St. Martinus (Greven)

St. Martinus Church with the House of Encounter (front left) and the rectory (front right)

The parish of St. Martinus in Greven is a Catholic parish of the diocese of Münster in the dean's office in Steinfurt with around 19,500 Catholics. It is considered to be the oldest and largest Catholic community in the Münsterland city, the area of which includes St. Martinus almost entirely. Only the small district of Gimbte in Greven has the independent parish of St. Johannes Baptist with almost 700 believers and therefore does not belong to St. Martinus.

The headquarters of the community is the church of the same name in downtown Greven, whose history goes back to the 8th century.

Community structure

Church locations

The parish has had six church locations since the integration of the previously independent St. Lukas parish from West Greven in November 2012. The parish church and headquarters of the parish administration is the historic St. Martinuskirche on the market square with its adjoining parish houses Haus Elisabeth, Haus der Treffen and the old rectory in downtown Greven. The history of the church goes back to the 9th century. Furthermore, St. Mary's Assumption on Grabenstrasse in the south of Greven, Holy Guardian Angels (district Schmedehausen), St. Wendelin (district Bockholt), St. Josef in Greven west on the left of the Ems and St. Franziskus (district Reckenfeld) are among the church locations that functioned as independent parishes until they were incorporated into the Martinus community. Most of the buildings in these branch churches today date from the 20th century, especially from the post-war period in the early 1950s. The Franziskuskirche in Reckenfeld was built in 1936. The Schmedehausener church, on the other hand, is much older and was built in 1859/1860.

Leading pastor

The leading pastor of the St. Martinus congregation has been the theologian Klaus Lunemann since 2004. He was ordained a priest in Münster in 1984 and, in his role as pastor in Greven, oversaw two mergers between St. Martinus - first with St. Mary's Assumption in 2005, then later with St. Luke in 2012. In 2006, Lunemann also became Definitor , later dean in what was then the dean's office in Emsdetten-Greven. In 2014, the two previous dean's offices in Emsdetten-Greven and Steinfurt were formed into the new dean's office in Steinfurt, and Lunemann resigned. Since December 2016, after being appointed by Bishop Felix Genn as the definitor of this new deanery, he has been performing supra-local church duties again.

Parish Church of St. Martinus

history

Saint Liudger is considered to be the founder of St. Martinus

The parish of St. Martinus is considered to be the foundation of St. Liudger , the first bishop of Münster in Westphalia , to whom Emperor Charlemagne had given the Münsterland around 792 for further Christianization . The reason for building a church in Greven at this early time was that the original Greven covered a very large area. Although large stretches of the parish were covered with heather and sand, in between there were numerous ancient settlements in the Emstal , most of which went back to the Old Saxon and prehistoric times.

The first church that was built in Greven around the year 800 was a small wooden church that stood on the so-called Kirchberg. This rotten, disintegrated after a few years and was replaced by a Romanesque stone structure in the 12th century . The tower of this church is still standing today; it consists of 2 meter thick walls and is 68 meters high. The Grevenians mainly used it to defend themselves from robber gangs and foreign soldiers. This was especially the case during the Thirty Years' War when soldiers robbed the church and later set it on fire. Only the tower of the church held out and offered the Greveners protection.

The altar of the church was consecrated to St. Martin, from which the name St. Martinus Church comes. The relics that are kept in the altar are of a saint and Saint Nicholas .

Building description

Aerial view of the Martinus Church in Greven with clearly visible main and transepts

Crucifixion group in front of the steeple of the Martinus Church at night

The oldest surviving part of the St. Martinus Church in Greven is the baptistery in the Romanesque basement of the tower. There is a baptismal font from 1680 in a very simple design. The tower was later raised and after the Thirty Years War provided with a " Welschen Haube ", which was restored after being damaged in the Second World War . The late Gothic, three-aisled nave is attached to the tower. The late Gothic nave of St. Martinus is a stepped hall . The side aisles were originally just closed, but now open to the generous neo-Gothic extension from 1890/92, which had to give way to the choir of the old building. This extension consists of a large crossing square, which is followed by two narrower northern and southern transept bays. The new choir is a three-aisled hall choir with a wide main and two smaller side choirs. In the right angles of the transept and side choirs there is a rectangular chapel room, so that the extension represents a central building. In the left aisle of the extension there is a statue of Joseph from the former Joseph altar from 1909, in the right aisle there is a tabernacle stele at the appropriate location . The sanctuary is adapted to the renewed liturgy and is optically separated from the pre-conciliar choir space by a crucifixion group by Johann Wilhelm Gröninger. This is now used for church services by small groups. The pillars in the new part of the church are made at the same height as in the old one, whereby the significantly different vault heights have been compensated for by stilting, ie vertically extending belt arches . On the pews of the old part there are brass plaques with names and sometimes with the year (1837 and 1838), which stems from the custom that seats could previously be "bought", which the parish used to do in the period after secularization and long before the introduction the church tax secured their income.

There are two organs in St. Martinus, both of which were built by the organ builder Matthias Kreienbrink. The large organ in the gallery from 1958 has 41 stops on three manual works and a pedal (electropneumatic cone store). The choir organ from 1957 has 12 stops on two manuals and a pedal. The playing and stop action of both instruments are electric. The choir organ can be played from the fourth manual on the four-manual console of the main organ.

I Hauptwerk C – g ³
Gedacktpommer	16 ′
Principal	8th'
Reed flute	8th'
Octave	4 ′
Pointed	4 ′
Octave	2 ′
Mixture III-IV	1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
Cymbal II-III	1'
Silbermann Trumpet	8th'

II substation C – g ³
Pewter Gamba	8th'
Singing dumped	8th'
Funnel President	4 ′
Sesquialter II	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
Hellprincipal	2 ′
Glittering whistle	1 ¹ ⁄ ₇  ′
Sounding Cymbel III	¹ ⁄ ₃ ′
Wooden dulcian	8th'
'' Tremulant ''

II Swell C – g ³
Harp principal	8th'
Lull major	8th'
viola	8th'
Unda amsivaria	8th'
Ital. Octave	4 ′
Fugara	4 ′
Quintadena	4 ′
Night horn 2
SuperQuinte	1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
Seventh Cornet III-V	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
Scharff IV	1'
Narrow trumpet	16 ′
Solo trumpet	8th'
'' Tremulant ''

IV choir organ C – g ³
Upper work
Principal	8th'
Dumped	8th'
Copper principal	4 ′
Small mix IV	1 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
Substation
Wooden dacked	8th'
Coupling flute	4 ′
Schwiegel	2 ′
Sesquialter II	1 ³ ⁄ ₅  ′
Krummhorn 8 '
'' Tremulant ''

Pedals C – f ¹
Main organ
Grand Principal	16 ′
Gedackt subset	16 ′
Quintbass	10 ² ⁄ ₃  ′
Wide octave	8th'
Dacked bass	8th'
Choral bass	4 ′
Back set IV	5 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
Counter bombardment	32 ′
trombone	16 ′
Field trumpet	8th'
Clairon	4 ′
Choir organ
Sub bass	16 ′
Bourdon Bass	8th'
Wooden pipe	4 ′

A six-part bronze bell hangs in the tower of St. Martinus. It has the beat notes a ⁰ , h ⁰ , c sharp ¹ , d ¹ , e ¹ and f sharp ¹ .

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Planned demolitions of branch churches

The Church of St. Mary of the Assumption will function as the youth church "MARY's" until 2024

The church of St. Josef, built in the 1950s, was profaned and demolished in 2019

St. Mary of the Assumption

The Church of St. Mary's Assumption, built between 1951 and 1952, was officially renamed "Youth Church MARY's" in 2013 and focuses on adolescents and young adults, who should be offered a more target-group-oriented offer than in the traditional church services. In view of the declining number of visitors to the services, the church and the adjoining parish hall will be completely abandoned by 2024.

St. Joseph

The St. Joseph Church, built in the post-war period, was profaned on January 27, 2019 and then demolished. In contrast to St. Mariä Himmelfahrt, a new church is being built at the same location, which will provide space for both church services and group and committee work. The background to the demolition including the new building was the dilapidated structural condition of the old church building and the adjoining parish hall as well as the decline in church visitors, which is why the new church with up to 240 seats is much smaller than the previous one.