Reformed Church of France
The Reformed Church of France ( French L'Église réformée de France ) was of Calvinist origin and, as the Huguenot church, historically the most important Protestant church in France . She was a member of the Fédération Protestante de France , the World Community of Reformed Churches , the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe and the World Council of Churches . On January 1, 2013, it was incorporated into the United Protestant Church of France (Église protestante unie de France) .
It had about 350,000 members who were organized in 400 local congregations with 50 church districts (consistoires) in eight regions.
history
The Reformed churches in France, which arose with the Reformation in the 16th century , initially organized themselves underground . The first national synod took place in 1559, the Creed of La Rochelle dates to 1571. Recognized (and restricted) by the Edict of Nantes , the provisionally last official synod met in 1659. In 1685, with the Edict of Fontainebleau , with which Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, a long period of oppression followed.
After the Concordat of 1801 with the Vatican issued Napoleon with organic products and for the members of non-Catholic religious groups (Calvinists, Jews, Lutherans) similar statutes that parastatal management bodies ( consistories ) FROM ROCHE, making the Reformed Church of France legally took shape. The Reformed accepted the regulation because it was no worse off than other religious communities. But it marked a dramatic break with their presbyterial and synodal principles. Pastors were no longer employed and paid by the church people in the parishes, but they were paid state salaries and were subordinate to the consistory as employers. The lower-ranking provincial synods were allowed to meet, but each motion was rejected.
The general synod, which was decisive only in questions of dogma and doctrine, was not planned. In addition, their decisions on questions of doctrine and dogma were subject, if one could have been gathered, to the state authorization requirement, which was completely unacceptable for Reformed people. Reformed church congregations, the basis of all organization in the Reformed understanding of the church, were not recognized by the state, although the main church people are organized in them. Instead, the parishes were seen as appendages of the 81 state-recognized and controlled Reformed consistories, each responsible for around 6,000 souls, although they did not have elected representatives of the church people, since only those paying the highest tax contributions (notables) and clergy were allowed to be appointed to them . For large diaspora areas there were so-called oratorial districts with a smaller number of souls.
In the 19th century, the revival and other religious currents permeated Reformed Protestantism in France and Europe, which was accompanied by various divisions. In the absence of a general synod, the Reformed Church drifted into an ordeal between supporters of the revival movement (then called évangéliques) and those of religious liberalism in the course of the 19th century. The parishes therefore functioned as the only doctrinal organ of the Reformed churches. Napoleon III On March 26, 1852, a legislative decree influenced by Charles Read passed , which legally recognized the Reformed parishes and determined the election of presbyters based on the reformed teaching of the time on the basis of universal male suffrage. In the pastorates to be filled by the consistory, however, the parishes were repeatedly presented with candidates who contradicted the predominant attitude of the presbyteries and the majority of the parishes that voted for them. This triggered some violent quarrels.
Two pastoral conferences, each of which attracted pastors from one direction or the other (Liberals in Nîmes and Awakened in Paris), were non-binding and could not make up for the absence of the General Synod. The Awakened demanded a general synod in order to adopt an authoritative creed, moderate liberals agreed to them, and the radical liberals no longer wanted to recognize the authority of a general synod on questions of doctrine and dogma. The Reformed parishes in the five Reformed consistorial districts, which were in the district of Lorraine and Alsace, were separated from the Reformed Church from France in 1871. They later formed the Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine (French: Église protestante réformée de l'Alsace et de Lorraine , EPRAL ).
It was not until June and July 1872 that a reformed general synod met again, which was able to provide binding clarification. The two-thirds of the Reformed revival movement dominated. Many liberals did not recognize the resolutions of the general synod. As a result, the Reformed Church of France split. The current that emerged from the revival movement invited all willing Reformed church congregations in 1879 to send deputies to another synod, from which the federation of churches called the Bund der Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirchen ( French Union des Églises réformées évangéliques ) emerged. From 1882, deputies from Reformed parishes of the liberal current held general assemblies, from which the Federation of United Reformed Churches (French: Union des Églises réformées unies ) arose. The French Reformed were divided roughly two-thirds into the former league and one-third into the second.
With all other religious communities in France constituted on the basis of the organic articles, the two reformed church federations lost their corporate status as établissement public du culte through the French law separating church and state , which arose from the concordat statutes of Napoléon I, which also saw the end of the State co-financing meant. At that time, in addition to the two church federations mentioned, there were two other national Reformed church federations that never had corporate status: the Federation of Free Evangelical Churches ( French Union des Églises évangéliques libres , UEEL, founded in 1849) and the Methodist Church . The common experience of the First World War and the emergence of new theological currents (especially Karl Barth ) brought about the partial restoration of the unity of the reformed churches, which were subject to secularism.
In 1938, today's Reformed Church of France emerged from the church federations. Since the organic articles and concordat rights and restrictions in Alsace and the Moselle department continue to apply after they have been reintegrated into France, the Reformed Church of France and the Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine cannot legally unite, unless the latter gives their corporate status voluntarily on.
The Reformed Church of France was in communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of France and the two member churches of the Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace and Lorraine . In May 2012, the Synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of France and the Reformed Church of France in Belfort decided to merge to form the United Protestant Church of France (Église protestante unie de France). The first Synod of the United Church met in Lyon from May 9-12, 2013 .
organization
In accordance with the synodal-presbyterial principle, the Church was governed by an annual national synod composed mainly of representatives from the eight regions (clergy and lay people). The last chairman of the synod, elected by its members for three years, was Rev. Marcel Manoël.
The eight regions to which the national church (Union Nationale) delegated a number of tasks were also managed in the same way.
The pastors were trained at the Institut Protestant de Théologie , which consists of the faculties of Protestant theology in Paris and Montpellier . Distance training for laypeople called Théovie was also offered.
Teaching
After 213 years without a national synod, the XXX. General Synod from 1872 to 1873 issued a new declaration of faith, the principles of which were only rejected by a small minority. Towards the end of a century, rich in theological and spiritual innovations, the General Synod distanced itself from a strict Calvinism: the now Reformed Church benefited from liberalism , pietism , neo-Lutheranism and other currents in addition to its legacy . The possibilities, the ideas and the limits of this pluralistic theology were laid down in the declaration of faith of 1936.
Symbols
The Huguenot Cross was never an official symbol of the Reformed Church in France, but it was a common identification symbol. The Huguenots wore and often consciously display this jewelry. The symbol of the old reformed churches was the burning bush through which God spoke to Moses ( thorn bush scene ). The new logo of the Reformed Church in France, adopted in 2000, shows a stylized thorn bush with a Huguenot cross in the center.