Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover
The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover (German: Evangelisch-lutherische Landeskirche Hannovers) is a Lutheran church body (Landeskirche) in the northern German state of Lower Saxony and the city of Bremerhaven covering the territory of the former Kingdom of Hanover.
in English: church board), elected by all major male parishioners and chairing each congregation in co-operation with the pastor, prior being the sole chairman.
[5] So liberal and revivalist Lutherans aimed at forming an ecclesiastical body, as provided by the 1833 constitution of Hanover,[6] consisting of elected and appointed clergy and laymen.
[5] If the outcome would have been less controversial the royal administration might have had the opportunity to continue its church policy the monarchic supreme-governor way.
However, the new old-style catechism, including regular confession, desired by King George V, but meanwhile widely out of use and considered among many liberal Lutherans as too Catholic and un-Protestant, caused an outrage, the Hanover Catechism Strife, surprising the Royal administration.
by Pastor Karl Gustav Wilhelm Baurschmidt [de], later nicknamed the Luther of the Wendland, a movement evolved.
[5] George V gave in, he dismissed his minister of cult, finally even his complete cabinet and, under the tensions occurring, he withdrew the reformed catechism.
[5] George V agreed to get the catechism reform revised by an ecclesiastical body formed according to the 1833 constitution.
[5] In autumn 1862 the new minister of cult, Carl Lichtenberg [de] (term: 1862–1865), convened this body, called the Vorsynode (i.e. proto-synod, a preliminary church legislative assembly), comprising 72 members, 64 elected, eight appointed, half of them clergy, the others laymen.
The provincial consistories were in Aurich, a simultaneously Lutheran and Reformed 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 Hanoverian 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).
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.
Today's Landessynode comprises 75 synodals, 63 elected, ten appointed by the church senate, one delegated by the Lutheran theological faculty of the George Augustus University in Göttingen and the Abbot of Loccum, as an ex officio member.
Its history dates back to 1849 when Pastor Ludwig Harms began training the first missionaries.
The House of Church Services also includes the Hanns-Lilje-House (Hanns-Lilje-Haus [de]) and the Bursfelde Abbey.
The departments are: in cooperation with the Confederation of Protestant churches in Lower Saxony: religious associations: Church Office Hanover: In addition, sections of the Evangelical Media Service Centre The Director is the Chairman of the Executive Committee (Former: Leadership Conference), which, in addition to the directors, the CEO, the head of the department and the pedagogical head of Protestant adult education in Lower Saxony (Ev.
Other facilities are the Religion Pedagogical Institute, the Center for Health Ethics (German: Zentrum für Gesundheitsethik) and the Hanns-Lilje Foundation (Hanns-Lilje-Stiftung [de]).
