Bürgermeister-Smidt-Gedächtniskirche (Bremerhaven)

The Evangelical Church of Bremen (german: Bremische Evangelische Kirche) is a United Protestant member church of the

Evangelical Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany (german: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, abbreviated EKD) is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and United (e.g. Prussian Union) Protestant regional churches and denominations in German ...

in the

Free Hanseatic City of Bremen Bremen (), officially the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (german: Freie Hansestadt Bremen; nds, Free Hansestadt Bremen), is the smallest and least populous of Germany's 16 states. It is informally called ("State of Bremen"), although the term ...

. The seat of the church is in

Bremen Bremen ( Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state cons ...

. It is a full member of the

(EKD), and is a United church combining both Lutheran and Reformed traditions. Brigitte Boehme became the church's first female president in 2001. The church had 176,786 members as of December 2020 in 68 parishes. Laic presidency is one of the special characteristics of the Evangelical Church of Bremen. It has no theological headmaster. The parishes have a high degree of autonomy, and there is a great variety between liberal and conservative ones. Each member of the church has the free choice, which parish he wants to join. Bremen Cathedral is the most prominent place of worship, but it has no higher status than any other parish. The Evangelical Church of Bremen is a member of the

UEK The Union of Evangelical Churches (German: ''Union Evangelischer Kirchen'', UEK) is an organisation of 13 United and Reformed evangelical churches in Germany, which are all member churches of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Member church ...

and of the

Community of Protestant Churches in Europe The Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE, also GEKE for ''Gemeinschaft Evangelischer Kirchen in Europa'') is a fellowship of over 100 Protestant churches which have signed the Leuenberg Agreement. Together they strive for realizing c ...

. In

the church has its own evangelical academy. The church has allowed the

ordination of women The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain Christian traditions and most denominations in which "ordin ...

and the

blessing of same-sex unions The blessing or wedding of same-sex marriages and same-sex unions is an issue about which Christian churches are in ongoing disagreement. Traditionally, Christianity teaches that homosexual acts are sinful and that holy matrimony can only exi ...

Area covered

The area covered by the Evangelical Church of Bremen (BEK) is essentially equivalent to the city of Bremen. In the city of Bremerhaven, which forms with Bremen the state

, only the most important Protestant church, the united Protestant Bürgermeister-Smidt-Gedächtniskirche, belongs to the BEK. The bulk of the other Protestant church parishes in Bremerhaven is Lutheran and they belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover, some form part of other not regionally-delineated Protestant denominations. The area covered by these parishes belonged to the former Province of Hanover before 1947.

Presidents of the church committee

* 1920–1932: Dr. Theodor Lürman * 1932–1933: Dr. Rudolph Quidde * 1933–1945: ? * 1945–1946: Richard Ahlers * 1946–1959: Ferdinand Donandt * 1959–1969: Dr. Arnold Rutenberg * 1969–1977: Heinz Hermann Brauer * 1976–1989: Eckart Ranft * 1989–2001: Heinz Hermann Brauer * 2001–2013: Brigitte Boehme * since 2013: Edda Bosse

Synod (Kirchentag)

The election of the synod is for six years. The elected leader of the "Kirchentag" is also leader of the church.

History

When the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and i ...

swept through

Northern Germany Northern Germany (german: link=no, Norddeutschland) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony an ...

, Bremen's first Protestant prayer took place in one of the chapels of St. Ansgar's Church, Bremen on 9 November 1522. Since that year Bremen was a prevailingly Protestant city. St Peter's Cathedral then belonged to the ''

cathedral immunity district {{Multiple issues, {{refimprove, date=July 2015{{more footnotes, date=July 2015 In the Holy Roman Empire, the Domfreiheit ( German: Cathedral Freedom) or Domimmunität (Cathedral Immunity) was the area immediately around the seat of the Bishop ...

'' (german: Domfreiheit; cf. also

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

), an extraterritorial

enclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...

of the neighbouring Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen. The then still Catholic

cathedral chapter According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. ...

closed St Peter's in 1532, after a mob of Bremen's burghers forcefully interrupted the

Catholic mass The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass, "the same Chri ...

and prompted Jacob Probst, the pastor of the nearby Our Lady Church, to preach a

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched ...

sermon. The

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

was condemned as a symbol of the abuses of a long Catholic past by most local burghers. In 1547 the chapter, meanwhile prevailingly Lutheran, appointed the Dutch Albert Hardenberg, called Rizaeus, as the first Cathedral preacher of

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

affiliation. Rizaeus turned out to be a partisan of the rather Zwinglian understanding of the

Lord's Supper The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was institut ...

, which was rejected by the then Lutheran majority of burghers, city council, and chapter. So in 1561, after tremendous quarrels, Rizaeus was dismissed and banned from the city and the cathedral shut again its doors. However, as a consequence of that controversy the majority of Bremen's burghers and city council adopted

Calvinism Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John C ...

until the 1590s, while the chapter, being simultaneously the body of secular government in the neighbouring Prince-Archbishopric, clung to

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

. This antagonism between a Calvinistic majority and a Lutheran minority, though of a powerful position in its immunity district (belonging since 1648 to Bremen-Verden and annexed to the

in 1803), remained determinant until in 1873 the Calvinist and Lutheran congregations in Bremen reconciled and founded a united administrative umbrella, the still existing Bremian Evangelical Church, comprising the bulk of Bremen's burghers. In 1922 the Bremian church counted about 260,000 parishioners..

Books

* Book for singing of the evangelisch-lutherischen Domgemeinde to Bremen, Bremen, since 1779 * New Bremisches Psalm- and Book for Singing for official and "besonderen Erbauung der Reformirten Stadt-und Landgemeinden, mit Hoch-Obrigkeitlicher Bewilligung", editor from the Bremischen Ministerio, Bremen, 1767; with later title "Evangelisches Gesangbuch, hrsg. vom Predigerverein der fünf reformierten Gemeinden im Herzogtum Bremen", Vegesack, since 1857 * Praying book and book for singing - "Neue durch einen Anhang vermehrte Ausgabe", Bremen, 1864 * "Christliches Gesangbuch zur Beförderung öffentlicher und häuslicher Andacht", Bremen, 1812 * Book for singing "gemeinschaftlicher und einsamer Andacht, at the beginning only for the "vereinigte evangelische Gemeine of Bremerhaven", Bremerhaven", since February 1857 * Evangelical book for singing of parishes in Bremen, Bremen, since March 1873 * Bremer Gesangbuch, Gütersloh, since 1917 * Evangelical book for singing - Book for singing of the Evangelical-Lutheran Churches in Schleswig-Holstein-Lauenburg, Mecklenburg, Hamburg, Lübeck, Eutin and the Evangelical Church of Bremen, Hamburg, 1949 * Evangelical Kirchengesangbuch - Edition for the Evangelical Church of Bremen, Hamburg, since 1950 * ' - Edition for the Evangelical-Lutheran Churches in Lower-Saxony and for the Evangelical Church of Bremen, Hanover/Göttingen, since 1994

References

External links

* . * . {{Authority control Christianity in Bremen (state)

Religious organizations established in the 1520s Organisations based in Bremen (state)

Protestant denominations established in the 16th century 1522 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire