Ruth Epting

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Ruth Epting (born June 9, 1919 in Basel ; † June 15, 2016 there ) was a German-Swiss Protestant clergyman and women's activist.

Life

Ruth Epting was the daughter of Karl Epting from southern Germany, a teacher at the Basel Mission and his wife Johanna (née Baumann), who was born as the daughter of Swiss missionaries in India . She was the youngest daughter and had five siblings; To these was Karl Epting . In 1947 she received Swiss citizenship .

She attended schools in Basel and completed a home economics course in 1938 ; at the same time she attended the lectures in Protestant theology at the University of Basel .

From 1939 to 1941 she was trained as a parish helper in the Burckhardthaus in Berlin and completed the seminar for church women’s service ; there she also met Anna Paulsen and then returned to Basel.

She became the youth secretary of the Christian Association of Young Women (YMCA).

In 1942 she began studying theology at the Center of the Confessing Church in Berlin and with Karl Barth and others at the University of Basel. In Basel, after completing her studies in 1946, she held her vicariate in the Markusgemeinde in Basel. In June 1947, after the practical examination, she was ordained in the Evangelical Reformed Elisabethenkirche , but without admission to the parish office , which was only possible from 1957. Until 1948 she taught at the Basel Women's Mission and at Basel schools.

From 1948 to 1953 she worked as a travel secretary - she was sent to New York for six months for training - to rebuild the work of women and young people at the YMCA in Germany. Until 1954 she supported the women's and girls' Bible groups in Switzerland as a secretary. She then studied psychiatry at the University of Basel in 1953/1954 and psychology at the CG Jung Institute in Zurich .

From 1954 to 1974 she was a pastor's assistant and one of the first Swiss female pastors in Basel. During this time she was from January 1954 to June 1955 clerical chaplain in the Friedmatt Psychiatric University Clinic in Basel, from 1955 to 1957 vicar in Basel-Oekolampad and from 1957 to 1960 parish assistant there and from 1960 to 1974 pastor. 1971/1972 she taught as a professor for New Testament at the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church Cameroon (PCC) in Nyasoso at Tombel in the district Koupé-Manengouba in Cameroon .

In the period from 1954 to 1959 she was the first female CVJT national president from German-speaking Switzerland. From 1961 to 1969 she was one of the first women to be a member of the Basel Citizens' Council .

From 1961 to 1981, she worked as an employee of the Basel Mission as a consultant for adult education and trained future candidates who were to leave. From 1974 to 1981 she headed the committee and developed a concept for the house of the Basel Mission in the transition from a mission seminar to a meeting center for the First and Third World .

In 1975 she followed requests from the World Council of Churches to help make the voices of women heard. This first happened during the general assembly in Nairobi . She later played a key role in building an association of women of all European denominations .

Since 1978 she was involved in the establishment and development of the Ecumenical Forum of European Christian Women in Basel. In 1982 she became its co-founder in Gwatt and its honorary president in 1986; in the same year she became head of the first women's consultation in Brussels.

In 1981 she retired . In 1987, the University of Basel appointed her for her work in church women’s work, in ecumenism and in missions as Dr. theol. hc

At that time, female pastors in Switzerland were celibate , and so she remained single all her life.

Fonts (selection)

  • Solitary or common life? A few thoughts on the life of women today. Publisher of the Swiss Biblical Circles for Women and Girls, Brunnen-Verlag, Basel 1958.
  • Free for Freedom - The Way of Women in Church and Society. 1972.
  • The missionary's legacy. Self-published, Basel 1979.
  • A vision becomes reality: the Ecumenical Forum for Christian Women in Europe from its beginnings to 1990. 1994

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elisabeth Bücking: Ecumenical women: women cross borders . Frank & Timme, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86596-268-3 ( google.de [accessed November 25, 2019]).
  2. ^ Christian Association of Young Women (CVJF). Retrieved November 25, 2019 .
  3. ↑ feminis: Ruth Epting passed away | IG feminist theologians. Retrieved November 25, 2019 (German).
  4. ^ History. In: Ecumenical Forum of European Christian Women (ÖFECF). Retrieved November 25, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Ruth Epting's estate. Gosteli Foundation - Archive on the history of the Swiss women's movement, accessed on November 25, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Ruth Epting: a friend of the people. June 24, 2016, accessed on November 25, 2019 (German).
personal data
SURNAME Epting, Ruth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Swiss Protestant clergy and women activist
DATE OF BIRTH June 9, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 2016
Place of death Basel