Endzeitstimmung Der Umgang der evangelischen Kirche A.B. mit der Aussiedlung der Siebenbürger Sachsen

The present paper deals with the attitude of the Evangelical Church of Augustan Confession in Romania (the Lutheran Church of the German-speaking Transylvanian Saxons) regarding the massive emigration of the Saxons after the events of December 1989 in Romania. The investigation is based on official documents of the Central Consistory of the Evangelical Church, from the central church archives in Sibiu/Hermannstadt at the Friedrich Teutsch cultural centre, as well as several editions of the publications Landeskirchliche Information (numbers 1 to 6 of the 1st year) and Kirchliche Blätter (numbers 1 to 12 of the 18th year). The analysis in the present study covers the year 1990 and shows the Evangelical Church as an institution that tries to face the challenges caused by the massive wave of emigrated Saxons. The topics the church leadership dealt with can also be found in the public discourse in the periodicals of the church. They were visibly trying to adapt to the new challenges; the responsible were constantly looking for solutions in order to be able to maintain the structures of the church.

God is Doing a New Thing in the ELCA: Trends from the FACT Data

For decades, mainline Protestant denominations in the United States have experienced steady membership declines. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is no different, and our research team has been exploring this topic for years. Faith Communities Today (FACT) is an interfaith project consisting of a series of surveys conducted by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, of which the ELCA is a long-standing member. In this article, we examine data collected from the three decennial FACT surveys to discern where, despite declining membership, God is, to quote the prophet Isaiah, “doing a new thing.” We find that over the past twenty years, the typical ELCA congregation has had a gradually increasing: sense of vitality, belief that it is financially healthy, desire to become more diverse, willingness to call women to serve as pastors, openness to change, and clarity of mission and purpose. Because there are multiple possible explanations for these positive trends, we recommend approaching such trend lines cautiously, viewing them through a critical-thinking lens. Even though there is an increased perception of congregational well-being, overall finances and the number of people involved in the church continue to decline. There is still much work to be done.

Ecclesiastical Asset Management and the New Introduction Of Section 2b of the Value Added Tax Act

This paper deals with church assets and the changes in the German VAT law with the resulting consequences. The implementation of EU law has resulted in numerous changes in the handling of assets and commercial facilities of institutional bodies such as the church. Using the example of the church district administration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church District of Dithmarschen, an overview of the application cases for assets was examined. After an introductory overview and an analytical examination of the new law in the value added tax law, a result of action is provided in this elaboration, which will also be of interest for comparable facilities, corporations and institutions.

Sacred Spaces in Transition: A Glimpse into the Situation of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church A.C. in Romania

For sacred spaces, motion/movement means not only the takeover by other denominations, but also denominational changes, such as the Reformation. The article highlights, with varying intensity, the major movements of sacred spaces in the more than 800-year history of the present-day Evangelical Church A.C. in Romania: the Reformation, the Habsburg rule, the consequences of World War II in Northern Transylvania, and the present – with selective recourse to the tools of Memory Studies (Erinnerungsforschung), in order to trace the paradigm shift caused by the Reformation in relation to sacred space, or to evaluate the mass handover/ transfer of church buildings in Northern Transylvania in the horizon of this analysis, and concluding with a brief art-historical and even homiletic consideration.

”Sävelet tekevät tekstin eläväksi”: paaston ja pääsiäisajan liturginen kuoromusiikki sanoman kannattelija

Hanna Remes’s artistic doctoral degree, which focuses on choral church music in worship, is the first of its kind in Finland. The demonstration of proficiency carried out 2016–2020 comprises two masses, a worship service, a passion drama and an Easter concert. She elucidates changes in guidelines for the liturgical use of the choir according to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland’s 2000 church manual from those of the 1968 church manual. The dissertation stands at the junction of liturgy and the history of church music. Remes compares and analyses the liturgical role of the choir in the Church of Finland as stated in the latest church manuals and supplementary materials and explains the guiding principles of the manuals’ preparation.

‘Art is different from life’: Doctrine and agency in Thokozile Philda Majozi’s insights and imagery

Established in apartheid South Africa, the tapestry-weaving venture at the Evangelical Lutheran Church Art and Craft Centre, Rorke’s Drift, was situated in a complex mission environment, on the junction between evangelised and unevangelised isiZulu-speaking communities. Although local women who worked at this centre in the 1960s and early 1970s were trained in creative strategies by Swedish artists, their lives were constrained by missionary strictures, inherited customs and apartheid laws. Little has been written on the tapestries made by these marginalised women, whose experiences were discounted in the socio-political milieu. Yet even as they were subordinated by political and social hierarchies, some found ways to assert their individualities. One of the most prolific was Thokozile Philda Majozi. As this study demonstrates, her woven iconographies, as well as her personal insights on those of others, provide a lens through which local Lutheran agendas and prejudicial social practices may be read. Some works anticipate the mission’s eventual change of heart on inherited customs and African-initiated churches. Majozi’s discussion also reveals how weavers often ignored Lutheran restrictions in the interests of artistic experience, despite the systems of control that defined their lives. Yet Christian weavers such as Majozi also complicated their representations of mission life, deploying images of un-evangelised women that articulated their own ambivalence towards them.

Led by the Spirit and the Church: Finland's Licensed Lutheran Lay Preachers, c.1870–1923

This article examines the interplay between religious agency and institutional control. The Church Law of 1869 gave members of the Lutheran Church of Finland the right to apply to chapters for permission to preach. Men who passed the examinations became licensed lay preachers, who could take part in teaching Christianity and give sermons in church buildings. Applicants had varying backgrounds, skills and motivations. In order to avoid any disruption in church life, they had to be screened carefully and kept under clerical supervision. However, licensed lay preachers could also be of great help to the church. In a rapidly changing modern society with a growing population and a recurring lack of pastors, the church could not afford to disregard lay aid. The article shows how the Lutheran Church both encouraged and constrained the agency of the licensed lay preachers.