Margot Käßmann

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Margot Käßmann (June 3, 1958 in Marburg) is the current bishop of the Evangelical Church of Hanover.

This article is a rough translation of an article in German (Deutsch). It may have been generated by a computer or by a translator with limited proficiency in English or German (Deutsch). Feel free to enhance the translation. For reference, the original article may appear under "German (Deutsch)" in the "languages" list.

Contents 1 Personal record 2 Family 3 Honours 4 Profile of the Evangelical church

[edit] Personal record

After the Abitur 1977 at the Elizabeth school in Marburg Ms Käßmann studied Evangelical theology in Tübingen, Edinburgh, Göttingen and Marburg. During the study she participated among other things 1978 in archaeological excavations of several weeks in Akko, Israel. In 1983 she became vicar in Wolfhagen, near Kassel.

As a youth delegate she participated in the 1983 plenary assembly of the Oekumeni advice of the churches (OERK) in Vancouver, where she was elected into the central committee as the youngest member. From 1991 to 1998 she was member of the executive committee of the OERK. She was ordained as a priest in 1985.

Together with her husband, she was a village priest from 1985 to 1990 in Frielendorf-Spieskappel with the monastery Spieskappel in the Schwalm-Eder district. In 1989 she earned her Ph.D. with Konrad Raiser at the Ruhr University Bochum on the topic "poverty and wealth as inquiry to the unit of the church". Subsequently, in 1990, she was assigned to the Evangelical Church's volunteer service, and from 1992 to 1994, she was study chief at the Evangelical Academy at Hofgeismar. During the years from 1994 to 1999, she was Secretary General of the German Evangelical Church conference. In 1999, she was elected as bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran regional Church of Hanover; she holds this office.

In 2002 she resigned from the OERK because the OERK had abandoned ecumenical church services.

Margot Käßmann was involved as an ambassador for the 2006 Football World Cup of people with mental handicaps in Germany.

[edit] Family

Margot Käßmann has four daughters. She was the a first person in an Evangelical bishop office in Germany to file a petition for divorce, in 2007. On 6 August 2007, it was communicated to the church senate of the regional church that the bishop's divorce was legally valid. The entire church senate as well as the church line of the Hanover regional church support Käßmann and endorse their whereabouts in the bishop office. Some Evangelical and conservative organizations expressed criticism about Käßmann's divorce and questioned the continuation of her office. However, some conservative repesentatives support her.

[edit] Honours

In 2001, Margot Käßmann received the lecture prize for exemplary achievements in the area of the Evangelical propagation.

[edit] Profile of the Evangelical church

Käßmann promotes larger emphasis on Christianity in the evangelical church, as compared to past decades. In her opinion, confirmee lessons had talked more about sects and drugs than about the bible. She pleaded for a clearer spiritual profile in church-run facilities; e. g., not only merry autumn songs should be sung in evangelical kindergartens, but also biblical stories should be told. Children and adults should pray more, and churches should look like churches and not like noncommittal community centers.