Ecclesiastical Organisation Research Articles

Liturgical transformation of Diocesan Church in Palangkaraya, Indonesia

The congregation is challenged by modern times that require various life adjustments, including priestly pastoral ministry. Therefore, this study examined the pastoral ministry style for the parishioner’s rural community of St. Petrus Paulus Ampah Diocese in Palangka Raya. A descriptive qualitative approach was used with data collected using participatory observations, in-depth interviews and document studies. Furthermore, the data analysis involved reducing, displaying and process verification. The participants included parish priests, catechists and station council administrators. The results showed that the congregations did not participate in church activities because the pastoral ministry style did not fulfil their needs, economic factors and lack of Catholic faith knowledge. Therefore, the church authorities in pastoral ministry should create a holistic and transformative congregation based on their needs. The current pastoral ministry practice is based on ecclesiastical organisation building and worship (liturgy) focused service. The church should simultaneously conduct catechism practices and charitable diaconia such as social, economic and spiritual activities. This was an interdisciplinary study that focused on practical and pastoral theology, catechesis and social sciences on Catholics’ pastoral ministry style for rural communities.Contribution: Importantly, it contributes to the literature on pastoral style reforms focusing on the congregation’s socio-economic life. Therefore, it can improve the congregation’s interests, ecclesiastical activities and independence.

Miro, King of the Suevi (d. 583), and ecclesiastical identities in northwestern Hispania (eleventh-twelfth centuries)

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to reveal aspects of the process of the writing of history and the reinvention of the religious past which became crucial strategic elements in the legitimisation of some of the most important ecclesiastical institutions of medieval Iberia. Focusing on two texts, the Historia Compostellana and the Chronicon Iriense, both produced in the diocese of Santiago de Compostela, and each fundamental in defending the rights and authority of this powerful Galician see, we analyse their portrayal of Miro, king of the Suevi (r. 570–583), to whom is attributed the ecclesiastical organisation of northwestern Hispania. Both texts present this king as a central figure of Galician political and religious identity. The rewriting in medieval Compostela of Miro’s history is shown to be a key element in the disputes between that diocese and other Iberian episcopates, namely Braga, Toledo, Mondoñedo and Lugo.

Loanwords of the Earliest Slavic Gospels. An Attempt of Quantitative Analysis

Graecisms make up the majority of loanwords in the earliest Slavic Gospels, while more than 70% of the same graecisms appear also in the Latin Bible. During mass, the Slavic Gospel was to be recited after the Latin one in the ecclesiastical organisation of St. Methodius, therefore the lexicon of the Latin Bible must have served as one of the models of the earliest Slavic Bible, which also concerns its graecism. The lexemes of western Germanic and Latin origin make up a much lesser group of loanwords in Slavic Gospels in comparison to graecisms. However, they are as archaic as graecisms and thus are a testament to the earliest text of the Slavic Gospel which originated in Great Moravia and has not survived. Turkic loanwords are not numerous in the earliest Slavic Gospels, though they appear more often in the younger versions along with secondary graecisms. The variation of loanwords in the redactions of Slavic Gospels shows the historical path of Old Church Slavic from the central european areas of Great Moravia and the Pannonian principality to the south of the Slavic world.

Geometry in 18th Century Bell Towers in Bajo Segura, Spain

Bell towers are essential elements of religious architecture, which have been part of villagers’ lives for centuries and have marked their identity and orientation from a far distance. This research provides widens our knowledge of geometrical aspects of bell towers through a search for common building patterns. Throughout the history of construction and architecture, there have been specific studies about particular bell towers, but few have taken a more general approach, studying 18th-century architectural treatises and building warnings for ecclesiastical buildings after the Council of Trent. In the Spanish ecclesiastical territorial organisation, the Diocese of Orihuela and its region (Bajo Segura) had great importance, with outstanding social development and territorial expansion due to the colonising action of the clergy and nobility in the 18th century. In 1829, an earthquake had destructive effects on the area’s architectural heritage. This paper studies the bell towers that endured the earthquake by recording data in situ, generating a catalogue, and analysing and comparing the data obtained. The results outline a construction model that meets the established guidelines of the architectural treatises as far as geometrical proportions and building patterns are concerned.

A Party Built on Bigotry Alone? The Scottish Board of Dissenters and Edinburgh Liberalism, 1834–56

By assessing the Central Board of Dissenters, arguably the most influential liberal-voluntary group of the mid-nineteenth century and the political wing of Scottish dissent, this article questions whether the Liberal party in Edinburgh was indeed built on ‘bigotry alone’, and asks whether the groups that would later form the backbone of Scottish Liberalism until the Great War were, as John Brown claimed, the enemies of all oppressions and monopolies, or simply the products of sectarian strife. The Central Board of Dissenters acted as the conduit for ecclesiastical and political organisation for Edinburgh's radical voluntaries during the bitter conflict of the pre-Disruption period, and utilised this organisational strength after 1843 to create a pan-dissenting alliance based on the anti-Maynooth campaign. Despite their foundations in the intra-Presbyterian strife of Victorian Scotland, the electoral successes of this period created a base both in Edinburgh and across Scotland for a Liberal party, once it threw off the ideological shackles of these denominational struggles, which would dominate Scottish politics until the Great War.

Castilian monarchy and dynastic memory: the financing of the Royal Chapel of Granada (1504–1526)

ABSTRACT The Royal Chapel of Granada has been analysed from political, institutional, and artistic perspectives, yet it has never been studied from an economic point of view. This paper explores its financing from the moment of foundation in 1504 until the establishment of the Royal Chapel Congregation of 1526. A study of unpublished sources held at the General Archive of Simancas shows that the Catholic Monarchs, particularly Fernando, prioritised its construction to the detriment of developing a sound ecclesiastical organisation in the Kingdom of Granada. These documents highlight the Royal Chapel’s dependence on the royal treasury, by way of juros de heredad or extraordinary payment orders (libranzas), instead of relying on the revenues generated by its own properties and rights. Finally, the paper turns to Carlos V to show how the Royal Chapel became a priority during the first years of his reign.

Early Christian Grave Monuments and Ecclesiastical Developments in 11th-Century Sweden

THE EMERGENCE of churchyards is one of the most significant transformations of the landscape during the conversion to Christianity. This article examines changes in burial and commemorative practices during the 11th century, based on early Christian grave monuments. These are the first examples of churchyard memorials in central Sweden, yet at the same time they also form an integral part of the late Viking-Age runestone tradition. This article presents an analysis of their temporal, regional and contextual backgrounds, tracing developments in the early ecclesiastical landscape. It is concluded that different regional designs of rune-carved funerary monuments are related to substantial differences in the Christianisation process, reflecting variation in early ecclesiastical organisation and providing insight into how the conversion process was related to social and political structures.

АДМИНИСТРИРАЊЕ КАРЛОВАЧКОМ МИТРОПОЛИЈОМ ЕПИСКОПА МОЈСИЈА ПУТНИКА

Tempore sedis vacantis или седисваканција претставља латински израз који је употребљаван и у српској црквеној терминологији у Хабзбуршкој монархији како би се означио период током којег је нека епископска или митрополијска катедра упражњена. У раду се говори о три седисваканције, које су по времену трајања најдуже у другој половини XVIII века (1768-1769, 1773-1774. и 1780-1781) и Мојсију Путнику који је током њих управљао Српском црквом.

The Evangelical Christians-Baptists: between the religious tradition of Russia and foreign influence

Evangelical Christians and Baptists are Evangelical denominations representing Protestant beliefs in Russia. They share a similar approach to doctrinal matters and at one point in history united into a single ecclesiastical organisation. Domestic factors, in particular, as well as foreign influences played an important role in the Russian origins of Evangelical groups, which contributed to the Evangelical movement’s religious inquisitiveness, spiritual fervour, and readiness for martyrdom around the world. In order to develop a thorough understanding of Evangelical Christians and Baptists in Russia, one needs to explore their political and cultural backgrounds.

Religious vocabulary in Aromanian compared to Romanian

The first layer of Aromanian Christian terminology is common for all the Balkan Romance languages. It contains a number of inherited Latin terms and some early assimilated Greek loanwords, due to the Oriental origin of Christianity. As for the later layer, the compound of terms related to ecclesiastical organisation and liturgy or to more sophisticated doctrinal concepts, the Balkan Romance languages substantially differ. In Romanian, it was formed on the basis of Slavonic (or Greek via Slavonic), which was used in the Romanian Orthodox Church by the 17th century. The liturgical language of the Aromanians was Greek (maybe except for Moscopole) and therefore, Aromanian mainly based its religious terminology on Greek, but also on Turkish and Albanian, which can be seen in the Aromanian Missal from the second half of the 18th century. In the next centuries, Aromanian religious vocabulary was strongly influenced by Romanian. The contemporary versions of religious texts, including the Bible (e.g. Caciuperi’s translations), introduce a series of Romanian terms instead of the old ones.

Maḫbär et sänbäte: associations religieuses en Ethiopie

Faithful of the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥǝdo Church gather sometimes into a religious association. We can distinguish two types of religious associations: the maḫbär and the sänbäte. These two types are organized on the same scheme and are led by the faithful themselves. Both are based on a fundamental concept, which is to gather faithful around a banquet for a commemoration. Maḫbär and sänbäte are a representation of a zǝkǝr, a crucial concept in the Ethiopian Christianity. The religious authority is shared by one priest who leads the liturgy of the ritual. The presence of a priest without an organizational role highlights the influence of the laymen to organize their own religious life outwards the cast-iron ecclesiastical organisation. The social and religious influence of these organizations is very important in towns and in the countryside. To be member of these associations is a sign of an important social status in the parish community and the reality of both maḫbär and sänbäte shows the existence of a way of dialogue between the Church and the faithful.

Excommunicatum:the Mono-Episcopate, the Third-Century Church, and Origen

Origen's departure from Alexandria is a well-known event in the history of the early church. According to Eusebius, who provides the most thorough account of Origen's life, this move had everything to do with Origen's rocky personal relationship with the bishop of Alexandria, Demetrius. Origen's relocation to Caesarea, however, is best understood within the framework of the structure and evolution of the third-century church, especially the emergence of ecclesiastical authority and communal organisation. Rather than a centralised church under the authority of the bishop, Christian communities at this time were more decentralised, with presbyters and house churches holding considerable autonomy. The fact of this communal structure raises questions about the nature of excommunication: while it is possible that all the Alexandrian churches chose not to receive Origen, it is unlikely that all the churches would have reached this consensus. It is more probable that Origen chose not to return to Alexandria after he left.

T.H. Green and the Dissidence of Dissent: On Religion and National Character in Nineteenth‐Century England

Thomas Hill Green (1836–82) has been widely recognized for his contributions to Liberal political‐social theory and for his Liberal partisanship. Historians and political theorists continue to emphasize his advocacy of limited state interference and democratic localism, as well as his anti‐imperialist statements. Recent scholars of English nationalism, national identity and patriotism, including Peter Mandler, Julia Stapleton, Krishan Kumar, H.S. Jones, Roberto Romani and Georgios Varouxakis, acknowledge Green as an acolyte of Giuseppe Mazzini, a Cobdenite and a Little Englander. While they place Green's ideas within a continuum of Victorian Liberal nationalist ideas (blending into Conservatism and socialism during the 20th century), their investigations foster the view that Green placed little value in the nation as a focus of individual and collective identification. In their readings of Green, the abstract ‘community’, free of national peculiarities, was to him the antidote to both individual and national narrowness. However, examination of Green's statements about community, the moral ideal and religion reveals that his theorising was informed by a view of national character different from that of most contemporary liberal intellectuals. Green rejected the ‘Liberal anglican’ view that a national church or clerisy was necessary to guide the development of the English nation. He identified ideas and practices of protestant dissenters as progressive forces in English history and endorsed them as means of national development. Religious pluralism and forms of ecclesiastical organisation promoting democratic localism were to Green among the essential characteristics of Englishness.

La dimensión eclesial de la teología. Un enfoque interdisciplinar

A long time ago we assisted with the social and ecclesial transformation, which caused the re-evaluation the function of theology in the Church and its relationship with other levels of the ecclesiastical organisation. This article gives an interdisciplinary approach to try to test ways to solve the observed conflicts. Social Systems Theory helps to focus the theological reflection inside the system in its entirey and regulate its functions. The Organization Theory brings its experience and empirical observation for a better understanding of cognitive entities and its contribution to the working of the institution and to delimit it.

The relationship between the Hervormde Kerk in Suidelike Afrika and the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika in the new South Afrika: co-existence or merger?<Sup>1<Sup>

The article points out that the debate on churck unity cannot be confuted to either a spiritual or structural perspective. It is argued that the church, both risible and invisible, is a given reality. Racially based beliefs are identified as the cause of the separate existence of the NHKA and the HKSA. It is indicated that the true and tenable foundation for the church's mission work and ecclesiastical organisation is the love of God, which makes possible true Christian fellowship, service and witness. Ater pointing to developments in the enpnatien between the two churches, on which structural unity can be built, the aticle makes a strong call for a merger of the two churches in the new South Afica for the sake of positive witness to Christ's mission in the world.

Continuity, authority and the place of heritage in the Medieval world

This essay supports the contention that knowledge of the past should be seen as a political resource. Furthermore, the interpretation of a particular version of the past is related to power differentiation and the legitimisation of authority. The subjective use of the past is not a recent phenomenon and in this paper, the use of the past is related to the construction of identity and ecclesiastical organisation during the Medieval period. Bourdieu's notion of habitus is used as a way of grounding the rhetoric of legitimisation, with particular reference to ecclesiastical authority. Hagiographical accounts and legends correspond to discourses of power and are related to the (re)production of a religious identity that legitimated Church authority. The essay pays special attention to west Cornwall where such institutional power is related to an identity that is generated via contemporary notions of heritage and a particular sense of past.

How Russians see us: Jesuit‐Russian relations then and now∗

l, a newspaper priding itself on new-found objectivity. It told of the twilight adventure of a postsoviet journalist. Following a lead, he stumbled on a pack of Russian neo-fascists, their lair stuffed with weapons, dogs, swastikas and Mein KampJ, besides ubiquitous young men sporting the current rage among Muscovite machos - maskirovka (camouflage uniform). A common bat­ tle cry binds the squad: 'Thrash the Yids, the Reds and the Democrats!' Their main activity: organising 'work therapy' for the 'human debris' of today's poverty-ridden Moscow - the tramps whom they have lured to their 'territory' with promises of bread and shelter. Aleksei, a defender of Moscow's White House during the siege of October 1993 and a law graduate of Moscow State University, introduces himself as their 'Fyurer'. Innocently, he describes his 'orm' - a name derived, according to him, from the ancient Nordic peoples to define their 'veche' or public council. And what could this have to do the Society of Jesus? Allow friend Aleksei to explain: 'We're not a political party. We're rather a vintage Jesuit religious order.' Needless to say popular misconceptions of the Society of Jesus are rampant even among the well-educated fringe - historians, philosophers, sociologists - of postso­ viet society, who generally know very little about organised religion. Causes are the educational system and the reference books which accompanied the Soviet student from cradle to grave. The authoritative Slovar' sovremennogo russkogo yazyka (Dictionary of the Contemporary Russian Language), published in 1956 by the Soviet Academy of Sciences, offers its definition of 'Jesuit': 'a member of a Catholic monastic order, a militant ecclesiastical organisation, serving as a bulwark of the pope and reaction.'2 Quotations illustrating the word's usage follow. One is from the memoirs of Aleksandr Gertsen: 'Stroll through Cologne and look at the sturdy battle­ ments, the Romanesque churches and the College of the Jesuits, those sinister warrior monks guarding this frontier of papism and the Reformation.' Definitions of the word's derivatives iyezuitizm, iyezuitsky, iyezuitstvo and iyezuitstvovat' include hypocrisy, two-faced behaviour, craftiness, pretension and treachery. Nor did refer­ ence materials published under other communist regimes employ different ideologi­ cal cliches and socio-economic-political jargon, even when regimes quarrelled and sulked. The Soviet dictionary's Albanian counterpart defines the Jesuit even more compactly: ' ... njeri shume i djallezuar, i keq dhe i eger' Ca very devilish man, evil *This paper was originally delivered as a talk at Campion Hall, Oxford, in November 1994.

Medieval Ecclesiastical Organisation in the Vicinity of Wroxeter and Its British Antecedents

The use of written, cartographic and toponymic evidence allows the identification of St Andrew's, Wroxeter, as a middle Saxon minster church and the rediscovery of the original extent of its parish. The sites of the other contemporary churches of the region around Wroxeter, and their parochial geography, can also be established. Moreover, several substantive pieces of evidence (not least a major anomaly in the course of the boundary between the medieval dioceses of Hereford and Lichfield) suggest, first, that Wroxeter church was of pre-Anglo-Saxon origin, and second, that before the region came under the authority of the Anglo-Saxon Church its parish had been far larger, and indeed coterminous with an area which can be identified as the controlled hinterland of post-Roman Viroconium. These discoveries reveal new aspects of the history of that city between the end of the fourth century and the middle Saxon period, and more generally shed light on the transition from British to Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical control in the West Midlands.

’n Konkrete en strukturele ordeningsmodel vir kerke in kerkverband oor volks - en taalgrense heen

Different and own divergent theological views provide different structural models for ecclesiastical organisation to be applied in a "new" South Africa. In this article it is accepted that unity in faith among congregations (churches) in a cultural diversity does exist. After having considered several basic ideas, the ecclesiastical model of the Reformed Churches in South Africa (GKSA) is analyzed against its 16th century background. This ecclesiastical model took shape within the broader context of the political and cultural reality of the Netherlands during the Reformation. The basic idea underlying this ecclesiastical model accepts that due to a common faith the universal unity in Christ is revealed in the plurality and diversity of congregations. Because of this fundamental unity, ecclesiastical fellowship is also imperative. Applying this basic idea of the Reformation, a model has emerged which stresses the unity resulting from the recognition of the common characteristics of the true church, but also simultaneously provides for Afferent modes and opportunities of ecclesiastical fellowship.

Calvin and the Priesthood of all Believers

A Mong those elements of Christian doctrine which surged anew to the forefront of Christian thinking during the early sixteenth century was that biblical idea which, in more modern times, we have come to call the ‘priesthood of all believers’. Luther used the doctrine almost as a battle-axe, to hew away at the pretensions of the Roman hierarchy and sacramental system. Almost invariably, it is Luther's name which we find linked to this doctrine in studies of the Reformation period. However, any serious study of the idea of the priesthood of God's people would do well to include an examination of the way in which John Calvin dealt with it, and indeed, the way in which the idea found certain expressions within his system of ecclesiastical organisation. It is our purpose here to see what Calvin taught in relationship to this biblical idea, and what elements of the life of the Genevan church may be considered to be, at least in part, an expression of the idea.