The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover () 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.
The seat of the Landesbischof (bishop) is the Lower Saxon state capital Hanover. The Marktkirche is the preaching venue of the bishop.
Creeds and memberships The teachings of the Church of Hanover are based on the teachings brought forward by Martin Luther during the Reformation. The Church of Hanover is a full member of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD), the Confederation of Protestant Churches in Lower Saxony, the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (VELKD), the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe and the Lutheran World Federation.
History Before the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover in 1863/1864, there were several regional Protestant churches earlier established by and within the borders of previous principalities and regions, combined as the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814. These churches were: the General Diocese of Aurich (1815–1922, since 1863 a subdivision of the all-Hanoverian church), formed in East Frisia when annexed to Hanover,The General Diocese of Aurich was led by the Lutheran-Reformed simultaneous consistory, co-chaired by a Lutheran and a Reformed general superintendent each. the (est. 1651, since 1863 a subdivision of the all-Hanoverian church), comprising the High-Bailiwick of Stade except for the Land of Hadeln, the Lutheran Church of the Land of Hadeln (1525–1885, since 1863 a subdivision of the Hanoverian church) based in Otterndorf, the old-Hanoverian Church (1705-merger of Calenberg [est. 1589] and Lunenburg-Celle [est. 1531] Lutheran state churches with subdivisions of its ownThe old-Hanover Church was subdivided into (a) the General Dioceses of Calenberg (till 1903], (b) of Göttingen [1589–1903], (c) of Grubenhagen and Harz (1598–1880, thereafter part of Göttingen), (d) of Harburg [1708-1903, partitioned from the Lunenburg-Celle), (e) of Hildesheim (1806–1903, formed from territory newly annexed to Hanover) and (f) of Lunenburg-Celle (till 1903).), with its consistory based in Hanover city, the Loccum jurisdiction (Bezirk Loccum), the Osnabrück city jurisdiction (Bezirk Osnabrück-Stadt), and the Osnabrück land jurisdiction (Bezirk Osnabrück-Land).„Historischer Rückblick“ , on: Evangelisch-lutherische Landeskirche Hannovers , retrieved on 20 September 2014.
All these churches were state churches in the Kingdom of Hanover, with the king being summus episcopus (Supreme Governor of the Lutheran churches), but otherwise without any joint bodies. In 1848 the Lutheran parishes were democratised by the introduction of presbyteries (, sg./pl.; lit. in ), elected by all major male parishioners and chairing each congregation in co-operation with the pastor, prior being the sole chairman. This introduction of presbyteries was somewhat revolutionary in the rather hierarchically structured Lutheran churches.
Whereas liberal Lutherans demanded the establishment of elected synods (general or regional church assemblies) too, feeling encouraged by the general development of parliamentarianism, the revivalist Lutherans strove for self-rule within the Lutheran churches in order to strengthen religion and faith against the government's interference in ecclesiastical affairs, considered by them as too rationalistic and too much inspired by ideas of the enlightenment. So liberal and revivalist Lutherans aimed at forming an ecclesiastical body, as provided by the 1833 constitution of Hanover,Cf. Grundgesetz des Königreiches Hannover, vom 26. September 1833 (Basic Law of the Kingdom of Hanover), § 60 (2), on: Verfassungen der Welt (i.e. Constitutions of the world), retrieved on 20 September 2014. consisting of elected and appointed clergy and laymen.
Especially the catechism used since 1790 was unwelcome among revivalists as being too much inspired by ideas of the Enlightenment. So the Royal government, more precisely its ministry of cult and education, prepared a catechism reform to be prepared by government-appointed experts. The outcome was a new catechism, based on that of 1634, and on 14 April 1862 decreed by the government. 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.
Inspired by the protest note "Prüfet Alles" (about ) by Pastor , later nicknamed the Luther of the Wendland, a movement evolved. When summoned by the Hanover Consistory in order to explain himself, a crowd of thousand accompanied him through the streets of that city and military was sent suppressing any gathering and subsequent street riots in town.
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. George V agreed to get the catechism reform revised by an ecclesiastical body formed according to the 1833 constitution. In autumn 1862 the new minister of cult, (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 proto-synod met and negotiated several times until 6 October 1863, becoming the founding body of the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover, uniting synodals from all the seven existing old Lutheran state churches in the kingdom.„Typisch Evangelisch“ , on: Evangelisch-lutherische Landeskirche Hannovers , retrieved on 20 September 2014.
Its then 72 male members were to design a church constitution, including the regulations as to the synod. The formation of the Church of Hanover was thus started by defining all the then existing Lutheran congregations in the kingdom as part of the to-be-represented church electorate. In October 1864 the Estates Assembly of Hanover (the parliament Ständeversammlung) adopted the first law, outlined by the proto-synod, as to the constitution of the all-Hanoverian Lutheran state church, its component subdivisions (dioceses and jurisdictions), and its legislative state synod (; historically state synod is the correct translation, as to the post-1918 function, without state churches anymore, regional synod is more appropriate).
After the Prussian conquest in 1866, on 19 September 1866, the day before the official Prussian annexation took place and with the last king, George V, already in exile, the Kingdom's six government-appointed consistories established the joint all-Hanoveran state consistory (Landeskonsistorium), based in Hanover too, consisting of representatives from each provincial consistory. 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). Thus with the Church of Hanover the elected state synod came first and the formation of a steady nationwide executive, the Landeskonsistorium (state consistory) followed as the second step in 1866.
The first ordinary state synod (Landessynode), succeeding the proto-synod, only convened in 1869, when after the Prussian annexation the Hanoverian Lutherans desired a representative body separate from Prussian rule, though it was restricted to Lutheran matters only. The Church of Hanover became a stronghold of Hanoverian separatism and therefore somewhat politicised. It opposed the Prussian Union, comprising the Protestant parishes in the Prussian territory prior the 1866 annexations, not only for its being a stronghold of Prussian patriotism, but for being a united church of Lutheran and Calvinist congregations, with a preponderance of Calvinism because the Calvinist Hohenzollern dynasty wielded its influence in the unification of Lutherans and Calvinists in then Prussia in 1817.
The Hanoverian Lutherans managed to maintain their independence, with the Prussian government refraining from imposing the Prussian Union onto them. 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. Until 1903 all provincial consistories except for the one in Aurich were dissolved, their functions taken over by the state consistory.Since 1882 the bi-denominational consistory in Aurich simultaneously functioned as the central religious body of the newly established Evangelical Reformed Church of the Province of Hanover, comprising almost all the Calvinist congregations in the prevailingly Lutheran Province of Hanover. This anomaly ended when this consistory became an exclusively Reformed body in 1922, following the constitutional reorganisation of the church bodies after the Weimar Constitution had decreed the separation of church and state in 1919.
The Weimar Constitution of 1919 provided for the separation of state and religion. After the system of state churches had disappeared with the monarchies in the German states, the question arose why the Protestant church bodies within Germany did not merge. Besides the smaller Protestant denominations of the Mennonites, Baptists or Methodists, which were organised across state borders along denominational lines, in 1922 there were 29 (later 28) church bodies organised along territorial borders of the German states or Prussian provinces.For a list of the 29 church bodies see Landeskirchen.
In fact, a merger was permanently under discussion, but never materialised due to strong regional self-confidence and traditions as well as the denominational fragmentation into Lutheran, Calvinist (Reformed) and United and uniting churches. Following the Swiss example of 1920, the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover and 28 other territorially defined German Protestant churches founded the German Evangelical Church Confederation in 1922, which was no new merged church, but a loose federation of the existing independent church bodies.Cf. Kirchenbundesvertrag of 25 May 1922 , on: Verfassungen der Welt (i.e. Constitutions of the world), retrieved on 20 September 2014. In 1922 the Church of Hanover counted 2,414,000 parishioners.Sebastian Müller-Rolli in collaboration with Reiner Anselm, Evangelische Schulpolitik in Deutschland 1918–1958: Dokumente und Darstellung, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1999, (=Eine Veröffentlichung des Comenius-Instituts Münster), p. 29. .
Since the adoption of the Leuenberg Agreement in 1973 the Church of Hanover practises church fellowship with many non-Lutheran Protestant churches in Germany and the world, understood as pulpit and table fellowship as well as full communion in witness and service.Achim Krämer, Gegenwärtige Abendmahlsordnung in der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland: die Abendmahlsfrage in ihrer theologischen, historischen und ekklesiologischen Bedeutung im Blick auf Abendmahlsgemeinschaft zwischen lutherischen, unierten und reformierten Landeskirchen, Munich: Claudius-Verlag, 1973, (=Ius ecclesiasticum: Beiträge zum evangelischen Kirchenrecht und zum Staatskirchenrecht; vol. 16), simultaneously: Freiburg (Breisgau), Univ., Diss., 1969, p. 87. .