Chief Apostle

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Chief Apostle is the highest level of office in the New Apostolic Church (NAK). He presides over the circle of apostles worldwide and leads the church with them. It is the last instance in matters of faith and sets doctrinal statements after consultation with the District Apostles. Usually he conducts the ordination of the apostles. He is the highest representative of the New Apostolic Church. The French Jean-Luc Schneider has held this office since Whitsun 2013 . According to the ordination guidelines of the NAK, only men can be ordained into a spiritual office, which is why the office of Chief Apostle must be held by a man.

This office also existed within the faith community of the Apostle Ministry of Jesus Christ until 1981.

General

Areas of responsibility

As the supreme spiritual authority of all New Apostolic District Churches in the world, the Chief Apostle leads the Church as a whole in all religious matters. His primary mandate is to constantly and conscientiously preach the teaching of Christ and to keep it pure. He calls and ordains the district apostles , apostles and bishops, puts them to rest or calls them off. It defines the boundaries of the District Churches, creates new District Apostle areas and assigns the District Churches work areas for supervision. He also determines the annual budget of the NAK, decides on the expenditure and administration of the assets, discusses the financial contribution to be made to the NAK with the District Apostles and issues regulations and directives in matters of the Church as a whole. The Chief Apostle's orders are binding for all District Churches and their organs, subject to conflicting statutory provisions.

Term of Office and Vocation

The Chief Apostle is called by his or her predecessor. This is also the case if the predecessor falls ill or suffers an accident, but is still able to act. In the event of a sudden illness or an accident which could render the Chief Apostle incapable of acting, the Chief Apostle can file the appointment of his successor in writing. In the absence of such an appointment, the successor will be elected secretly by the District Apostle Meeting or the Apostle Meeting from among the District Apostles, District Apostle Helpers and Apostles. His office begins with his ordination, which is carried out by the retiring Chief Apostle or the most senior District Apostle. All New Apostolic congregations will be notified of the change of office immediately.

The Chief Apostle is entitled to retire when he turns 65 . At the longest, he should exercise his office until he has reached the age of 70. The Chief Apostle can deposit appropriate documents in the safe of the NAK for the appointment of his successor and to regulate the case of a temporary or permanent hindrance from the exercise of office. If two independent doctors confirm a temporary prevention, the three most senior District Apostles open the corresponding document; If the Chief Apostle dies or if he is definitively prevented from doing so, a District Apostle Meeting must be called within seven days, which takes note of the Chief Apostle's legacy and implements it immediately.

history

The offices of the KAG , an overview

The New Apostolic Church derives this office today - similar to the Roman Catholic Church - from the special position of the Apostle Peter in the disciples' circle. The Catholic Apostolic Congregations, from which the New Apostolic Faith Community developed from 1878, were already familiar with the term “Chief Apostle”. This office, however, referred to the leadership over one of the so-called "12 tribes of Israel", with "tribe" being used to denote a specific region of the world. The first called Apostle of the Catholic Apostolic Congregations, John Bate Cardale , was also called the Pillar Apostle . There was also a post for the other charismatic offices (prophet, shepherd, evangelist). However, no special powers were associated with this post.

After the death of Friedrich Wilhelm Schwarz in 1895, the apostles increasingly placed themselves under the leadership of Friedrich Krebs. In 1895 he gradually developed the concept of the Chief Apostle as the highest authority within the Apostles and thus became, according to the historian Helmut Obst, the actual founder of the modern NAK. The spiritual justification was pragmatic: In order to make clear the need for uniform leadership, the apostle Niehaus at the time referred to God's claim to uniqueness in the first of the ten commandments and to the patriarchal position of men in the family. If the term trunk was known from the Catholic-Apostolic division of territory, from now on it symbolized the primacy of the Chief Apostle over the other Apostles by means of the metaphorical relationship between tree and branch. The first service in which the function of head of the church was proclaimed took place at Whitsun in 1897 in Berlin.

Chief Apostle cult

Under the first official, Friedrich Krebs, a pronounced cult of worship developed around the office. Terms such as “father” or “unified father” were more common than the term “chief apostle” for a few years. The later incumbent Hermann Niehaus wrote about his predecessor Krebs that he was not worthy to see him as his "brother", but called him his "master and master". Krebs himself affirmed this cult by, for example, using statements at a celebration of Holy Communion to describe himself as Jesus Christ :

"This is my flesh, because I have overcome the world, although I am still alive."

On the 80th birthday and 60th anniversary of Niehaus as later Chief Apostle, the book The Greatest Among them was published by the College of Apostles . Even at the time of taking office after the death of Cancer, the spiritist idea prevailed within the New Apostolic congregation that Niehaus, as the “bearer of the spirit” of the deceased Chief Apostle, obtained his spiritual powers from him and that the first Chief Apostle consequently continued to work in his successor. From Niehaus' term of office there are also examples of congregations in whose church hall a picture of the Chief Apostle was placed above the altar. In song number 509 of the New Apostolic hymn book of 1912 it said:

“ Yes, nowhere on earth do I feel so free from complaints
than on the breast of Father Cancer, that was my heaven on earth.
None of us goes lost, so we cling to the hand of his son Niehaus today.
Heaven on earth will continue to bloom for us on this breast. "

The chief apostle cult reached its climax under JG Bischoff. During the “ message ” service in Giessen on December 24, 1951, District Apostle Rockenfelder called him “the greatest, next to Jesus, [whom] the earth has ever carried”. A year later, the ministers of the Church were admonished through the so-called Official Gazette :

“The Chief Apostle alone is the revealed love of God. Anyone who separates from him has signed his own death warrant [...]. "

In this transitional phase of the post-war period , however, the position of the Chief Apostle Office within the College of Apostles was also strongly questioned. Later, the Chief Apostle's position in church politics was consolidated in the statutes of the NAK International with the apostles' commitment to loyalty; a passage that still applies today. In 1997, the Swiss religious scholar Georg Schmid noted numerous elements of “ homage ” in contemporary NAK sermons.

It was only under Chief Apostle Fehr that the position of Chief Apostle in New Apostolic teaching was weakened and official veneration was reduced. While the Chief Apostle was referred to in the official literature until 1992 as the “head of the Church of Jesus Christ” and its “representative on earth”, the NAK today speaks of the successor of the Apostle Peter . Another change took place in 2001, when Fehr abolished the Chief Apostle's key power , after it had been taught since 1958 that only an introductory prayer by the Chief Apostle could open access to the hereafter and thereby enable divine salvation to be conveyed to the dead (see the New Apostolic Church asleep ). Before that, at Pentecost 1997, Fehr ended the decade-old custom of thanking the Chief Apostle in a closing sermon for the divine service that was held. In a 2006 interview, Chief Apostle Leber publicly denied the historically widespread view that Chief Apostle was infallible.

Official

Friedrich Krebs

Railway official Friedrich Krebs is considered the first New Apostolic Chief Apostle . After the death of the influential Dutch apostle Friedrich Wilhelm Schwarz , Krebs took over the leadership of the still young religious community and brought together the more loosely connected apostles and parishes. He is therefore also called the unit father Cancer . In 1902 there was a doctrinal conflict between his district elder Julius Fischer (1867–1923) and him about the second coming of Christ. The apostolic office of Judah came into being , from which the apostolic office of Jesus Christ broke away in 1923 .

Cancer taught the equality of the new apostles with the biblical. The Bible itself was for him " dried up hay from the past " and " old dirty pit water ". For him, on the other hand, stood the words of the new apostles: “fresh green fodder” and “fresh, living spring water” (this quote is attributed to a New Apostolic church magazine published in November 1896. The date shows that it is the watchman's voices from Ephraim would have acted). In the same year, Krebs received the office of Chief Apostle, which he held until his death.

Hermann Niehaus

Krebs' successor was Hermann Niehaus in 1905 , a farmer from Westphalia, who was born in Steinhagen near Bielefeld in 1848. He was ordained an Evangelist in 1872 and an Apostle in 1896. When he took over the leadership of the church there were 488 congregations, shortly before his death in 1931 there were already 1800. He is referred to within the church as Father Niehaus . He changed from 1906/07 until then common names Apostolic congregation in the New Apostolic Church . He died in 1932 after falling down stairs. Two major divisions had developed during his tenure. In Australia, the Apostle Hermann Niemeyer resisted the Chief Apostle's claims to power and was expelled from him after a conference on his way back to Australia. He then founded the Apostolic Church of Queensland in 1911 . In Saxony and Thuringia there was a split under the apostle Carl August Brückner , who also opposed the chief apostle's claim to power and whose leadership - increasingly characterized by dreams and visions - sought to oppose a liberal and enlightened understanding of faith. The Reformed Apostolic Congregation Association came into being . It is interesting that the positions of Brückner, who was originally the favorite to succeed Chief Apostle, were shared by Apostle JG Bischoff at the time.

Johann Gottfried Bischoff

Niehaus's successor was precisely this Frankfurt apostle Johann Gottfried Bischoff . He is considered the most dazzling figure among the Chief Apostles. On the one hand, he tried to maintain good relations with the ruling regime during the National Socialist era . On the other hand, the so-called embassy falls during his term of office from 1950 . This was about the Chief Apostle declaring that Jesus Christ would appear and complete his work while he was still alive . He himself is the last Chief Apostle; no one comes after him. His successor in the Chief Apostle office, Peter Kuhlen , who was unanimously elected by the College of Apostles and appointed by Bischoff on August 1, 1948, declared his resignation on November 25, 1950. The dogmatization of this message began for the church after the Christmas service in 1951, when Bischoff officially announced it in Giessen. This and its connection with the acceptance into the church ( sealing ) led to several splits from the New Apostolic Church worldwide. Most of them joined together in 1956 to form the Association of Apostolic Congregations.

Walter Schmidt

When Bischoff died on June 6, 1960, he was succeeded on July 10, 1960 by the businessman and District Apostle of Westphalia Walter Schmidt (1891–1981). He was elected unanimously, and the apostles' assembly declared that Jesus did not appear, claiming that God had changed His will for inexplicable reasons. Despite the massive effects of the “message” on New Apostolic teaching, it and Bischoff's death led to a crisis, but not to the disintegration of the church. The seat of the church was moved from Frankfurt to Dortmund.

Ernst Fahrtisen

Walter Schmidt's successor on February 23, 1975 was the Swiss Ernst Fahrtisen (1905–1978), who moved the headquarters of the New Apostolic Church from Dortmund to Switzerland.

Hans Urwyler

When Chief Apostle Fahrtisen suddenly died in 1978 while on a trip to South Africa, the Apostles College elected the Swiss Hans Urwyler (1925–1994) as his successor on November 18, 1978 . He was born in Bern and was ordained bishop in 1969 and district apostle for Switzerland in 1976. He fell seriously ill in July 1987 and appointed his successor.

Richard Fehr

Richard Fehr took over the leadership of the New Apostolic Church on May 22, 1988 as the seventh Chief Apostle. During his tenure, the Church's membership grew to over 11 million worldwide. He introduced a cautious opening of the Church to the other apostolic communities . In 2001 he invited to a meeting in Zurich. He also set up various working groups to revise the teaching and give it a more biblical foundation. At Easter 2005 the new hymn book for the German-speaking area was also issued; it replaces the edition used since 1925, which was no longer up-to-date due to changes in teaching and language. Fehr held his office until May 16, 2005.

Wilhelm Leber

At Pentecost 2005, Richard Fehr handed over the office of Chief Apostle to Wilhelm Leber , the previous District Apostle for Northern Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia. Exactly three years after taking office, he introduced the “Our Father” prayer in the updated version of the Luther Bible from 1984 .

Jean-Luc Schneider

At Pentecost 2013, Wilhelm Leber handed over the office of Chief Apostle to Jean-Luc Schneider after eight years in office . Schneider has been supporting Leber in his work as Chief Apostle Helper since May 2012.

Chief Apostle at the Apostle ministry of Jesus Christ

The Apostle Ministry of Jesus Christ also held the Chief Apostle office from 1947 to 1981.

During a divine service on February 20, 1947, Apostle Albert Trubach was prophetically called to be "Chief Apostle Jesus Christ" with the mandate: "Refine and complete the work!" Two months before his death, Apostle Trubach resigned and called on July 5, 1980 the teacher Hans-Joachim Preuß (1920–1981) from Cottbus as his successor as Chief Apostle. After his death on August 6, 1981, the office of Chief Apostle was not renewed. The Community of Apostleship of Jesus Christ renounced the office of Chief Apostle and returned to the Catholic-Apostolic principle of the equality of all apostles.

See also

literature

  • Karl-Eugen Siegel: The Representative of the Lord, The Chief Apostle Office in the New Apostolic Church, with descriptions of life and source texts . Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-9804076-2-4 .
  • Helmut Obst: New Apostolic Church - The exclusive end-time church? Neukirchen-Vluyn 1996, ISBN 3-7615-4945-8 .
  • Helmut Obst: Apostles and prophets of modern times - founders of Christian religious communities in the 19th and 20th centuries . Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-525-55438-9 , pp. 55-230 .
  • Susanne Scheibler: Friedrich Krebs , Frankfurt a. M., 1993, without ISBN
  • Susanne Scheibler: Johann Gottfried Bischoff , Frankfurt a. M., 1997, without ISBN
  • Susanne Scheibler: Walter Schmidt , Frankfurt a. M., undated, undated ISBN
  • Susanne Scheibler: Hans Urwyler , Frankfurt a. M., undated, undated ISBN
  • Apostolic College of the New Apostolic Congregations (ed.): The largest among them, Brief biography of Hermann Niehaus , Frankfurt a. M., 1928, without ISBN
  • Gottfried Rockenfelder: History of the New Apostolic Church , Frankfurt a. M., 1960, pp. 98-143, or ISBN

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Text of a discussion event on the topic: New Apostolic Church. Manfred Gebhard, February 9, 1997, accessed November 24, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Der Herold , July 1897, pp. 3-4.
  3. ↑ Dominik Schmolz: Brief history of the New Apostolic Church . 1st edition. Edition Punctum Saliens, Heidelberg 2013, p. 45-48 .
  4. ↑ Kurt Hutten: Kurt Hutten, seer / brooder / enthusiast - The book of sects . Ed .: Quell-Verlag of the Protestant Society. 11th edition. Stuttgart 1968, p. 637 .
  5. ^ Obituary "His Last Word", 1905; Quoted in: Seher - Grübler - Enthusiasten: The book of traditional sects and religious special movements by Kurt Hutten, 1982
  6. ↑ Obst, H. (1996). New Apostolic Church: the exclusive end-time church? . Friedrich Bahn Verlag. Pp. 42-43.
  7. ↑ A corresponding photograph of the interior of a New Apostolic chapel in Riverleigh (Australia) was found in an issue of the monthly magazine "Wächterstimme" from 1929 (page 34).
  8. ↑ Kurt Hutten: seers, brooders, enthusiasts . Quell Verlag, Stuttgart 1950, p. 476-477 .
  9. ↑ Gottfried Rockenfelder in the Christmas service in Giessen 1951, quoted from: Karl-Eugen Siegel, The Message of JG Bischoff
  10. ↑ Official Gazette, June 15, 1952, quoted from: Detlef Streich, Constructive Features of the New Apostolic Church, Updated Version, Göppingen, May 2006, p. 19
  11. ^ The New Apostolic Church in the period from 1938-1955. Developments and Problems , AG History of the New Apostolic Church International, written on November 6, 2007
  12. ^ NAK International: New Apostolic Church International (NAKI) - Statutes. (PDF) In: nak.org. September 29, 2010, accessed on August 25, 2019 (Vow of Loyalty, Section 4.3).
  13. ↑ Georg Schmid: "The Chief Apostle reveals the will of the Son in word and deed.": Verbal bows to the Chief Apostle in the New Apostolic Church. In: relinfo.ch. Georg Schmid, 1997, accessed December 7, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Michael Koch: Old questions - new answers. In: Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauungsfragen (EZW). 2006, accessed November 24, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Questions and Answers about the New Apostolic Faith, Friedrich Bischoff-Verlag 1992, Question 177
  16. ↑ Richard Fehr: SCHLÜSSELVOLLMACH T. In: Leitgedanken zum Gottesdienst, special issue 3, year 75 March 2001, accessed on November 22, 2019 .
  17. ^ Olaf Stoffel: Accused: The New Apostolic Church . GTB, Gütersloh 1999, p. 109 .
  18. ↑ ideaSpektrum: “We can learn a lot from other churches” . (PDF) In: ethikinstitut.de. 2006, accessed August 29, 2019.
  19. ↑ Wilhelm Leber's curriculum vitae on nak.org (PDF; 76 kB), accessed on February 25, 2011
  20. ↑ Change from Pentecost: New Apostolic Christians pray “Our Father” again , accessed on February 25, 2011