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[German Version] Pulpit rights are part of the authority granted with appointment to preach the gospel, administer the sacraments, and provide pastoral care for a congregation. This authorization is thus a derivative of parish law. It gives the incumbent the exclusive right to preach from the pulpit of the parish church and – because he or she is responsible for scriptural and orthodox preaching of the gospel within the congregation – also regularly to decide who else may lead worship and officiate at ceremonies in that church (cession). In many Protestant regional churches, however, the authority to approve outside preachers has been devolved upon the parish council (Presbyter). The authority over the pulpit is also limited by the right of those in certain leadership offices suc…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Christianity – III. Judaism – IV. Buddhism – V. Islam…

[German Version] Together with old-age pension and survivors’ benefits, the ministerial stipend is the heart of the adequate livelihood the churches owe their clergy, who can then devote themselve…

[German Version] I. Catholicism – II. Orthodoxy – III. Protestantism The term parish comes from the Greek παροικία/ paroikía (“resident alien’s dwelling”), which in early Christianity expressed the foreignness of Christians in society. Resulting from this basic feeling, individual congregations were called παροικίαι/ paroikí…

[German Version] An “immediate parish” (Ger. Immediatgemeinde) is a congregation outside the geographical parochial (Parish/diocese) structure that reports directly to the governing body of the church (Church governance) – formerly mostly palace and court congregations, since abolished, today only the cathedral parish in Berlin. Two factors make it unique: Protestants living anywhere in Berlin can be enrolled as members, and, despite its geographical association with the Evangelische Kirche in Berlin-…

[German Version] Today the church registration system in Germany has its legal basis in the federal civil registration law and the supplemental registration laws of the several Länder. Originally it served only the interests of the security police, making sure that the state could reach any citizen at any time; as the modern social state developed, it became primarily a tool for collecting and recording general personal information. As in the case of the civil registration system, the constitutional right of negative free…

[German Version] I. Catholic Main Churches – II. Protestant Main Churches (Evangelical Church in Germany) I. Catholic Main Churches The expression “main church” or “principal church” is not found in the manual of canon law ( CIC 1983). It is used in two senses: 1. As a general expression for a church that stands out from a group of churches in a particular way. This position of prime importance is ¶ attributed particularly to episcopal churches (Cathedrals), and also to quasi-diocesan regional churches of equal ranking (cf. CIC 1983 c. 368 ). In the cathedral the bishop assumes his office ( C…

[German Version] Land holdings as part of the property of the church can be traced back to the dotations of the Carolingian period. According to the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae (775-790), every newly erected church was to be endowed with two hides of land (= 7.6 hectacres); in the 819 ecclesiastical capitulary of Louis the Pious, the dotations we…