Editing The Christian Community

{{Short description|Esoteric Christian denomination}}
{{Infobox Christian denomination
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| name                = The Christian Community
| native_name         = Die Christengemeinschaft
| native_name_lang    = de
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| main_classification = [[Independent Sacramental Movement]]
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| theology            = [[Esoteric Christianity|Esoteric]] and [[Liberal Christianity|Liberal]]
| polity              = [[Congregational polity|Congregational]]<ref name="cults"/>
| governance          =
| structure           =
| leader_title        = Erzoberlenker 
| leader_name         = João Torunsky
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| headquarters        = [[Stuttgart, Germany]]
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| founder             = [[Friedrich Rittelmeyer]]
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| members             = <!-- or | number_of_followers = --> 30,000 
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| seminaries          = 3
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| logo                = [[File:TCC_Logo_2024.png|200px]]
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}}
'''The Christian Community''' is an esoterically-oriented Christian denomination<ref>Sources referring to The Christian Community as a "Christian denomination" include:
*{{cite book |last1=Barrett |first1=David |title=A Brief Guide to Secret Religions: A Complete Guide to Hermetic, Pagan and Esoteric Beliefs |date=2011|quote=...Steiner helped found a small, non-dogmatic, Christian denomination, the Christian Community ... |publisher=Little & Brown |isbn=978-1849018111 |page=28}}
*{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=James |title=Handbook of Nordic New Religions |date=2015 |publisher=[[BRILL]] |isbn=978-9004292468 |page=57 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3tfaCQAAQBAJ}}
Sources reporting the self-identification of The Christian Community as a "Christian denomination", include:
*{{cite thesis |last=Soffer |first=Eddie |date=2024 |title=The Lived Spiritual Experience of Aging Adults |url=https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=17013&context=dissertations |degree=[[Ph.D.]]|chapter=2 |publisher=[[Walden University]] |docket= |oclc= |access-date=November 21, 2024|quote=This study explores the lived spirituality experience of spirituality for individuals in “The Christian Community,” which sees itself as a Christian denomination but is not recognized as a Christian denomination by Christian churches}}</ref> established in Germany in 1922 by [[Lutheran]] ministers influenced by [[Anthroposophy]]. As of 2023, it claims approximately 35,000 members<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cesnur.com/la-comunita-dei-cristiani/|title=La comunità dei cristiani|lang=it|publisher=[[Cesnur]]|author=[[Massimo Introvigne]]|editor=Pierluigi Zoccatelli|date=2024}}</ref> in approximately 200 congregations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=17013&context=dissertations|work=The Lived Spiritual Experience of Aging Adults|title=The Christian Community|author=Eddie Doron Soffer|publisher=Walden University|date=2024|p=35}}</ref>

==History==
[[File:The Christian Community Founders.jpg|thumb|The Christian Community founders, pictured on 16 September 1922]]
During the early growth of the [[Anthroposophical Society]], some Lutheran pastors in Germany appealed to [[Rudolf Steiner]] for a system of worship oriented towards his concept of Jesus Christ as the first fully [[initiation|initiated]] human in history, possessing absolute consciousness of the spiritual realm.<ref name="cults"/> According to a founding member of the Christian Community, Friedrich Rittelmeyer, he and the other founders were inspired by Steiner.<ref>Friedrich Rittelmeyer, ''Rudolf Steiner Enters My Life'', {{ISBN|0-7661-3654-X}}</ref>

In 1939 in London, Evelyn Capel became the first English woman priest of The Christian Community to celebrate the sacraments.<ref name="capel">{{cite news |last1=Button |first1=Peter |title=Obituary: Evelyn Capel |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/feb/08/guardianobituaries3 |access-date=April 3, 2023 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=February 7, 2000}}</ref> After World War II, she helped reestablish Christian Community congregations in Germany, as well as expand its foothold to [[South Africa]].<ref name="capel"/>

In [[Nazi Germany]], The Christian Community came under state surveillance, however, ''Reichsminister'' of Church Affairs [[Hanns Kerrl]] opposed an outright ban on the group. Despite [[Reinhard Heydrich]]'s misgivings about the church, police reports consistently found nothing objectionable about its activities or practices and new congregations were established in [[Cologne]] and [[Stuttgart]] between 1938 and 1939. Nonetheless, following the departure of [[Rudolf Hess]] for Britain in 1941, a national purge against perceived [[occult]] tendencies was initiated, the Christian Community banned, and its leader [[Emil Bock]] imprisoned due to the community's alleged "Masonic activities".<ref name="brill">{{cite book |last1=Staudenmaier |first1=Peter |title=Accommodation, Collaboration, Persecution: Anthroposophy in the Shadow of National Socialism, 1933–1945 |date=2014 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004270152 |page=104}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last=Staudenmaier |first=Peter |date=2010 |pages=210–215|title=Between Occultism and Fascism: Anthroposophy and the Politics of Race and Nation in Germany and Italy, 1900-1945 |url=https://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/db1dad79-53bf-451e-b95b-6982dd24afe3/content |degree=[[Ph.D.]] |chapter= |publisher=[[Cornell University]] |docket= |oclc= |access-date=November 21, 2024}}</ref> 

The first Christian Community congregation in the [[United States]] was established in New York in 1948.<ref>{{cite web |title=About the Congregation |url=https://www.christiancommunitynyc.org/about |website=christiancommunitynyc.org |publisher=The Christian Community of New York |access-date=November 21, 2024}}</ref>

==Beliefs==
According to James B. Robinson, a professor of religious studies at the [[University of Northern Iowa]], the Christian Community "emphasizes freedom of thought and reflection within the framework of Christian symbolism".<ref name="abc">{{cite book |last1=Melton |first1=J. Gordon |title=Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia |date=2010 |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |isbn=978-1598842043 |pages=619–620 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v2yiyLLOj88C}}</ref> Frank Hörtreiter, the organization's public relations officer, has written that the "Christian Community does not have any beliefs".<ref name="faq"/> Hörtreiter explains that the Christian Community relies on the [[New Testament]] for the conduct of its sacraments and as a source for use in sermons and discussions, but individual members develop and hold their own beliefs "freely as convictions born out of their own experience".<ref name="faq">{{cite web |title=Frequently Asked Questions |url=https://www.thechristiancommunity.org/a-worldwide-movement/ |website=christengemeinschaft-international.org |publisher=The Christian Community |access-date=January 15, 2023}}</ref>
Clergy are free to minister as they see fit and their sermons are understood to represent only their individual feelings and not the doctrine of the community or the congregation.<ref name="abc"/>

The Christian Community practices [[open communion]].<ref name="abc"/>

==Organization==
[[File:Kristiyhteisö hki.jpg|thumb|Altar in a Christian Community congregation in [[Helsinki, Finland]]]]
The Christian Community has a modified congregational polity in which each congregation, of which there are approximately 200, is governed by its own members and is financially independent from the organization as a whole.<ref name="cults"/> Priests assemble at the national and international levels in synods and elect a coordinator from among their own number.<ref name="cults"/> The Christian Community is globally headed by the Erzoberlenker, a priest whose office is located in [[Stuttgart, Germany]].<ref name="cults"/>

The Christian Community's clergy, referred to as priests, are ordained by national synods upon completion of six months of instruction in one of its three seminaries, followed by an internship with an active priest in a congregation. Both men and women are ordained. The Christian Community does not claim [[Apostolic succession]].<ref name="abc"/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Coulombe |first1=Charles |title=Heretic of the week: Rudolf Steiner |url=https://catholicherald.co.uk/heretic-of-the-week-rudolf-steiner/ |access-date=November 21, 2024 |work=[[Catholic Herald]] |date=April 25, 2019}}</ref>

===Ecumenical and external relations===
The Christian Community is one of several self-identifying Christian faiths, including [[Mormonism]] and the [[Salvation Army]], whose baptisms are not considered valid by the [[Roman Catholic Church]], according to the list of the [[Archdiocese of Cincinnati]] website.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Issue of Baptism |url=https://resources.catholicaoc.org/offices/tribunal/valid-baptisms |website=catholicaoc.org |publisher=Archdiocese of Cincinnati |access-date=January 15, 2023}}</ref>{{weight|date=January 2026}} The [[Evangelical Church in Germany]] also does not accept the Christian Community's baptisms, however, neither does it deny its Christianity.<ref name="enc"/> A study commissioned by the [[World Council of Churches]] in 1950 recommended it be accepted into membership in the organization; its application was ultimately refused.<ref name="enc">{{cite book |editor-first1=Erwin |editor-last1=Fahlbusch |editor-first2=Geoffrey William |editor-last2=Bromiley|first=Hubertus |last=Mynarek |title=The Encyclopedia of Christianity |date=1999 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans |page=440 |isbn=9780802824134 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z47zgZ75dqgC|chapter=Christian Community, The|volume=1}}</ref> The community itself states it operates "without attachment to any existing church or ecumenical movement".<ref>{{cite web |title=Who We Are |url=https://www.thechristiancommunity.org/about/ |website=thechristiancommunity.org |publisher=The Christian Community |access-date=January 15, 2023}}</ref>

Many members of the Christian Community are also members of the Anthroposophical Society and there are informal ties between the two groups.<ref name="cults"/> However, it is a legally distinct organization.<ref name="cults">{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=James |title=The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions |date=2001 |publisher=Prometheus |isbn=9781615927388 |page=167 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lk8_ARNz-dYC}}</ref>

==Notable adherents==
* [[Maria Darmstädter]]
* [[Ernst Robert Fiechter]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Luce |first1=Stephen |title=Necrology |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |date=Spring 1949 |volume=53 |issue=2 |page=199 |doi=10.1086/AJS500502 |jstor=500502 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/500502|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [[Johannes Weyrauch]]

==See also==

* [[Gnosticism]]

* [[Liberal Catholic Church]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://www.thechristiancommunity.org/ The Christian Community in North America] with extensive introductory articles
* [https://www.thechristiancommunity.co.uk/ The Christian Community in the UK and Ireland] also with introductory articles
* [https://www.thechristiancommunity.ie/ The Christian Community in Ireland] Based in the Republic of Ireland with services mainly in County Clare.
* [https://christengemeinschaft.de/ Die Christengemeinschaft] German site of The Christian Community
* [https://www.thechristiancommunity.net/ The Christian Community in Australia and New Zealand] with full programmes for all congregations in the region
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140115062743/http://renewtheology.org/ The Journal for the renewal of religion and theology] An online peer-reviewed [[open access journal]] inspired by the theology of The Christian Community (now defunct; access via [[Archive.org]])
* [http://Religion.rsarchive.org/ Religion Section at the Rudolf Steiner Archive] an On-line Library
* [https://christengemeinschaft-international.org/en Christian Community International] a site showing all congregations around the world (available in both English and German)

{{Anthroposophy series}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Christian Community, The}}
[[Category:Christian new religious movements]]
[[Category:Liberal Christianity denominations]]
[[Category:Christian organizations established in 1922]]
[[Category:Esoteric Christianity]]
[[Category:Anthroposophy]]