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The Lutheran World Federation
Lutheran World Information |
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| 18.04.2006 |
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| Full Speed Ahead for Church Reform in Central Germany |
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Central German Church Federation Aims at Merger in 2009
EISENACH/MAGDEBURG, Germany/GENEVA, 18 April 2006 (LWI) – It came as a surprise: The constitutional commission of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Central Germany (EKM - Föderation Evangelischer Kirchen in Mitteldeutschland) had just begun its work in January. But by mid-February, the joint church board of the Evangelical Church of the Province of Saxony and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia was already prepared to announce that it had decided on the next steps toward the two churches’ merger. They are now set to unite in 2009—with one bishop and one head office for the nearly 1 million Protestant Christians throughout central Germany.
This has brought additional impetus to the discussion on the future of the EKM, which was established in mid-2004. It is now a matter of giving concrete shape to what the two neighboring churches have in recent years deemed the most important issue that they jointly face: increasing efficiency through simplified structures and better services, and avoiding work duplication at mid and upper organizational levels in order to serve the individual congregations more effectively.
Demographic Changes
The impending merger will precipitate the reconsideration of today’s church borders, which date back to the 19th century. Parts of the Church of the Province of Saxony now lie within the borders of the federal state of Thuringia, including Erfurt, its capital. More than anything else, however, the churches wished to deal with the issue of declining financial resources in view of decreasing membership figures.
This trend is not solely a church problem but also an expression of continuing demographic changes resulting from a low birth rate and migration out of the area, all leading to declining income from church taxes. “As the church in Thuringia, we now have to face this issue if we wish to keep the matter in our own hands instead of being overtaken by events,” stressed Bishop Christoph Kähler, vice-chairperson of the council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), and head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia at its head office in Eisenach.
More at Stake
The churches have already taken the first steps along this path. The church headquarters, governing boards and synods are now working together with a joint administration and governing bodies, but still remain at different locations. The brass band and women’s service associations of the two churches have also been merged, resulting, for instance, in a new Center for Church Music which opened in Erfurt this past March.
But more is at stake in the intended merger. The future location of the church headquarters is expected to affect the public perception of the two major Protestant churches in the federal states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, both seen as traditional centers of the Reformation.
The 30 March–1 April EKM synod in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt decided to begin preparations to clarify the location of the federation’s headquarters in the coming months. A feasibility study will consider both Erfurt and Halle as possible new sites for the merged administration, in addition to the two churches’ traditional seats in Eisenach and Magdeburg. Maintaining the church headquarters in two separate cities presents yet another option.
The individual synods of the Evangelical Church of the Province of Saxony and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia will make their final decisions on the future headquarters and on the merger in November 2006. However, the decision on the merger may have to be postponed to 2007, as was pointed out by the vice-president and legal officer at the EKM headquarters, Dr Hans-Peter Hübner. The federation plans to decide on the future management, administrative and financial structure of its church districts in March 2007.
Critical Stage
In his current report on the situation, Kähler, who is also the acting EKM board chairperson, spoke of the “critical stage” now reached by the federation.
Despite the successful merger of certain fields of endeavor, initial enthusiasm has given way to some disillusionment and disappointment in light of the hard decisions to be made on the future of the union.
The as yet unresolved question of the headquarters’ location, anticipated austerity measures, combined with efforts toward harmonizing mid-level church structures have led to considerable uncertainty among church employees. The speed of the process has also been a cause for concerns about the loss of regional church identity, among other matters. Decisions affecting the federation’s future, described by Kähler as “arduous paths,” cannot however be delayed, as the staff members will soon need to know more about their own prospects.
The federation and the rapidly developing merger represent the first union of two German regional churches of roughly the same size in three decades. The different historical identities and denominational backgrounds of the Thuringian church, which is Lutheran, and the Church of the Province of Saxony, which is a United church, will however remain preserved within the framework of the EKM. (826 words)
(Contribution from LWI correspondent Thomas Bickelhaupt, Weimar, Germany.)
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