Protestant Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine
Église protestante réformée d'Alsace et de Lorraine Protestant Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine | |
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Classification | |
Headquarters | Strasbourg, Alsace |
Origin | 1895 in Strasbourg |
Branched from | pre-1905 Reformed Church of France |
Congregations | 52 |
Members | 33,000 |
Part of a series on |
Alsace |
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Part of a series on |
Lorraine |
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The Protestant Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine (
Creeds and memberships
The EPRAL adheres to the
In 2006, the EPRAL formed with the
History
The first Calvinist congregation in the area was founded by
After the conclusion of the
The representatives of the Calvinist church accepted the governmentally imposed structure, since it did not put the Calvinist church in a worse position than the other creeds.[4] However, Napoleon's model of hierarchical parastatal governance was a harsh breach with many crucial Reformed presbyterial and synodal traditions.[4] Pastors were not employed and paid by the church people, constituted in the congregations, but were chosen and paid by the government and subordinate to the government-appointed members of the consistories.[4]
Napoleon's law did not provide for a general synod, the only body relevant in taking decisions in matters of doctrine and teaching for all the church, and while the law de jure provided for regional synods combining representatives of at least five consistorial ambits the government de facto never allowed their convocation.[5] Lacking a general synod, last convened in 1659, and with no provincial synods convoked, the Calvinist congregations formed the only decision-taking body, though restricted to local church matters, legitimised by the Calvinist doctrine.[4] Until 1852 the law did not even recognise Calvinist congregations but considered them as legally indistinct local outposts of the parastatal consistories.
On 26 March 1852 Napoleon III signed a decree, influenced by Charles Read, which still did not provide for a general synod, but at least made the Reformed congregations distinct legal entities, whose governing bodies (called presbyteries) - according to then Reformed doctrine - were elected by the male adult members.[6] The new Central Council established in 1852, the supreme executive body of the Reformed Church of France, was staffed with incumbents appointed by the government, a practice clearly contradicting the presbyterial and synodal doctrine of Calvinism.[7]
In the course of the 19th century, Calvinists in France clung to different theological movements, such as traditionalist Calvinism, rationalist theology, Christian revival and liberal Christianity. So, the pre-1905 Reformed Church of France entered into heavy controversies on doctrinal and teaching matters which could not be resolved due to the lacking general synod. Many Calvinists were adherents of the Christian revival movement (in France, they were then called évangéliques), colliding with proponents of religious liberalism.[6] The congregations still could not employ the pastors, since the advowson was with the parastatal consistories. When the consistories appointed pastors of a particular theological leaning to a congregation whose members and elected bodies clung to another opinion, it often created hefty quarrels.[6]
Two pastoral conferences were convened each by proponents of one of the two main currents in French Calvinism; the liberals met in Nîmes and the revivalists in Paris.[6] They had no mandate for binding decisions, since elected laymen were not represented.[6] Revivalists demanded a general synod, in order to conclude a binding confession of faith, while moderate liberals agreed but radical liberals denied that a general synod decision would at all be binding in matters of teaching and doctrine.[6] Only in June and July 1872 the French government finally allowed the gathering of a general synod.[6]
However, the Calvinist congregations in Alsace and the
Whereas the Alsatian Reformed consistories comprised all the Calvinist congregations in Alsace, the Calvinist congregations in the new German Lorraine department used to be part of the Nancy consistorial ambit since 1850, so that a Reformed consistory of Metz was refounded in 1871, however, competent only for the Calvinists in German Lorraine.[10] Already in 1822 the French government had established a Reformed consistory in Metz, which, however, had been moved to Nancy in 1850.[10] The then five Reformed consistorial ambits in Alsace-Lorraine existed side by side without any umbrella organisation.
In this, their situation was similar to that of the three
In 1885, the state administration proposed that the Calvinist consistory of Metz apply to merge into EPCAAL.[14] The Metz consistory, the other four Calvinist consistories and EPCAAL opposed that proposal.[15] So the Alsatian Reformed consistories felt the need to establish a statewide Calvinist church and started a new initiative to that end.[16] By mid-1892 the four Alsatian consistorial delegates formed a committee in order to prepare a constitutive synod, while Metz refused to participate.[5] In October the committee sent its proposal to the state administration and asked it to convene that synod.[5] Although the state administration rejected a constitutive synod in February 1892, as being not provided by French law, this time it offered the Reformed committee an alternative, by convoking a regional synod as provided by the French organic articles if five consistories apply.[17]
Now, the Alsatian Calvinists took the administration up on its proposal postponing any decisions of the Calvinist consistories as to new examination rules for Strasbourg University graduates of Protestant theology, arguing these can only effectively be taken, once a Calvinist church body be established.[18] Now the consistory of Metz threw a spanner into the preparatory works by demanding its merger into the EPCAAL. However, the Department of Justice and Religious Affairs of the state administration now "determined that the law required only that there be five consistories available for the synod, not that all five consent to form the body."[19] This was because by French law the government convened regional synods for the ambits of at least five consistories, whereas the concerned consistories had no say in this matter.
French law contradicted itself in how to choose delegates for a Calvinist regional synod, either the consistories would send delegates (Organic articles), or the parishes would elect representatives (1852 decree). So only on 16 and 17 April 1895, representatives of the four Alsatian Reformed consistorial ambits, with Metz boycotting, formed their synod, thus formally constituting today's Protestant Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine (EPRAL).[20] Since then the synodals elect the Synodal Council (Conseil Synodal, Synodalvorstand), as central governing body of the church representing the synod when not convened.
In 1901, the Lutheran Supreme Consistory of the EPCAAL had definitely rejected the Metz consistory to be accepted into the EPCAAL as a united Protestant consistorial ambit and the Lorrain department president Hans von Hammerstein-Loxten, favouring the union of Calvinists and Lutherans, terminated his presidency term.[21] In November 1902 the Calvinist Consistory of Metz gave itself up to fate and agreed to be part of the EPRAL and started participating in the statewide Calvinist bodies established seven years earlier.[22] So Metz set some conditions, which the Reformed synodals willingly fulfilled in 1903. The special united Protestant character of several congregations in the Metz consistorial ambit was to be maintained and congregations were to be entitled to officially use, if they wished so, the brand Protestant (evangelisch) instead of Reformed as part of the parish name.[22]
After 1871, many people from interior Germany settled in Alsace-Lorraine, among them rather few Calvinists, because Calvinism is a minority faith among the German Protestants, who then still formed a majority in the German overall population.
In all the then-three
However, the Lutheran Supreme Consistory in Strasbourg asserted its continued existence as recognised public-law religious body in 1872, although reconfined to Alsace-Lorraine only, so that thereafter any merger with the – by membership – smaller Calvinist consistories turned unlikely and did not materialise in the end. Nevertheless, the recognition of an all Alsatian-Lorrain Reformed church umbrella was protracted by the authorities. Only on 21 June 1905 did the Alsatian-Lorrain state committee (Landesausschuss, between 1874 and 1911 the indirectly elected parliament), passing the first law altering the French legal situation as to religious bodies, recognised the Synodal Council as governing body of the Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine.
Whereas in metropolitan France, the
Organisation
The EPRAL has a presbyterial-synodal system of church government.[28] The legislative body of EPRAL is the synod with 33 synodals. They elect and control the Synodal Council (Conseil synodal) and its president for three year terms.[25] Since 1 September 2012 Pastor Christian Krieger serves as president of the Synodal Council. The EPRAL has its headquarters (Synodal Council) in Strasbourg.
EPRAL has a mobile form of pastoral ministry. The congregations (paroisses, i.e. parishes) are grouped in four (till 2009 five) consistorial ambits: The consistories are based in Bischwiller, Metz, Mulhouse und Strasbourg. The former consistorial ambit of Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines was merged into that of Strasbourg due to decreasing numbers of parishioners in 2009. By the French Organic Articles each time several congregations form a consistory (consistoire), with the term used for the board and its district alike.[29] As religious statutory law corporations (établissements publics des cultes) the consistories have legal entity status, holding property of their own and receiving contributions from member parishes.[29]
Each consistory comprises all the pastors active in its district and the double number of laypersons, elected for three year terms by the local church
Presidents
A selection of presidents of the Synodal Council (French: Président du Conseil Synodal):
- 1895–1898: Karl Buhl (1821–1898),[30] titled Präsident des Synodalvorstands
- 1898–1913: Charles Piepenbring (1840–1928),[30] titled Präsident des Synodalvorstands
- 1913–1935: Albert Kuntz,[30] till 1919 titled Präsident des Synodalvorstands
- 1935–1955: Charles Bartholmé (1881–1962)
- 1955–1970: Philippe Edouard Wagner
- 1970–1982: Christian Schmidt
- 1982–1988: Thérèse Klipffel
- 1988–2000: Antoine Pfeiffer
- 2000–2006: Jean-Paul Humbert
- 2006–2012: Geoffroy Goetz
- 2012–present: Christian Krieger
References
- ^ a b "Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine — World Council of Churches". Archived from the original on June 24, 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
- ^ Colette Schrodi. "Histoire du protestantisme - Générale - qui sommes nous ?". Uepal.fr. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
- ^ "Member churches | Bringing together 80 million Reformed Christians worldwide". Archived from the original on August 8, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e N. N., "The French Concordat", on: Musée virtuel du Protestantisme français (Virtual museum of the French Protestantism), retrieved on 29 April 2013.
- ^ ISBN 9789004164055.
- ^ a b c d e f g N. N., "Times of disagreement", on: Musée virtuel du Protestantisme français (Virtual museum of the French Protestantism), retrieved on 29 April 2013.
- ^ a b N. N., "Alsace from 1871 to 1918", on: Musée virtuel du Protestantisme français (Virtual museum of the French Protestantism), retrieved on 29 April 2013.
- ^ ISBN 9789004164055.
- ^ N. N., "Athanase Coquerel (1795-1868)", on: Musée virtuel du Protestantisme français (Virtual museum of the French Protestantism), retrieved on 29 April 2013.
- ^ a b Jean Colnat, 43 J Archives du Temple neuf(retrieved on 28 February 2013), Saint-Julien-lès-Metz: Service départemental d'Archives de la Moselle, 2002.
- ISBN 9789004164055.
- ISBN 9789004164055.
- ISBN 9789004164055.
- ^ ISBN 9789004164055.
- ISBN 9789004164055.
- ISBN 9789004164055.
- ISBN 9789004164055.
- ISBN 9789004164055.
- ISBN 9789004164055.
- ISBN 9789004164055.
- ISBN 9789004164055.
- ^ ISBN 9789004164055.
- ISBN 9789004164055.
- Lutheran state churchwith considerable membership each existed side by side.
- ^ a b Vgl. „Strasbourg, paroisse réformée du Bouclier“ Archived 2013-10-05 at the Wayback Machine, on: Wiki-protestants.org Archived 2013-03-27 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved on 26 February 2013.
- ^ These were, besides the EPRAL, the Lutheran EPCAAL, the dioceses of Metz and of Strasbourg and the collective of the three Israelite consistories of Colmar, Metz and Strasbourg.
- ^ So within the three départements of Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin and Moselle regulations (among others) such as Bismarck's social insurance system remained in effect, until France built up a comparable system for all of France, and Christian feast days such as the 26 December and Good Friday remained public holidays.
- ^ "Address data base of Reformed churches and institutions". Reformed-online.net. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f Cf. "Etudes: Cultes protestants" Archived 2013-06-06 at the Wayback Machine, on: Institut du Droit Local Alsacien-Mosellan (IDL), retrieved on 17 December 2013.
- ^ ISBN 9789004164055.