Study center for gender issues in church and theology

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The Study Center for Gender Issues in Church and Theology is an institution of the Evangelical Church in Germany ( EKD ). It is located in the house of the Social Science Institute of the EKD in Hanover .

history

In 1989 the synod of the EKD set itself a 40 percent quota of women for governing bodies in order to break up the patriarchal structures in the church. With this, the synod also laid the foundation stone for a women's study and education center of the EKD (FSBZ), which was founded in 1994 in Gelnhausen , Hesse and belonged to the Comenius Institute . On January 1, 2013, the FSBZ became the Study Center for Gender Issues in Church and Theology , which is directly subordinate to the Church Office of the EKD . In 2014 the study center moved to Hanover and was officially opened on April 7th.

goals and tasks

The Study Center for Gender Issues in Church and Theology wants to contribute to the design of a church “in which the diversity of human talents comes into play at all levels, regardless of gender roles and gender identities”.

In the study center, gender research approaches from various specialist and research areas for the various fields of activity of the church are evaluated and processed by way of example. The integration of gender aspects into church activities should be supported in this way. The content is about feminist perspectives as well as racism discourses, ecumenical and interreligious dialogues, especially the Christian-Jewish dialogue, and queer theologies . The study directors are the Protestant pastor Simone Mantei and Claudia Janssen , professor for the New Testament at the University of Marburg .

Conferences, study days and summer academies are organized, which are aimed at full-time employees in adult educational institutions, equal opportunities departments, universities, ecumenical centers and religious education. A distance learning course in gender-conscious theology is being developed in cooperation with the Association of Evangelical Women in Germany and the Evangelical Office for Distance Learning for Church Services .

The EKD provides a budget of around 280,000 euros per year for the study center with two study directors and two half-posts in the secretariat and for communication.

Controversy

The center is criticized from the conservative side. Even the establishment of the previous institution in 1994 was accompanied by criticism from evangelical organizations. The Conference of Confessing Communities in the Evangelical Churches in Germany saw in the center a "biblical and confessional turning away from God's good creation order and the Christian image of man". The consequence, according to its chairman Ulrich Rüß , is a renunciation of marriage and family as a model of the Christian way of life. The “ ideology of genderism” denies that God created man or woman.

On the other hand, Irmgard Schwaetzer , the President of the EKD Synod , referred to the diverse successes of the women's study and education center in questions of gender equality. At the opening of the Study Center for Gender Issues , she said that “the balanced representation of the sexes in leadership positions in church and diakonia” remains an unfulfilled goal. In order to be attractive for women and men with modern life plans, the structures of the management positions would also have to be changed.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A vision has found its place - the EKD Women's Study and Education Center (FSBZ). In: Gisela Matthiae among others: Feminist Theology. Initiatives, churches, universities - a success story. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2008, ISBN 978-3-579-08032-1 , pp. 129ff.
  2. ↑ "Gender is a term that can open spaces." Feminist theologian about the study center for gender issues in church and theology. Deutschlandradio Kultur , April 13, 2013.
  3. ↑ The Church asks the Gender Question , Series: Babylon - Religion and Society , info Radion des RBB, April 13, 2014 ( Memento of the original from April 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.inforadio.de
  4. ↑ EKD opens study center for gender issues in Hanover , Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover , April 7, 2014
  5. ^ Evangelical Church opens study center for "gender issues" in Hanover. ( Memento of the original from April 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: epd. April 8, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.epd.de
  6. ↑ Vision of a gender-just church. EKD Council Chairman and Synod President open study center ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Website of the Evangelical Church in Germany , April 7, 2014 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ekd.de
  7. ^ A b Claudia Janssen: Press statement on the opening of the EKD Study Center for Gender Issues in Church and Theology in Hanover. , EKD homepage, April 2014.
  8. ↑ On intersexuality and queer theology , Christian media magazine pro , April 8, 2014
  9. ↑ Pfrin. Simone Mantei, Evangelical Theological Faculty of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz ( Memento of the original from April 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ev.theologie.uni-mainz.de
  10. ↑ Evangelical Church opens study center for "gender issues". on: Deutschlandradio Kultur . April 7, 2014, accessed April 8, 2014.
  11. ↑ a b c d EKD builds new study center , in: taz . April 8, 2014, accessed April 9, 2014.
  12. ↑ Areas of responsibility of the study center ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Homepage of the study center @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / fsbz.de
  13. ↑ EKD opens study center for gender issues , Evangelical news agency Idea , April 7, 2014
  14. ↑ Klaus Kelle : Why this Kokolores of the Evangelical Church does not need a believer , Focus , April 10, 2014