Bavaria: New church councils face major challenges

Bavaria
New church councils face major challenges

October 14, 2024, 4:51 a.m

Does the church roof need to be renovated? How about an outdoor church service? Who organizes the children’s Bible days? Protestant church councils regulate all of this. Now there will be a new election.

Munich (dpa/lby) – The Protestant Christians in Bavaria have a choice: Who should listen to the church councils in the hearings in the future? The election will take place next Sunday (October 20th), and the challenge for the people who will help shape and lead their communities in the future is great. Because the regional church is constantly losing members. This means that church tax revenue will also fall in the medium term. And the parish staff is also becoming scarce.

Quickly 14,000 candidates for 8,500 positions

But first to the numbers: According to the regional church spokeswoman, Christine Büttner, almost 14,000 candidates are standing for election. There are 8,500 places available.

According to the church, almost two million people in the 1,500 parishes are eligible to vote. The size of each committee depends on the number of community members. Where the numbers decline, the church council also shrinks.

According to Büttner, there is a trend for communities to come together on the church council: in the election six years ago, only 75 communities cooperated. Now there are 423. On average, two to three communities cooperate with each other, but there can also be mergers of up to eight communities.

A look at 2018 shows that despite the declining number of members, interest in church councils is high: At that time, voter turnout was 25.6 percent, which was the highest level in the past three decades.

“Protestant specialty”

Unlike in the Catholic Church, where the leadership tasks are held by bishops and priests, responsibility in the Protestant Church lies with various committees – and locally with the church council. “It is a Protestant specialty because in it elected and appointed volunteers advise and make decisions together with pastors on an equal footing,” is what the regional church says about the church council’s work.

One of the tasks of a church council is to help shape church life in the community. “He is involved in personnel decisions and oversees the budget. It determines the focus of community work, for example the emphasis on church music, youth work or local diaconal work.” The committee is also responsible for construction work on church buildings. The church council sends members to the deanery synod.

Fewer members, less money, fewer buildings

The future members of the church councils must deal with difficult questions. There are fewer pastors and fewer budget resources. The coming years mean a major transformation phase for the regional church, as spokeswoman Büttner explained. “Volunteers are taking on more responsibility and there will also be amalgamation of communities and deanery districts at the structural level.” It is also about reducing the number of buildings. But the focus should not be on dealing with oneself: the question is how a church that is becoming smaller can still have a “strong, innovative and formative effect on society”.