St. Josef and Martin

Logo of the parish "St. Josef and Martin"

St. Josef and Martin is the Catholic parish of Langenfeld in the Archdiocese of Cologne . It was founded on January 1, 2011.

history

Eight municipalities (2000)

In 2000 there were nine independent parishes in Langenfeld:

St. Barbara ( Reusrath ),
Christ the King ( center , branch church of St. Joseph),
St. Gerhard ( Gieslenberg , branch church of St. Barbara),
St. Josef ( Immigrath ),
St. Mary's Assumption ( Hardt , branch church of St. Josef),
St. Maria Rosary Queen ( Wiescheid , branch church of St. Martin),
St. Martin ( Richrath ),
St. Paulus ( Berghausen ) as well
St. Pius (Richrath, branch church of St. Martin, profaned in 2006 ).

Two pastoral care areas north and south (2002)

Number of Catholics in the Catholic Parish of St. Josef and Martin: 23,731

St. Joseph: 6,950

St. Martin: 5,898

St. Paul: 2.902

St. Barbara: 2,332

Christ King: 1,693

St. Mary of the Assumption: 1,671

St. Maria Rosary Queen: 1,494

St. Gerhard: 791

Status: July 2010;
Source: Schematism Archdiocese of Cologne

new order of worship for the Catholic parish of St. Josef and Martin

St. Joseph

St. Martin

St. Paul

St. Barbara

Christ King

St. Mary of the Assumption

St. Mary Rosary Queen

St. Gerhard

The nine congregations were merged into two pastoral care areas or units in 2002, that is, the individual congregations retain their individual church councils, albeit with fewer tasks. The two pastoral care areas were

Langenfeld-Nord with the churches of St. Maria Himmelfahrt, St. Maria Rosenkranzkönigin, St. Martin, St. Paulus and St. Pius (until 2006) as well
Langenfeld-Süd with St. Barbara, Christus König, St. Gerhard and St. Josef.

The two pastoral care areas each had a leading pastor, namely the Richrather pastor Gerhard Trimborn, who was also responsible for St. Maria Rosary Queen, for Langenfeld-Nord and the dean of the Deanery Langenfeld-Monheim Dr. Jürgen Rentrop, who resided at St. Josef and was also responsible for Christ the King, for Langenfeld-Süd.

Shaping Change - Developing Faith (2007)

In 2007 the Archbishop of Cologne Joachim Cardinal Meisner started the project "Shaping Change - Developing Faith" in view of the falling number of priests . From 2009 there will only be one canonical pastor, a pastoral team and a parish council at the pastoral level. The municipalities should merge step by step by 2011 at the latest.

In October 2007 the Vicar General Dominik Schwaderlapp from Cologne wrote :

“Pastoral care in the parishes and pastoral care areas of our archdiocese is changing. The social and sociological changes challenge us to shape a pastoral change as well. We want to react today to the fact that in 10 years there will be about 1/3 fewer priests in active service. It is therefore necessary to reduce the number of pastoral care areas from the current 221 to around 180. After hearing [...] the archbishop has now decided that the pastoral care area Langenfeld-Süd will be merged with the pastoral care area Langenfeld-Nord. "

- Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Dr. Dominik Schwaderlapp

A pastoral care area Langenfeld (2008)

In 2008 these two areas were merged into one large pastoral care area in Langenfeld . The majority of the committees in the pastoral care area in Langenfeld voted for a merger of the still existing individual parishes into one large parish at city level.

On January 1st, 2009 dean Dr. Jürgen Rentrop, who was previously the "leading pastor", was appointed canonical pastor for pastoral care. The previous pastors Gerhard Trimborn (St. Martin, St. Maria Rosenkranzkönz), Lambert Schäfer (St. Paulus, St. Maria Himmelfahrt) and Joseph Limbach (St. Barbara, St. Gerhard) became parish vicars . The latter was released into retirement in May, but continues to hold trade fairs in Langenfeld. There was now only one pastor, two parish vicars and a chaplain ( CMI ) as well as five pastors and a retired deacon in eight parishes.

The new parish council for Langenfeld was on 7./8. Elected November 2009. Because of the merger on January 1, 2011, the church board election was postponed to spring 2011.

A parish (2011)

As of December 31, 2010, the individual parishes of Langenfeld were dissolved, whereupon the new large Catholic parish of St. Josef and Martin was founded on January 1, 2011 . The individual churches remain and are now called "places of church life". The central church with the seat of the pastor and the pastoral office is St. Josef. The new parish council will be elected in spring 2011. The parish council elected in 2009 continues its work. The parish council formed local committees in the individual churches, these should be the contact for the Catholics "on site".

The pastoral team now consists of

In addition, there are four retired pastors as well as a hospital chaplain who celebrates the services in the hospital chapel of the St. Martinus Hospital and in the simultaneous church of the LVR Clinic Langenfeld . A pastoral officer is responsible for pastoral care in the St. Martinus Hospital.

The celebration of the foundation on Sunday, January 2, 2011, began with a Holy Mass in the parish church of St. Joseph. At the reception that followed, Langenfeld's First Deputy Mayor, Dieter Braschoss, who was formerly the chairman of the parish council of St. Barbara, a representative of the Protestant community and the chairman of the Christian Churches Working Group in Langenfeld gave greetings and "congratulated the new community on its birthday " .

New Order of Worship (May 2011)

In March the parish council worked out a new order of worship for the entire parish. This met with fierce opposition, especially in the former parish of St. Mary's Assumption. The reason for this was that there, as well as in Christ the King, St. Gerhard and St. Paulus, Sunday mass was postponed to Saturday evening. There are now four timelines for the Sunday / Saturday evening masses: Saturdays 5:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., and Sundays 9:45 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. There are two trade fairs in Langenfeld at these times, plus one on Sundays at 8:15 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. The masses in the hospital chapel , in the CBT house and in the LVR clinic remain independent of the timelines.

The new service order came into effect on 28/29. May 2011 in force.

logo

“The blue ends of the eight cross bars symbolize the people in the communities around the churches in the districts of Langenfeld. The edges emanating from these ends represent how the people of our large community approach one another. Some fast, some slower. Some are already close to each other, others still have a long way to go. The interrupted edges also say we are open to the people we meet. All gather around Christ , the center of our parish of St. Joseph and Martin. The color gold of the center stands for the incomprehensible and at the same time for the glory of God . "

- Catholic parish of St. Josef and Martin (official description)

Surname

The name "St. Josef and Martin " connects the millennial history - shaped by the parish of Richrath-Reusrath, which was formed after the Battle of Worringen and is associated with Saints Martin and Barbara - with modern times, in which the new central church of St Josef was created in the center of the developing city of Langenfeld.

The name "To the Saints Barbara and Martin" , which was previously brought into play, and which goes back to this parish of Richrath-Reusrath, was rejected because a maximum of two saints could be included in the name, the first being the patron saint of the central church, Joseph . Ultimately, the decision was made for "St. Josef and Martin" .