The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover (German: Evangelisch-lutherische Landeskirche Hannovers) is a Lutheran church body (Landeskirche) in the German state of Lower Saxony and the city of Bremerhaven covering the territory of the former Kingdom of Hanover. It's the most important Protestant denomination in this area. The seat of the Landesbischof (bishop) is the Lower Saxon state capital Hanover. The Marktkirche is the church of the bishop.
It is a full member of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), and is based on the teachings brought forward by Martin Luther during the Reformation.
After Margot Käßmann' resignation as Landesbischöfin in February 2010, Hans-Hermann Jantzen served as Bischofsvikar (acting bishop) until Ralf Meister's investiture as her successor on 26 March 2011.[1]
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover is a member church of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD), the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe, and of the Lutheran World Federation.
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The Lutheran church was the state church (German: Landeskirche) of the Kingdom of Hanover with the king being summus episcopus (Supreme Governor of the Lutheran Church). In 1848 the Lutheran parishes were democratised by the introduction of presbyteries (German: Kirchenvorstand/Kirchenvorstände, sg./pl.; lit. in English: church board), elected by all major male parishioners and chairing each congregation in co-operation with the pastor, being before the sole chairman. This introduction of presbyteries was somewhat revolutionary in the rather hierarchically structured Lutheran church. In 1864 Carl Lichtenberg (German), Hanoveran minister of education, cultural and religious affairs (1862–1865), persuaded the Ständeversammlung (the Hanoveran parliament) to pass a new law as to the constitution of the Lutheran church. The constitution provided a state synod (parishioners' parliament, German: Landessynode). But its first session only materialised in 1869, when after the Prussian annexation of the Kingdom of Hanover (1866) the Hanoveran Lutherans desired a representative body separate from Prussian rule, though it was restricted to Lutheran matters only.
After the Prussian conquest in 1866, on 19 September 1866, the day before the official Prussian annexation took place and with the last king, George V of Hanover, in exile, the Kingdom's six consistories joined to form today's still existing church body. An all-Hanoveran consistory, the Landeskonsistorium (state consistory), was formed with representatives from the regional consistories. The regional consistories were in Aurich, a simultaneously Lutheran and Calvinist consistory dominated by Lutherans (for East Frisia) and the Lutheran consistories in Hanover (for the former Electorate of Brunswick and Lunenburg proper), in Ilfeld (for the County of Hohenstein, a Hanoveran exclave in the Eastern Harz mountains), in Osnabrück (for the former Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück), in Otterndorf (existed 1535-1885 for the Land of Hadeln) as well as in Stade (existed 1650-1903, until 1885 for the former Bremen-Verden proper without Hadeln, then including the complete Stade Region).
Until 1903 all regional consistories, except of the one in Aurich were dissolved, their functions taken over by the state consistory.[2] The Lutheran state church became a stronghold of Hanoveran separatism and therefore somewhat politicised. It opposed the Prussian Union, comprising the Protestant parishes in the Prussian territory prior the 1866 annexations, not only for its being a stronghold of Prussian patriotism, but for being a united church of Lutheran and Calvinist congregations, with a preponderance of Calvinism because the Calvinist Hohenzollern dynasty wielded its influence in the unification of Lutherans and Calvinists in then Prussia in 1817. The Hanoveran Lutherans managed to maintain their independence, with the Prussian government refraining from imposing the Prussian Union onto them. The reconciliation of the Lutheran majority of the citizens in annexed Hanover with their new Prussian citizenship was not to be further complicated by religious quarrels.
The Weimar Constitution of 1919 provided for the separation of state and religion. After the system of state churches had disappeared with the monarchies in the German states, the question arose, why the Protestant church bodies within Germany did not merge. Besides the smaller Protestant denominations of the Mennonites, Baptists or Methodists, which were organised crossing state borders along denominational lines, there were 29 (later 28) church bodies organised along territorial borders of German states or Prussian provinces.[3] All those, covering the territory of former monarchies with a ruling Protestant dynasty, had been state churches until 1918 - except of the Protestant church bodies in territories, like that of Hanover, annexed by Prussia in 1866. Others had been no less territorially defined Protestant minority church bodies within states of Catholic monarchs, where - before 1918 - the Roman Catholic Church played the role of state church.
In fact, a merger was permanently under discussion, but never materialised due to strong regional self-confidence and traditions as well as the denominational fragmentation into Lutheran, Calvinist and United and uniting churches. Following the Swiss example (German) of 1920, the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover and 28 other territorially defined German Protestant church bodies founded the German Evangelical Church Federation (German: Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchenbund) in 1922, which was no new merged church, but a loose federation of the existing independent church bodies.
At the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover is the Bishop who is elected by the Synod. After the age of 65 Year of life the Bishop usually occurs in retirement. Country's bishops and Landesbischöfinnen:
The bishop has his or her country's headquarters in Hanover. Supreme authority within the Church is the official state church, which a President (since May 1, 2008: Burkhard Guntau) presides. The Bishop is chairman of the College in the national church office (or less the "government" of the Church), which includes in addition to the Bishop, the president of the National Church Office, the Spirtuell Vice President (since 2006: Arend de Vries), the Legal Vice President and the theological and legal Higher Regional councils of churches (German: Oberlandeskirchenräte).
The Evangelical-Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony (ELM), which was founded in 1977 as a common organisation for the Evangelical-Lutheran State Churches of Hanover, Brunswick and Schaumburg-Lippe, looks after relationships with the overseas partner churches of the Hanoverian State Church. Its history dates back to 1849 when Pastor Ludwig Harms began training the first missionaries. The headquarters of the ELM is in Hermannsburg in the Südheide. Since 2003 Pastor Martina Helmer-Pham Xuan has been the director of the mission.
The Diaconate of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover is one of the largest charities in Lower Saxony, in the Diaconal summarized institutions of the country church together.
The house of Church Offices[4] (since 2002) (German: Haus kirchlicher Dienste), established (was the forerunner of 1933 to 1935 the people of Missionary Board) in September 1937 as an office for community service (German: Amt für Gemeindedienst), the service and competence center of the Church of Hanover, where many works, facilities and agencies for areas of work are in the Church of Hanover will be combined and managed centrally.The house has six departments of church services, which are summarized in over 40 fields of activity. The different Fields are three areas (community support services, supplementary services and community church in the dialogue) assigned.The House of Church Offices include the countrypastors (German: Landespastoren) (e.g.: National Social pastor, youth pastor in the country) of the Church of Hanover.The House of church Offices has 200 Employees (2002: 270). The faculties with their fields of work in detail are:
1. The Department includes the areas of library work, the deacons, volunteers, Ephoralsekretäre, community consultation and organizational development, community leadership, sexton, media relations and parish office secretaries.
2. The Department oversees the Bursfelde Abbey, faith and Bible classes, home groups, church tourism, Church On The Move, spa and leisure ministry, missionary service, the Missionary Centre Hanstedt I, Open Churches and pilgrimage and meditation paths.
3.The Department comprises the three old work, visit the church services, women's work (working with women), men's work, the sport and the World Day of Prayer.
The Division 4 is the national evangelical youth ministry.
Division 5 includes the areas of ecumenism, European church issues related to Islam and Judaism, immigrants, the topic resettlers and Eastern Churches, along with the Association Help for Chernobyl Children, philosophical issues, arts and culture, the Decade to Overcome Violence development-related education, peace building and support of community service and volunteer services.
The faculty includes six areas of labor, economic and social affairs (KDA the Church of Hanover), handicrafts, rural areas and agriculture (Ecclesiastical service in the country of the Church of Hanover) and ecology and environmental management.
Other facilities in the house church services outside of the departments of the club 'Protestant Family Education Centre Hanover, the church service in police and customs, which is conducted together with other evangelical churches in Lower Saxony, the Protestant Adult Education Niedersachsen (EEB Confederate include ev . churches in Lower Saxony), the Protestant village nurses work and the encounter of Christians and Jews.
From 1979 to 2002, the then director of the Office of Community Service (since 2002: House of church Offices ) the Commissioner for the Environment (German: Umweltbeauftragter) of the Confederation of Protestant Churches in Lower Saxony ( German: Konföderation evangelischer Kirchen in Niedersachsen).
The Church maintains in Loccum a Protestant academy and a theological seminary, which is located in the monastery Loccum. Other facilities are the Religion Pedagogical Institute and the Center for Health Ethics. Church belongs to the Hanns-Lilje Foundation.
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