Association of Protestant Free Churches and Congregations in Switzerland

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Association of Protestant Free Churches and Congregations in Switzerland
logo
founding 1919
Seat Aarau , Switzerland
main emphasis National Association of Protestant Free Churches in German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino
Action space Switzerland
Chair Peter Schneeberger
Members 16 free church movements with around 750 local churches with around 70,000 people and diaconal works, 12 organizations with guest status
Website freikirchen.ch

The Association of Evangelical Free Churches and Congregations in Switzerland is an umbrella organization of free churches , especially in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Today it appears under the name “ VFG - Free Churches Switzerland ”.

history

On November 18, 1919, the "Association of Independent Protestant Corporations (Churches, Communities, Societies and Associations) of Switzerland" was founded.

In the wake of the great flu epidemic after the First World War , the authorities have in some cases imposed assembly bans. The regional churches and restaurants were not affected, but the free churches were. The Swiss Evangelical Alliance as an association of individuals was not accepted by the authorities as a point of contact. As a result, at the request of the Zurich Alliance Committee, the Free Churches Association was founded on the premises of the Aarau minority community in order to counter this discrimination.

Until 1995 the association was called the "Association of Protestant Free Churches and Communities". Small individual congregations such as the Free Church in Uster and the minority congregation in Aarau , which had split off from the Evangelical Reformed congregation there, also belonged to it. Today, however, the condition for membership is that a free church or free church community has at least ten full-time employees or 2,000 members.

Self-image

The association sees itself as a “third force” between the two big churches. For the member churches and congregations, unifying factors are "the confession of Jesus Christ as Lord on the basis of the Bible , the mandate to preach the Gospel and the building of local churches." The common theological basis is the Apostles' Creed and the Lausanne Commitment . The free churches and the association have done a lot in recent years to shed the sect image. For example, they have better informed the media, increasingly participated in consultations, cultivated more relationships with other churches and institutions, became more involved in social processes and created a complaints office by creating a clearing office, thereby increasing transparency.

Organizational structure and statistics

The general assembly of the association is identical to the conference of the leaders of the associated free churches. The board of directors is elected for three years by the leaders' conference (LKF) and consists of the president, the vice-president, the secretary and the treasurer.

The current president is Max Schläpfer from the Swiss Pentecostal Mission .

The general assembly and the board of directors are supported by several committees, including a standing committee on media. When it comes to radio and television, they work with the Swiss Evangelical Alliance (SEA). The forum for encounters, on the other hand, serves for discussion and consensus building on burning theological and social issues. In addition to the Evangelical Alliance, the association maintains ecumenical relationships with the Fédération Romande des Eglises et Oeuvres Evangéliques (FREOE) and the Evangelical Reformed Church in Switzerland (EKS), participates in the so-called Olten Talks on transdenominational works and has had a guest status with the Christian Working Group since 2017 Churches in Switzerland .

The association comprises 16 free church bodies with around 750 local free churches with around 70,000 members and 80,000 sympathizers. A number of diaconal works, evangelistic organizations and theological seminars - mainly from German-speaking Switzerland - are affiliated with the guest status. Since September 2019, the Seventh-day Adventist Free Church has had the non-binding observer status, which serves for dialogue and mutual getting to know each other with not yet affiliated free churches.

Member churches

The following community associations are part of the VFG - Free Churches Switzerland Association:

Share in the population

On the occasion of the Swiss census in 2000, residents were also asked about their religion. Of the total population of 7,288,010, 161,075 people were counted as members of the Evangelical Free Churches and other Protestant communities. That results in a population share of 2.2 percent, the same as in 1990. Among Swiss citizens, the share of free churches has grown from 2.3 to 2.5 percent; for people without Swiss citizenship, the share is from 1.8 to 1 .3 percent down.

40 percent of the members of the official statistics category Evangelical Free Churches and other Protestant communities belong to the VFG through their community association. The proportion is relatively low, as the official category also includes communities such as the New Apostolic Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists and Mormons with a total of around 54,000 people who do not come from the Protestant tradition.

VFG denominations Associated VZ 2000
throughout Switzerland
Free Evangelical Churches 14'045
Swiss Pentecost Mission 9,741
Chrischona 9,039
Methodist Church 8'411
Free Mission Churches 3,876
Salvation Army 3,793
Free churches of Baptist origin 3,764
Evangelical Anabaptist Congregations 3,019
MovementPlus 2,850
Mennonites 2,725
Free Christian Churches 2,204
Evangelical community work 1,055

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rolf Höneisen: We learned from each other . ideaSpektrum , Liestal January 18, 2017, pages 8–11
  2. ↑ Stefan Schweyer : Many free churches are emerging from their niche existence , ideaSpektrum, Liestal June 27, 2018, p. 21
  3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 8, 2013 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. (accessed on: November 19, 2012). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.freikirchen.ch
  4. ↑ a b VFG self- image ( memento of the original from March 8, 2012 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. on the VFG website @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.freikirchen.ch
  5. ↑ Stefan Schweyer: Many free churches are emerging from their niche existence , ideaSpektrum, Liestal June 27, 2018, p. 20
  6. ↑ Stefan Schweyer: Many free churches are emerging from their niche existence , ideaSpektrum, Liestal June 27, 2018, p. 20
  7. ↑ The origin of the VFG ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2013 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. on freikirchen.ch (accessed February 14, 2012) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.freikirchen.ch
  8. ↑ Guests on the freikirchen.ch website
  9. ↑ Rolf Höneisen: We learned from each other . ideaSpektrum, Liestal January 18, 2017, pages 8–11
  10. ↑ Observer on the freikirchen.ch website
  11. ^ Fritz Imhof: Creative Commitment for Religious Freedom , ideaSpektrum, Liestal September 20, 2017, p. 7
  12. ↑ Werner Haug: The religious communities of Switzerland as reflected in the censuses. In: René Pahud de Mortanges / Erwin Tanner (ed.): Cooperation between the state and religious communities according to Swiss law. Schulthess, Zurich / Basel / Geneva 2005, ISBN 3-7255-4958-3 , p. 28.
  13. ↑ Werner Haug: The religious communities of Switzerland as reflected in the censuses . In: René Pahud de Mortanges / Erwin Tanner (ed.): Cooperation between the state and religious communities according to Swiss law. Schulthess, Zurich / Basel / Geneva 2005, ISBN 3-7255-4958-3 , p. 32.