Predicant
The evangelical predicant ( Latin praedicare , preach, abbreviated to präd. , Präd.in ) was and / or is also referred to as a lay preacher , elder preacher , assistant preacher and preaching assistant . Predicants are graduates of a special theological instruction. You edit existing sermons or write your own sermons independently and are allowed to preach freely within the Protestant regional church communities. Your service is principally of an honorary nature. In the past, the term editor was more common for them .
history
Due to the structure of the Evangelical Church in Germany , each regional church is responsible for the regulations of the predicant service. The same is true in Switzerland, where only a part of the reformed regional churches know the ministerial service. There are considerable regional differences in terms of training and anchoring the service.
The profile of the predicants has changed over time. The term assistant preacher is derived from the time of the Second World War, when pastors' wives and church leaders had to temporarily replace the missing pastors. In connection with the general appreciation of the laity within the Evangelical Church, the predicant service is increasingly seen in the light of the “ priesthood of all believers ”. Because of their personal history and their anchoring in professional life, predicants can bring experiences to the preaching that are not available to pastors because their careers and everyday life are largely different. Therefore they are no longer just a substitute but a supplement to the overall picture of the Annunciation.
Training and authorization
Congregation members who are already actively participating in the life of the congregation are suggested for training to become a predicant. The sponsors of the proposal are either the church council of the community or the corresponding committees of the respective church district or deanery.
The training is different in the regional churches, but there are common focuses:
- Biblical studies , with which the classification and interpretation ( exegesis ) of Bible texts should be made possible
- Doctrine of faith ( dogmatics )
- Conception and structure of a sermon ( homiletics )
- Structure of the liturgy and the meaning of the individual liturgical elements.
In addition to the theoretical training, practical exercises take place. If this does not happen in the training group, each trainee is assigned a mentor, usually the parish priest.
After successful completion of the training, the predicants are commissioned by the church leadership (in some regional churches by the respective local congregation) and introduced to their service in a service. An ordination is practical only in some regional churches. The Leuenberg Agreement also recognizes this ordination in those regional churches that do not ordain their own predicants.
Service and training
In consultation with the responsible parish priest, preachers may organize services in the parishes of their regional church. As a rule, they are deployed in the parishes of their church district.
In some regional churches, the predicants are specially called to serve in a single parish. At first they are only allowed to preach there. However, because other parishes generally recognize this vocation, it is usually also possible in these cases to work in other parishes.
Regular training is expected. This takes place in part across the congregation in special advanced training courses for predicants, but often also by the pastors of the respective parish.
Special features of individual regional churches
Germany
While almost all regional churches have an institutional capacity for a predicant, in some places it does not exist at all. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg, for example, carried out a predicant armament in the 1970s, but quickly discontinued it. In the entire regional church, only a few predicants serve, but they are not named as such, but fall under the popular collective term "Lektordienst". There is no detailed regulation of what these agents are allowed to do officially. While some are only outdoors preaching, others are baptizing and conducting sacrament services. Still others are ordained and thus - theologically consistent - called to the church's spiritual office on an equal footing with pastors . In the meantime, the regional church is planning to re-establish the predicant service.
In the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau , the provost responsible is responsible for training, but it is often located in the deaneries . At the end of the training, two self-made sermons are submitted to the Center Annunciation. In addition, a trial service is held in the presence of the dean or a representative, which is then discussed. After successfully completing the training, the preachers are commissioned by the church leadership and introduced to their office by the provost responsible in a service. The church councils of the parishes from which the predicants come are invited to this introduction.
In some regional churches, predicants are also permitted to administer the sacraments ( baptism , communion ). They can also be ordained in special cases. In the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland (EKiR) and the Evangelical Church of Central Germany (EKM) , predicants are ordained in principle.
In the Evangelical Church of Westphalia (EKvW), from 1969 to 2010, predicants were called "lay preachers". With the entry into force of the Prädikantengesetz (PrädG) on January 1, 2011, the term predicant also applies here. The transfer of the service does not take place through ordination, but through commissioning. The training takes place at the Institute for Education, Training and Continuing Education of the EKvW. The predicant law initially only provides for the proclamation of the word and administration of the sacraments. With the consent of the superintendent, church weddings and burials can be assigned to the predicant in individual cases. The presbytery decides on the wearing of an official costume according to the predicant law.
The question of whether predicants should be ordained or only commissioned in a special form is a matter of fact between the Lutheran churches of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD) and z. For example, the EKiR started a discussion that also has implications for ecumenism, e.g. B. to the Old Catholics.
In the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate, there have also been preachers of the community associations ordained by the regional church since 1994. After long negotiations, they were inserted into the law of predicants. The background is that the regional church communities and city missions sometimes reach people who have no ties to a local church community. Their Protestant Christianity is realized in the regional church communities and city missions. Under canon law, ordained preachers perform their official acts on behalf of and in accordance with the regional church order.
The Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck revised its predicant law in 2006. It now also stipulates that predicants wear liturgical clothing in the exercise of their ministry. The robe designed for this is based on the gown for pastors in the Prussian form, but has a neckline without a collar.
In the Evangelical Church in Württemberg , predicants were named lecturers until October 31, 2008 . The predicant order has been in effect since then.
The regional synod of the Evangelical Church Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (EKBO) passed a church law on the service of preachers in spring 2007, in which the service is regulated and the rights of the preachers are severely restricted compared to the regulations practiced in the past. In contrast to the other regional churches, predicants are appointed after their usually one-year lecturer training and subsequent 3½-year academic training, which consists of the subjects Old and New Testament, Church history, systematic theology and practical theology with pastoral care and homiletics and with an examination by the student as well an additional examination is completed after an admission procedure in the regional church, only the right to freely proclaim the word and to conduct communion services is granted. The previous assignment to administer the sacraments and to freely proclaim the word, which included the right to hold casual services, is now restricted by church law to exceptions in individual cases. This means that predicants in the EKBO are no longer allowed to baptize, marry, confirm and bury. Predicants are commissioned for a limited time and place, they are not ordained. You have to prove an annual advanced training and are allowed to wear a predicant's cape. The previous authorization to wear a pastor's gown with a beffe will not be extended in the event of a new assignment. In order to emphasize the role of the ordained pastor in the preaching service as particularly emphasized, from now on only these casual services are allowed to perform and wear the official costume.
In the Bavarian regional church, the training to become a preacher usually lasts two years, before that there is training as a lecturer. One can hardly speak of “auxiliary preachers” here, because the people trained in this way usually take on services that would otherwise be performed by pastors. A large part of the pastoral care of the elderly is carried out by predicants.
Switzerland
The Evangelical Reformed Church of both Appenzell , the Reformed Churches Bern-Jura-Solothurn , the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of St. Gallen and the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Valais are familiar with the service of preachers. The admission requirements, training and legal status are regulated differently in each regional church.
In the Reformed Church of Aargau , the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Schaffhausen and the Evangelical Church of the Canton of Thurgau , the terms lay preacher are used for the service.
Some churches in French-speaking Switzerland know the service under the name “prédicatrices et prédicateurs laïques”. It is the Église Protestante de Genève , the Église réformée évangélique du canton de Neuchâtel and the bilingual churches of Bern-Jura-Solothurn and Valais that have entered into various collaborations for training in recent years.
See also
literature
- Reiner Marquard: The lecturer and predicant service under changed "religious traffic regulations" . In: Deutsches Pfarrerblatt . 6/2000, pp. 307-309.
- Reinhard Brand: On the public proclamation of the word in the Protestant Church . In: Deutsches Pfarrerblatt . 6/2000, pp. 310-312.
- Reiner Marquard: Living faith, shaping the church, celebrating worship. A Theological Guide to Volunteering . Calwer 2004, ISBN 3-7668-3867-9
- Christian Schad: On the status of relations between the regional church and the regional church communities . In: Pfälzisches Pfarrerblatt .
- Gunther Schendel: Volunteers in the preaching service: Systemically relevant and open to new roles (= SI KOMPAKT . 2/2020). Social Science Institute of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Hannover 2020 ( online ).
- Marcel Schütz: Perspectives on parish, lecturer and predicant service in community service relationship determination . In: Deutsches Pfarrerblatt . 9/2006, pp. 471-474.
- Marcel Schütz: Annunciation and the reform process - ordination, calling and commissioning to speak and sacrament in honorary office. In: Deutsches Pfarrerblatt . 6/2007, pp. 308-312.
- Evelina Volkmann: "But go and preach and speak: The kingdom of heaven is near". Prädikantdienst in Württemberg , Evangelical Church in Württemberg, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-945369-34-0 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The argument with the expression “priesthood of all believers” is presented by the Lutheran side. Representatives of Reformed Protestantism argue differently. See the explanations in the book: M. Freudenberg et al. (Ed.), Office and Ordination from a reformed point of view (reformed akzente 8), Wuppertal 2005.
- ^ Predicant law of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia. Retrieved December 17, 2018 .
- ^ Institute for Education, Training and Continuing Education of the EKvW. Retrieved December 17, 2018 .
- ^ Predicant order of the Evang. Regional Church in Württemberg