Читать книгу Amt, Ordination, Episkopé und theologische Ausbildung / Ministry, ordination, episkopé and theological education - Группа авторов - Страница 9

Straight after the 7th General Assembly of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE) held in 2012, two of the documents it adopted appeared as no. 13 in the series Leuenberg Documents. As that volume recently went out of print we have prepared a second edition, barely seven years afterwards.

The results of the doctrinal conversation “Ministry – Ordination – Episkopé” are playing a particularly important role in current discussions, in the internal debates between Protestant churches as well as in talks with ecumenical partners. In both contexts, the main point is whether we can, and should, be satisfied with the fact that, while CPCE churches are bound together by a common basic understanding of these issues, there are still considerable differences on many questions of detail. In Germany, for example, the document has revived the debate about whether lay preachers should be commissioned or ordained. In 2018 the Theological Committee of the Union of Evangelical Churches (UEK), in an expert opinion, took up the recommendation of the CPCE document (§66) that all those who exercise the ministry of word and sacrament should be ordained, even if they serve in a non-stipendiary capacity. The United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany (VELKD) holds to the terminological distinction between ordination – for pastors who have graduated in theology – and the commissioning of lay people, but wants to join with the UEK in working towards a common theological understanding of ordination and commissioning.

Of course, the common positioning of the Protestant churches has also made an important contribution in conversations with other denominations and denominational families. The dialogues of recent years with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity deserve particular mention here. Part 3 of the Joint CPCE-PCPCU Report on Church and Church Communion of 2018 takes up questions relative to the ministries and repeatedly refers to the document of 2012.¹

The results of the doctrinal conversation have received limited attention in academic theological circles. Back in 2011 Prof. Ulrich Körtner gave insights into the emergence of the study,² then in 2013 Prof. David Plüss analysed the document in detail.³ Comprehensive references are found in an ecclesiological monograph⁴ and in an essay on the ‘Leuenberg Model’.⁵ Another indication of its significance is that “Ministry, Ordination, Episkopé” is available not only in the three official CPCE languages but also in Polish⁶ and Estonian.⁷

The document “Training for the Ordained Ministry” has not attracted much attention in the relevant literature either (Michael Wöller, one of the co-authors, highlighted it in an article);⁸ one immediate result, however, was a follow-up project. Since the 2012 General Assembly had asked the Council “to take appropriate steps to enable the implementation of the recommendations mentioned in the last section”,⁹ an evaluation of the member churches’ reception of the document was carried out in cooperation with the EKD. Those reflecting on how to implement the recommendations were expected to focus especially on the field of continuing education. The working group entrusted with the project held a consultation on continuing education in November 2015. On that occasion, an editorial group was mandated with drafting a summary to convey the main points of the discussion to the member churches. In June 2016 this document was sent to the member churches for their responses and subsequently revised (see the introduction to the document for more information about the process).

A member of the editorial group, Rector Dr. Hans Vium Mikkelsen (Løgumkloster), presented the study “Continuing Education for the Ordained Ministry in the CPCE” to the Basle General Assembly in 2018.¹⁰ The Assembly approved the document with thanks and recommended it to the member churches for study.¹¹

By analogy with “Training for the Ordained Ministry” of 2012, this document offers some fundamental reflections on continuing education, then develops guidelines for a common understanding of good practice in continuing education and finally makes recommendations on how to organise continuing education in the individual churches and on cooperation at the CPCE level. The first recommendation was taken up by the Conference of the Churches on the Rhine, one of the CPCE regional groups; in 2020 it planned to hold an international training course in the form of a summer school, which was postponed in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, the editors are delighted at this international initiative and hope it will be imitated in many places in Europe, in recognition of the observation made in the document: “Their own perception, theological knowledge and core pastoral expertise are questioned and expanded by getting to know other world views and theologies and through exchange with people from other cultural and religious settings” (4.1).

Owing to its close relationship with the document on training for the ordained ministry of 2012, the study on continuing education of 2018 has been included in this volume as well. The other two documents have been reprinted unchanged, with only a few typographical corrections. French translations of the documents are available in PDF format from the head office.

Vienna, in July 2020

Dr. Mario Fischer, General Secretary

of the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe

Prof. Dr. Martin Friedrich, Studies Secretary

of the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe

¹Christian Schad, Karl-Heinz Wiesemann (eds.): Bericht über Kirche und Kirchengemeinschaft. Ergebnis einer Konsultationsreihe im Auftrag der Gemeinschaft Evangelischer Kirchen in Europa und des Päpstlichen Rats zur Förderung der Einheit der Christen. Leipzig 2019, 43–57. The English translation is available at https://www.leuenberg.eu/documents

²Ulrich Körtner: Amt – Ordination – Episkopé. Zum Stand der Diskussion in der Gemeinschaft Evangelischer Kirchen in Europa (GEKE). In: Materialdienst des Konfessionskundlichen Instituts 62, 2011, 83–90.

³David Plüss: Das Pfarramt als Leitungsamt? – Amt, Ordination und Episkope. In: Michael Bünker, Bernd Jaeger (eds.): 1973–2013. 40 Jahre Leuenberger Konkordie. Wien 2014, 256–271.

⁴Annette Noller: Diakonat und Kirchenreform. Empirische, historische und ekklesiologische Dimensionen einer diakonischen Kirche. Stuttgart 2016, 394–396.

⁵Peter Scherle: Einheit als offener Prozess – Die Leuenberger Kirchengemeinschaft als Beitrag zur Bildung Europas. In: Iris Hartings et. al. (eds.): Europa bilden. Die Transformationen Europas und der Beitrag evangelischer Theologie. Münster 2019, 99–140, bes. 123–128.

⁶Urząd, ordynacja, episkopé. In: Karol Karski (red.): Wspólnota Kościołów Ewangelickich w Europie. Wybór dokumentów 1973–2012. Warszawa 2018, 331–403.

⁷Amet – ordinatsioon – episcope. In: Kirik & Teoloogia 142–144/29/8 – 12/9 2014 (https://kjt.ee).

⁸Michael Wöller: Gelebter Glaube und theologische Ausbildung. Zum Ausbildungsdokument der Gemeinschaft Evangelischer Kirchen in Europa. In: Sabine Hermisson, Martin Rothgangel (eds): Theologische Ausbildung und Spiritualität. Göttingen 2016, 91–101.

⁹Final Report 2.5, published in: Michael Bünker, Bernd Jaeger (eds): Free for the Future. Protestant Churches in Europe (Documents of the 7th General Assembly of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe CPCE in Florence, Italy, 20 – 26 September 2012), Leipzig 2013, 261.

¹⁰Hans Vium Mikkelsen: Presentation of the Study “Continuing Education for the Ordained Ministry in the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe”. In: Mario Fischer, Kathrin Nothacker (eds): liberated – connected – committed. Documents of the 8th General Assembly of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe, Leipzig 2019, 192–196.

¹¹Final Report, 2.3, published in: Fischer, Nothacker (see footnote 10), 81.