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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 sh…

[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 themselves totally to their pastoral ministry as a full-time vocation and be financially independent to fulfill the duties assigned to them at ordination. This obligation to support the clergy follows from the decision made by the Early Church and consciously ratified by the c…

[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 …

[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. Originall…

[German Version] Land holdings as part …

[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] 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/ paroikíai from the 2nd century. Until Late Antiquity, paroikía remained a technical term for a bishop’s congregation. Only after the rise of pastoral subcenters in large towns and rural areas, which became the main point of reference for ¶ believers’ religious li…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Christianity – III. Judaism – IV. Buddhism – V. Islam I. Religious Studies 1. Overview. Mission is not a fundamentally universal phenomenon in the history of religions; neither is every form in which religion is passed on eo ipso mission. “Primary,” tribal religions are not missionar…