Open Church (Württemberg)

Open Church is a church-political association within the Evangelical Church in Württemberg .

Focus

The association deliberately represents a liberal theology and sees itself in particular as a contrast to the missionary-evangelistic-oriented group Lebendige Gemeinde . It is organized on a grassroots basis. She emphasizes the social mandate of the church and the diaconal commitment for peace, justice and the integrity of creation in cooperation with the ecumenical community. Among other things, she advocates equal rights for homosexuals in the church.

history

The association was founded in 1972 and now has more than 1000 members. The founding initiator and first managing director was the former parish and student pastor in Stuttgart-Hohenheim / Steckfeld , Manfred Fischer .

The association, based in Stuttgart, is one of four groupings in the Württemberg regional church with its candidates in the church elections for the regional synod and is therefore often referred to as a kind of church party . In the regional synod, the elected synodals form the Open Church discussion group . The Open Church has been the second largest parliamentary group in the regional synod since it was founded. In the election for the 16th regional synod on December 1, 2019, the Open Church and Living Congregation discussion groups each reached 31 of the 90 mandates. Open Church welcomed the election result as a great success: "We are on par with the Living Congregation, whose supremacy is broken for the first time in the history of the Württemberg regional church!"

organs

The organs of the non-registered association are the board of directors, the management group, the general assembly and the auditors.

The board is elected by the general assembly for a period of two years. It consists of the chairperson and the deputy chairperson. These positions must be filled according to gender. Erika Schlatter-Ernst has been first chairwoman and Dieter Hödl deputy chairman since 2015. The cashier is Johannes Dürr.

AMOS price

Every two years the association awards the AMOS prize for moral courage in religion, church and society. The AMOS Prize is borne by the AMOS Prize Foundation .

See also

• Working group of Christian churches in Germany
• World Council of Churches

Web links

• Official website
• Heilbronn voice, article, (PDF document) (96 kB)
• Böblinger Bote, article, (PDF document) (143 kB)

References and comments

1. ↑ Self-portrayal of the Open Church ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Open Church: History (PDF document; 132 kB)
3. ↑ Open Church: About Us
4. ↑ Articles of Association (PDF)
5. ↑ Open Church: History (PDF; 132 kB)
6. ↑ Evangelical Church in Württemberg: Synod: New majorities make it exciting: "Living community" is losing - all other discussion groups are increasing , December 2, 2019, accessed on December 3, 2019.
7. ^ Open Church: Statement on the election result .
8. ↑ § 6 of the statutes of the Open Church (PDF; 54 kB)
9. ↑ § 7 of the statutes of the Open Church (PDF; 54 kB)
10. ↑ AMOS price
11. ↑ AMOS Prize Foundation