Volker Jung (theologian)

Church President Volker Jung (2018) Photo: Norbert Neetz for EKHN

Volker Jung (2013), photo: Rolf Oeser

Volker Jung at the first service at the State Garden Show Bad Nauheim 2010

Volker Jung (born January 22, 1960 in Schlitz in Hessen ) is a German Protestant theologian and since January 1, 2009 Church President of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN) based in Darmstadt .

Life

education

Jung spent his school days in Schlitz and Lauterbach and then began studying theology at Bethel , later at the universities of Heidelberg and Göttingen . In 1985 he passed the first theological exam and then became a research assistant at the University of Göttingen, in order to then undertake research at the Institutum Lutheranum in Göttingen from 1987 to 1990.

In 1991 the teaching vicariate followed, which ended with the 2nd theological exam in 1993. Jung became parish vicar in the parish of Stumpertenrod in the Vogelsbergkreis and commissioner for adult education in the Alsfeld dean's office .

Parish office and deanery

In 1997 Jung became pastor in Lauterbach. In 1998 he received his doctorate with a thesis on scripture interpretation and understanding with Abraham Calov . In his doctoral year he also became dean of the Lauterbach dean's office. After the merger of the deaneries Lauterbach and Herbstein in 2000, he also became dean of the newly created deanery Vogelsberg. He also remained pastor in Lauterbach. At the church-wide level, he was a member of the board of the Conference of Deans and was a member of the Hesse-Nassau Church Synod from 2004 to 2008.

Church President of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN)

On September 27, 2008, the EKHN Synod elected Volker Jung as Church President. In 2009 he succeeded Peter Steinacker , who retired on December 31, 2008. In a solemn service on February 15, 2009 in the City Church of Our Lady in Friedberg , Volker Jung was introduced to his office as Church President, and Peter Steinacker was bid farewell at the same time. On November 25, 2015, he was confirmed in office for a further eight years at the Synod of the EKHN, which met in Frankfurt am Main.

Tasks in the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD)

In November 2015, Jung was elected to the EKD Council.

Before that, Jung was also chairman of the Chamber for Migration and Integration of the EKD from 2011 to 2015 and in this function was a member of the integration advisory board of the federal government until 2014. In his role as chairman of the Chamber for Migration and Integration, he accompanied the refugee policy of the Federal Government and the EU critically in public statements, including in disputes on the subject of flight and church asylum or questions of refugee aid.

In December 2015, Jung was elected chairman of the supervisory board of the joint venture for Protestant journalism (GEP) in Frankfurt. Jung is thus at the head of the group's supervisory body, which includes the evangelical press agency epd, the monthly magazine “chrismon”, but also the evangelical journalism school in Berlin and the production company “Matthias-Film”. The Hesse-Nassau church president is colloquially known as the "media bishop" of the EKD.

Jung has also been the EKD's sports officer since June 2016. In this function, he is responsible in particular for contact with the sports associations, but also takes a public position on behalf of the Protestant Church on sports-political issues such as doping. The sports commissioner is also chairman of the EKD working group on church and sport.

Volker Jung has been a member of the Presidium of the Union of Evangelical Churches (UEK) since 2013. In 2015 he was also elected to the three-person board of the full conference of the Union of Evangelical Churches (UEK).

Jung is also one of the chairmen of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Church Membership Investigation of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and he is a member of the steering committee “Reformation Anniversary 2017”.

From 2009 to 2013 he also worked on the ad hoc commission that wrote the text “Between Autonomy and Dependency. Strengthen families as a reliable community. An orientation guide for the Council of the EKD ”.

Further commitment

In 2014, Jung was one of the co-founders of the “Foundation against Racism” with the former DFB President Theo Zwanziger. Before that, he was already a founding member of the “Show your face against violence” initiative in Vogelsberg as dean.

The church president is also the author of numerous announcements on the Hessischer Rundfunk (HR).

Honors

Jung has repeatedly clearly positioned himself in public for the rights of homosexual and same-sex partnerships, especially from 2013 onwards. For this commitment he received the “Kompassnadel” award from the gay and lesbian network North Rhine-Westphalia in 2014 and the honorary award from the Federal Association of Lesbians and Gays in the Union (LSU) in 2015.

In 2016 he received an honorary doctorate from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz .

Personal

Volker Jung is married and has two grown daughters.

Publications

• The whole of the Scriptures. Hermeneutics and scriptural interpretation with Abraham Calov (additional dissertation, University of Göttingen 1997/98), Calwer Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 978-3-7668-3633-5 .
• Stay digitally human , Claudius Verlag, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-53262826-3 .

Web links

Commons : Volker Jung  - Collection of Images

• Homepage of the church president on ekhn.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.ekhn.de/ueber-uns/aufbau-der-landeskirche/leitung-der-kirche/kirchenpraesident/biografie.html
2. ↑ http://www.ekhn.de/aktuell/detailmagazin/news/kirchenpraesident-jung-im-amt-bestaetigt-3.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated December 1, 2018 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. 
4. ↑ http://www.ekhn.de/ueber-uns/aufbau-der-landeskirche/leitung-der-kirche/kirchenpraesident/biografie.html
5. ↑ bundesregierung.de ( Memento of the original from May 14, 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. 
6. ↑ http://www.ekhn.de/aktuell/detailmagazin/news/ministeraeusserung-zu-kirchenasyl-voellig-unangemessen.html
7. ↑ http://www.ekhn.de/service/angebote/diakonie-und-unterstuetzung/hilfe-fuer-fluechtlinge/detail-fluechtlinge/news/kirche-und-diakonie-appellieren-an-gemeinden-und-einrichtungen.html
8. ↑ http://www.ekhn.de/aktuell/detailmagazin/news/kirchenpraesident-wird-medienbischof.html
9. ↑ https://www.ekd.de/pm88_2016_06_25_rat_beruft_weiter_beauftragte.htm
10. ↑ https://www.evangelisch.de/inhalte/137000/03-08-2016/volker-jung-sportbeauftragter-der-ekd-zu-den-olympischen-spiele-rio
11. ↑ https://www.kirche-und-sport.de/sportbeauftragter.html
12. ↑ http://www.ekhn.de/ueber-uns/presse/mitteilungen/detailpresse13/news/volker-jung-in-praesidium-der-uek-gewaehlt.html
13. ↑ http://www.ekhn.de/aktuell/detailmagazin/news/jung-in-praesidium-der-uek-bestaetigt.html
14. ↑ https://www.ekd.de/download/ekd_v_kmu2014.pdf
15. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 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. 
16. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 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. 
17. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2015 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. 
18. ↑ https://www.vogelsbergkreis.de/Ansicht.1066.0.html?&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=3430&cHash=467c2993a8fee169766b37184cf77d81
19. ↑ http://www.rundfunk-evangelisch.de/jung
20. ↑ http://schwules-netzwerk.de/die-kompassnadel-2014- geht-an-dr-volker-jung-und-an-wulf-thomas /
21. ↑ https://www.evangelisch.de/inhalte/124725/11-09-2015/lesben-und-schwule-der-cducsu-zeichen-kirchenpraesident-jung-aus