Orthodox churches in Germany

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The Orthodox churches are with the two million faithful the third largest Christian denomination in Germany .

history

Memorial plaque in the Leipziger Katharinenstrasse

After his exile, Bishop Athanasius found a new home in Trier , and the Slav apostle Method of Saloniki was imprisoned in Ellwangen around 870 (the city is now a pilgrimage destination for Orthodox Christians). In Nienkerken near Corvey there was an important school in the 9th century that taught Greek. The Basilian Abbot Gregor von Burtscheid (* 930 in Calabria, then part of the Byzantine Empire; † 999) founded a Byzantine monastery in Burtscheid . After Emperor Otto II married Princess Theophanu , Greek scholars came to the Holy Roman Empire in her retinue .

Strictly speaking, one can only speak of the beginning of Orthodoxy in Germany with the Oriental Schism in 1054 and the separation of Catholics and Orthodox. Since the separation was strictly geographical, there were no Orthodox in Germany for the time being.

With the formation of congregations abroad by people from Orthodox countries, one can speak of a presence of Orthodoxy in Germany from the late 17th century.

For ecclesiological and historical reasons there is no “German Orthodox” regional church, although recent attempts in this direction have been observed among German converts. In the 1990s, for example, the German Orthodox Trinity Monastery in Buchhagen was the first and so far only German Orthodox monastery. Formally ( juridically ) it is subordinate to the Bulgarian Orthodox Diocese of Western and Central Europe, but according to the statutes it is obliged to “German Orthodoxy”. There is also the Skite of St. Spyridon , which is legally part of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Central Europe.

Overall, however, the proportion of ethnic Germans within the Orthodox Church in Germany is rather marginal: well over 95% of all Orthodox Christians in this country have a “migration background”. Officially German-speaking Orthodox congregations only exist in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hanover, Hamburg and Munich, although in some other congregations (especially in the Russian dioceses) German is sometimes used as the liturgical language. Therefore, in 2007, the KOKiD set up a joint commission composed of representatives from all Orthodox dioceses (including the Russian Church Abroad) for the preparation and standardization of Orthodox liturgical texts in German, the results of which, however, still have to be approved by the Bishops' Assembly.

Orthodox churches represented in Germany

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Orthodox dioceses in Germany have been forming the Orthodox Bishops' Conference in Germany since February 27, 2010 . There are ten dioceses which, as a rule - at least a majority - comprise members of one nation and belong to different patriarchates.

The dioceses are subordinate to the autocephalous church of the home country. Figures 2003, source see literature:

Oriental Orthodox Churches

Eparchies from non-canonical Orthodox churches

Monasteries

The following Orthodox monasteries exist in Germany

Bulgarian Orthodox Monastery

Romanian Orthodox Monastery

Russian Orthodox Monasteries

Serbian Orthodox Monasteries

Coptic Orthodox Monasteries

Church of the True Christians of Greece (Synod of the Patristic Calendar)

Educational institutions

Since 1995, the former “Institute for Orthodox Theology” at the University of Munich has been expanded to become a training facility for Orthodox theology at the University of Munich , and a corresponding diploma course has been set up. This is the first and so far only possibility of an Orthodox university degree in the German-speaking area (including the possibility of a doctorate in Orthodox theology).

Since 2002 there has also been the opportunity to study Orthodox theology with a focus on Coptic Orthodox theology and a BA in theology at the Theological Institute of the Kröffelbach Monastery .

In addition, there is a chair for Orthodox theology within the framework of the Center for Religious Studies at the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster , with the primary aim of training Orthodox religion teachers . Furthermore, there is a religious studies -oriented chair for Orthodox Christianity at the University of Erfurt .

Ecumenism

Some Orthodox churches have been working in the Working Group of Christian Churches in Germany (ACK) since 1974 , others joined it later. For some years now, the canonical Eastern Orthodox churches have been represented in a joint delegation with five members (and five deputies) through the KOKiD; the ancient Eastern Orthodox churches are each full member. The Orthodox churches also provide one of the five members of the board (currently: Archpriest Radu Constantin Miron) and also work in the Ecumenical Center with a consultant (Marina Kiroudi) and in the theological commission (DÖSTA). The Orthodox churches are also involved in most of the regional and local working groups of the ACK.

There are also bilateral relations with the German Bishops' Conference and the EKD with discussions on theological issues and diaconal and charitable cooperation. Several documents on dogmatic issues were adopted in a joint working group of the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan and the Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference, most recently in 2006 a text on the common understanding of the spiritual office. From 2007 this working group was redesigned and expanded so that it now includes representatives of the entire Orthodoxy in Germany on the one and - as before - the Roman Catholic German Bishops' Conference, i.e. an official level of discussion between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church in this Lands represents. A handout for Protestant-Orthodox marriages has so far been drawn up and signed between the KOKiD and the EKD.

Religious instruction

As early as 1985, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia had introduced regular Orthodox religious instruction, which at that time only applied to Greek children, but has since been expanded to all Orthodox students under the responsibility of KOKiD. In the meantime, Lower Saxony has also introduced regular German-language religious instruction for Christian Orthodox children at state schools; the KOKiD acts as a church partner, ancient oriental children can take part in these classes on a voluntary basis. In some other federal states (Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg), corresponding plans are being drawn up, or religion (similar to Islamic children) is offered as part of a mother-tongue supplementary course, although in practice this offer is often only for Greek speaking children existed. In Bavaria, according to the decision of the Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture of February 6, 1956, No. 93173, religious instruction given by the Russian Orthodox Church abroad was made a regular subject (compulsory subject) within the meaning of Art. 136, Paragraph 2 of the Bavarian Constitution recognized. Today the Greek, Serbian and Russian Orthodox Churches, as well as, from the ancient Near Eastern, the Syrian Orthodox Church have this recognition. It is even possible to take and complete Orthodox religious studies as an Abitur subject. There is now a common Bavarian curriculum for the Orthodox dioceses represented in the KOKiD and now the Orthodox Bishops' Conference in Germany. Since 2003 there has also been a KOKiD department for Orthodox religious instruction; it is currently headed by the chairman of the commission, Metropolitan Augoustinos; Country coordinators for Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia are responsible for the implementation and introduction of Orthodox religious instruction in the individual federal states on behalf of the Commission of the Orthodox Church in Germany / Association of Dioceses.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Society Orthodoxe Medien eV on behalf of the Orthodox Bishops' Conference in Germany (ed.): Orthodoxer Liturgischer Kalender 2017. , 18th year, 2016, p. III: In Germany we can meanwhile based on well-founded projections from a number from soon to two million Orthodox Christians, who are growing more and more into the local society and taking root in it.
  2. ^ Johann Christoph Wilhelm Lindemann: Evangelical Lutheran school paper. P. 138 on Google Books
  3. ↑ cf. Orthodox monasteries in Germany (canonical) on the website of the Orthodox Community "Hl. Paulus" in Stuttgart

literature

  • Athanasios Basdekis: The Orthodox Church . 2003, ISBN 3-87476-402-8
  • Stefan Reichelt: Orthodox Church in Germany in the past and present. Introductory remarks . In: OSt 60 (2011), 327-340.

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