Ministry of Preaching

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The Ministry of Preachers was the spiritual ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Frankfurt am Main . All preachers of the inner-city Lutheran churches belonged to the committee, but not the pastors of the Frankfurt rural communities. The chairmanship of the Ministry as a primus inter pares was the senior , the senior minister at first. With the entry into force of the constitution of the Evangelical Church in Frankfurt am Main in  1923, the Ministry of Preachers formed a corporation under public law to manage the foundations assigned to it; the other powers were transferred to the pastorate. Since 1974 entrusted within the Frankfurt Church with the “maintenance of church history work on Protestant Frankfurt”, the Ministry of Preachers has been a registered association since 2004 .

history

First mentioned as a whole ministry in a letter dated January 1, 1571 , the Lutheran preachers of the city formed a body that met on all essential church matters and also advised the city council on church policy matters. This included filling the pastoral positions, drawing up church and sermon regulations, as well as questions of church discipline and the supervision of the municipal grammar school .

With the convention rules of the Ministry of Preachers of May 25, 1586, the Ministry gave itself rules of procedure for the first time. It stipulated that the ministry met every Wednesday and that the subjects and resolutions raised were to be recorded. Konrad Lautenbach  signed the ministry's writings for the first time as a “senior”, but the city council forbade him on February 2, 1593 as an “unusual innovation”. It was not until 1621 that the council confirmed the office of senior with a new convention order and the "comparison of the preachers Tettelbach and Vitus on the performance of official business". The ministry has met since 1593 in the convent room of the former barefoot monastery .

In 1666, Philipp Jacob Spener was the first to expressly appoint a preacher as senior . In 1728 the council transferred the tasks of the church regiment and church discipline to a newly founded consistory , which "in the name of the council in the matters entrusted to it to lead the judicial office, to maintain pure evangelical doctrine as well as official discipline and order and to administer the salutary justice system faithfully ”. The consistory consisted of four councilors, the senior and two other members of the ministry of preachers and two “godly and juridically learned” citizens. Since the consistory took over essential powers that had previously rested with the ministry, there was resistance to the new order. The incumbent senior Johann Georg Pritius stayed away from the other meetings of the consistory after the constituent meeting. Only his successor Christian Münden accepted the new order.

With the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Frankfurt lost its status as an imperial city . It was subordinated to the Prince Primate of  the Rhine Confederation Karl Theodor von Dalberg . With the Edict of Tolerance of October 10, 1806, the sovereign decreed the legal equality of the two Reformed communities in Frankfurt, the German Reformed and the French Reformed , with the Lutheran community. Reformed and Catholics were given access to all public offices and could be accepted into the guilds . This ended the centuries of Lutheran domination in Frankfurt.

After the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , the city regained its sovereignty. The Constitution of the Free City of Frankfurt , the constitution supplementary act , determined in Article 36 the restoration of the Lutheran consistory and in Article 37 allowed the formation of a separate Reformed consistory. According to Article 40, the three Christian congregations should each be allowed to form a congregation board that should take on essential tasks that had previously been the responsibility of the Ministry of Preachers: It should represent the congregation in church matters before the authorities, monitor external discipline, administer church property, take care of the maintenance of the churches and parsonages and appoint and inspect the lower church officers. The parish council of the Lutheran congregation, which then had around 27,000 to 28,000 members, was first elected on February 8, 1820. It had 36 citizens, 18 elders and 18 deacons . Members of the Ministry of Preachers and the Consistory were denied the right to stand as candidates for the parish council.

The ministry of preachers consisted of the 12 Lutheran pastors of the parish, two at each of the six Protestant churches St. Katharinen , St. Paul , St. Peter , St. Nikolai , Weißfrauen and Dreikönig . One of the 12 pastors was also a permanent member of the consistory; he held the traditional title of senior . The pastors of the Frankfurt rural communities with about 6,000 members did not belong to the ministry. His powers were now limited to the joint consultation of official business, administration of church foundations and the drafting of reports on matters relating to the spiritual office.

Even after the annexation of the Free City of Frankfurt by Prussia in 1866, these conditions essentially remained. The parish and synodal order of September 27, 1899 determined the division of the city parish into six independent Evangelical Lutheran parishes for the first time. The duties of the Ministry of Preachers remained unchanged.

After the First World War and the end of the ruling church regime, the Evangelical Church in Frankfurt am Main  received its own constitution for the first time in 1923. After that, the Ministry of Preachers formed a corporation under public law to administer the foundations transferred to it; the other powers were transferred to the pastorate. Since the assets of the foundations perished during the inflationary period , the Ministry of Preachers remained meaningless as a professional organization in the following decades. It was not until 1974 that the Frankfurt Church revived the tradition and entrusted the Ministry of Preachers with the “maintenance of church history work on Protestant Frankfurt”. Since 2004, the Ministry of Preachers has been a registered association with the full name "Evangelical Lutheran Ministry of Preachers Frankfurt am Main - Association for the Care of the Frankfurt Church History eV", which is open to all interested parties.

literature

  • Hermann Dechent , Church history of Frankfurt am Main since the Reformation . Two volumes, Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main 1913/1921
  • Jürgen Telschow, The old Frankfurt Church. Law and organization of the former Evangelical Church in Frankfurt , Evangelical Regional Association Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-9221-7900-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Telschow, Die alte Frankfurter Kirche , p. 15
  2. ↑ Jürgen Telschow, legal sources on Frankfurt church history , series of publications of the Evangelical Regional Association Frankfurt am Main No. 4, 1978, ISSN  0344-3957 , p. 21
  3. ↑ Telschow, Die alte Frankfurter Kirche , p. 18
  4. ↑ Telschow, Rechtsquellen , pp. 22-25
  5. ↑ Des Heiligen Reichs Stadt Frankfurt am Main Consistorialordnung of July 26, 1728. Printed in Telschow, Rechtsquellen , pp. 27–54
  6. ^ Declaration and ordinance by Sr. Highness how the new constitution should be in Frankfurt , Staats-Calender der Fürstprimatis Stadt Frankfurt, born in 1807, Frankfurt: Varrentrapp & Wenner, pp. 58–63.
  7. ↑ laws and statutes collection of the Free City of Frankfurt 1, Vol., Pp 7-70
  8. ↑ Parish and Synodal Regulations for the Protestant Church Fellowships of the Consistorial District Frankfurt am Main of September 27, 1899, in: Laws and ordinances relating to the new ecclesiastical constitution of the Protestant communities in the Consistorial District Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main 1900, p. 6ff. Printed in Telschow, Rechtsquellen , pp. 103-140
  9. ^ The constitution of the Evangelical Regional Church Frankfurt am Main of January 12, 1923 , in: Official Journal of the Evangelical Regional Church Frankfurt am Main 1924, p. 10ff; 1929, p. 25 ff .; 1931, p. 31. Printed in Telschow, Rechtsquellen , pp. 164–202