengel : 3
Church districts : 13
Parishes : 995
Parishioners: 1,989,330 (December 31, 2018)
Share of the
total population:		 31.3% (December 31, 2018)
Official Website: www.nordkirche.de

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany is a regional church of the Evangelical Church in Germany . The also North Church called coalition of Nordelbischer Evangelical Lutheran Church (NEK), Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg (ELLM) and Pomeranian Protestant Church (PEK) was established on Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2012. The area of ​​the northern church essentially comprises the states of Schleswig-Holstein , Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . The name Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany refers to the denominational character and the geographic extent of the regional church.

history

After negotiations since 2004 about a merger with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg , the synod of the Pomeranian Evangelical Church declared in October 2006 that it wanted to examine a merger with the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia . In February 2007 the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church offered the churches of Mecklenburg and Pomerania talks about the formation of a northern church . On March 17, 2007, the Pomeranian Church announced that it would hold talks with Northern Elbe. On March 31, 2007, the Mecklenburg Synod in Plau am See decided to also take part in the talks. On June 14, 2007, a joint steering group started exploratory talks in Lübeck . On November 26th, 2007, negotiations on a church merger began in Schwerin . After a meeting in Ratzeburg, the church leaders announced on April 28, 2008 that Lübeck would become the seat of the church office and the regional bishop or the regional bishop of the northern church.

The merger agreement was signed on February 5, 2009 in Ratzeburg Cathedral by representatives of the three regional churches. Shortly before the signing, the representatives agreed that not Lübeck but the state capital Kiel should be the seat of the regional church office. Schwerin was set as the branch office.

On March 28, 2009, the three synods meeting at the same time in Rendsburg , Plau am See and Züssow each approved the merger agreement with the necessary two-thirds majority; the Synod of Northern Elbia in Rendsburg voted with 102 votes out of the 128 Synod, the Synod in Züssow with 44 members out of 58 and the Mecklenburg Synod in Plau am See with 39 votes out of 56 for the merger.

After the conclusion of the contract, the Association of the Three Churches, organized as a corporation under public law , drafted and adopted the constitution. For this purpose, a joint church leadership and a constituent synod were formed. While January 1, 2012 was initially set as the merger date, the constituent meeting of the church leadership of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Northern Germany (VELKN) on May 26, 2009 in Hamburg saw the start of the new church on Pentecost Sunday , May 27 2012, determined to connect the foundation with the feast of the Holy Spirit . In order to bring the members of the three churches into contact, thematic study days and encounters should be invited; In addition, ten working groups were formed on topics such as theology, constitution, finance, administration, services and works as well as relocation. The chairman of the committee was Gerhard Ulrich .

At a meeting of the joint church leadership of the Association of Protestant Churches in Northern Germany on September 17 and 18, 2010 in Ludwigslust , templates for the constituent synod were drawn up. In addition, the committee decided on the proposed name Evangelical Church in the North , by then the name Evangelical Lutheran Church in North Germany had also been mentioned. The draft constitution contains 129 articles, the so-called introductory law was also discussed. At the first constituent synod of the association from October 29th to 31st, 2010 in Lübeck-Travemünde , there was the first reading of the draft constitution. The synod approved the first draft of the constitution by a large majority. After heated discussions, the majority of the synodians agreed on the name Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany . Church bodies and groups were able to comment on the draft constitution until summer 2011. At the third meeting of the constituent synod in Rostock- Warnemünde on January 7, 2012, the constitution and the introductory law were passed with the required two-thirds majorities. At Whitsun 2012 the merger was legally completed.

Constitution

The constitution of the common church lays down the theological and legal bases. It contains the components of the basic articles, parish, parish, regional church, services and works, financial constitution, legal protection and final provisions.

construction

Former Regional Bishop Gerhard Ulrich (2009)

structure

The north church is divided into the parish , parish and regional church levels . Each of these levels has the status of a corporation under public law with the right to self-government within the framework of the constitution of the Northern Church and the statutory provisions. Supraregional services and organizations such as Diakonie, Frauenwerk and youth ministry are based on the two-pillar model and are on an equal footing with the local community. Parishes within a parish can join together to form parish associations as an employing body. Church congregations are amalgamated into church regions for the purpose of cooperation if this is determined by a church district statute. In contrast to the parish associations, however, the church regions cannot be assigned any tasks and they also have no budgetary law.

Regional bishop

The regional bishop or the regional bishop with seat in Schwerin is responsible for the leading spiritual service and the representation of the northern church towards the states and other churches. The cathedral in Lübeck and the cathedral in Schwerin serve as preaching sites .
The only candidate for election as regional bishop on February 21, 2013 was Bishop Gerhard Ulrich . He was elected with a large majority. The election committee of the regional synod proposed the Hamburg provost Karl-Heinrich Melzer and the Central German regional bishop Kristina Kühnbaum-Schmidt to succeed him . During the synodal conference in Lübeck Cathedral on September 27, 2018, Kühnbaum-Schmidt prevailed in the first ballot with 90 out of 150 votes. She took office on April 1, 2019.

Regional Church Office

The regional church office as the highest administrative authority has its seat in Kiel with a branch in Schwerin. Peter Unruh has been President since 2012 .

State Synod

At the regional church level, the northern church is led by the regional synod, the church leadership and the regional bishop in joint responsibility. At the constituent meeting in November 2018, the Synod elected Ulrike Hillmann to succeed the President Andreas Tietze, who has been in office since 2012 .

Spiritual supervisory districts

Three districts , each with a bishop in the district, were formed as spiritual supervisory districts: Schleswig and Holstein (seat of Schleswig), Hamburg and Lübeck (Hamburg) and Mecklenburg and Pomerania (Greifswald). At the church district level, as a rule, each church district forms spiritual supervisory districts, the provosts.

Greifswald Cathedral St. Nikolai
  • District Mecklenburg and Pomerania :
    Bishop: Tilman Jeremias (Greifswald), since 2019
    • Mecklenburg Church District
      • Propstei Neustrelitz (provost Britta Carstensen)
      • Propstei Parchim (Provost Dirk Sauermann)
      • Provost office Rostock (Provost Wulf Schünemann)
      • Propstei Wismar (Provost Marcus Antonioli)
    • Pomeranian Evangelical Church District (The Pomeranian Church District also includes nine parishes in the state of Brandenburg.)
      • Propstei Demmin (Provost Gerd Panknin, * 1960)
      • Propstei Pasewalk (Provost Andreas Haerter, * 1957)
      • Propstei Stralsund (provost Helga Ruch, * 1956)
Main church St. Michaelis in Hamburg
  • Sprengel Hamburg and Lübeck :
    Bishop: Kirsten Fehrs (Hamburg), since 2012
    • Kirchenkreis Hamburg-Ost (to the church district belongs to the congregation of the Church of the Redeemer Vahrendorf with the places Alvesen, Ehestorf, Sottorf and Vahrendorf in Rosengarten also a town in Lower Saxony , while the district Cranz church to church St. Martini (Estebrügge) in Jork , thus belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover.)
      • Alster-West district (Provost Martin Vetter )
      • Alster-Ost district (Provost Astrid Kleist )
      • Bramfeld-Volksdorf District (Provost Isa Lübbers)
      • Harburg district (provost Carolyndecke)
      • Mitte-Bergedorf district (provost Ulrike Murmann )
      • District Rahlstedt-Ahrensburg (Provost Axel Matyba)
      • Wandsbek-Billetal district (Provost Matthias Bohl)
    • Church district Hamburg-West / Südholstein
      • District A (Provost Frie Bräsen)
      • District B (Provost Karl-Heinrich Melzer)
      • District C (Provost Thomas Drope)
    • Church district Lübeck-Lauenburg
      • Hanseatic City of Lübeck District (Provost Petra Kallies)
      • Lauenburg district (provost Frauke Eiben)

The sermon church of the bishop in the Sprengel is St. Michaelis in Hamburg. The former bishop's church of Lübeck Cathedral is also located in the area of ​​the Sprengels .

St. Petri Cathedral in Schleswig
  • Sprengel Schleswig and Holstein :
    Bishop: Gothart Magaard , since 2014
    • Church district Altholstein (With Holtenau and Pries / Friedrichsort, two parishes in southern Schleswig belong to the Altholstein church district.)
      • District Mitte (Provost Stefan Block)
      • North District (Provost Almut Witt)
      • South District (Provost Kurt Riecke)
    • Church district Dithmarschen (Provost Andreas Crystall)
    • Church district of North Friesland
      • District North (Provost Annegret Wegner-Braun)
      • South District (Provost Jürgen Jessen-Thiesen)
    • Church district Ostholstein
      • Provost Eutin (Provost Peter Barz)
      • Propstei Oldenburg i. H. (Provost Dirk Süssenbach)
    • Church district Plön-Segeberg
      • Propstei Plön (Provost Erich Faehling)
      • Propstei Segeberg (Provost Daniel Havemann)
    • Church district Rantzau-Münsterdorf (includes southwestern Holstein with parts of the Elbmarschen)
      • Provost Office North (Provost Thomas Bergemann)
      • Propstei South (NN)
    • Church district Rendsburg-Eckernförde
      • Propstei Eckernförde (Provost Sönke Funck)
      • Propstei Rendsburg (Provost Matthias Krüger)
    • Church district Schleswig-Flensburg
      • Propstei fishing (Propst Helgo Jacobs)
      • Provost Office Flensburg (provost Carmen Rahlf)
      • Propstei Schleswig (provost Johanna Lenz-Aude)

The Schleswig and Holstein district also includes the North Schleswig community , a German-speaking community with several parishes in Denmark , which has the legal status of a free community there. The sermon church of the bishop in the Sprengel is the Schleswig Cathedral .

Memberships

According to the constitution, the Northern Church should take part in the worldwide cooperation of the Christian churches. Within Germany, it is a member of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany (VELKD) and the Evangelical Church in Germany .

There are also memberships in the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Community of Evangelical Churches in Europe (CPCE).

In the tradition of the church fellowship of the Pomeranian Evangelical Church, the Northern Church has a guest membership in the Union of Evangelical Churches (UEK). Without prejudice to guest membership in the UEK, the law of the VELKD applies in the common church. The preservation of regional liturgical traditions in the context of the divine service book remains possible (point I.4.1 of the merger agreement).

The common church appoints theologically or legally trained representatives at the seat of the governments of Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein (Section IV.9.1 Merger Agreement).

Members

The three regional churches contributed to the northern church, which became the universal successor to the contracting churches (as of December 31, 2011):

Regional church surface Members Population share Sprengel Church districts Parishes Church building
North Elbe 16,471 km² 2,109,960 46% 2 11 0.594 0.789
Mecklenburg 15,473 km² 0.208,532 18% 05 0.269 0.664
Pomerania 08,686 km² 0.102,752 19% 04th 0.182 0.448
total 40,227 km² 2,421,244 39% 2 20th 1,045 1,901

Others

Same-sex couples have been allowed to bless since September 2016 ; In September 2019, same-sex couples were allowed to marry .

See also

literature

  • Sebastian Dittmers: Origin of the North Church. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany. Lutherische Verl.-Ges, Kiel 2015, ISBN 978-3-87503-181-2 .

Web links

Commons : Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Evangelische Zeitung of May 27, 2012, p. 4f
  2. ↑ https://www.nordkirche.de/ueber-uns/statistiken/
  3. ↑ a b Evangelical Church in Germany - Church membership numbers as of December 31, 2018 , ekd.de, accessed on February 27, 2020.
  4. ↑ A parish with several parishes in Denmark and a parish in Lower Saxony belong to it. Individual communities on the outskirts of Mecklenburg belong to the Berlin-Brandenburg church, and vice versa. 2 districts of Hamburg are not included.
  5. ↑ Sebastian Dittmers: Origin of the North Church. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany. Lutherische Verl.-Ges, Kiel 2015, ISBN 978-3-87503-181-2 , pp. 154-167.
  6. ↑ Sebastian Dittmers: Origin of the North Church. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany. Lutherische Verl.-Ges, Kiel 2015, ISBN 978-3-87503-181-2 , p. 169.
  7. ↑ Sebastian Dittmers: Origin of the North Church. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany. Lutherische Verl.-Ges, Kiel 2015, ISBN 978-3-87503-181-2 , pp. 170–171.
  8. ↑ Synods say “yes” to the common northern church . ndr.de, March 28, 2009 ( Memento from March 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Sebastian Dittmers: Origin of the North Church. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany. Lutherische Verl.-Ges, Kiel 2015, ISBN 978-3-87503-181-2 , pp. 169–175.
  10. ^ Report of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk with the results of the constituent synod, October 31, 2010 ( Memento of November 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Sebastian Dittmers: Origin of the North Church. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany. Lutherische Verl.-Ges, Kiel 2015, ISBN 978-3-87503-181-2 , p. 176.
  12. ↑ Sebastian Dittmers: Origin of the North Church. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany. Lutherische Verl.-Ges, Kiel 2015, ISBN 978-3-87503-181-2 , p. 177.
  13. ↑ Art. 97 Constitution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany
  14. ↑ shz.de ( Memento from April 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), sh: z online from January 28, 2013, accessed on February 2, 2013
  15. ↑ https://www.nordkirche.de/nachrichten/nachrichten-detail/nachricht/proepstin-kristina-kuehnbaum-schmidt-und-propst-karl-heinrich-melzer-kandidieren-fuers-amt-der-landesbi/
  16. ↑ https://www.nordkirche.de/nachrichten/nachrichten-detail/nachricht/kristina-kuehnbaum-schmidt-wird-neue-landesbischoefin-der-nordkirche/
  17. ↑ Art. 105 Constitution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany
  18. ↑ kirche-im-norden.de ( Memento from February 6, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  19. ↑ Art. 77 Constitution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany
  20. ↑ Ulrike Hillmann: Nordkirchen Synod under new leadership , idea.de, news from November 16, 2018.
  21. ↑ New Greifswald bishop welcomed - resolution passed for theme day. Retrieved October 6, 2019 .
  22. ↑ kirche-mv.de - Mecklenburg Church District and Pomerania Church District. Retrieved April 23, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Appendix 2 to the church district statute (PDF; 80 kB)
  24. ↑ New Hamburg Provost. Accessed on August 24, 2020.
  25. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from October 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  26. ↑ Sebastian Dittmers: Origin of the North Church. Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany . Lutherische Verl.-Ges, Kiel 2015, ISBN 978-3-87503-181-2 , pp. 183-184 .
  27. ↑ a b c d e f g h December 31, 2006
  28. ↑ “Nordkirchen Regional Synod decides blessing for same-sex couples” , www.nordkirche.de, September 29, 2016, accessed on April 20, 2017
  29. ↑ North Church: “Blessing” is “marriage” . In: evangelisch.de . September 20, 2019, accessed October 3, 2019.