Church Order (Lutheran)
Encyclopedia
The Church Order or Church Ordinance means the general ecclesiastical constitution of a State.

The early Evangelical Church attached less importance to ecclesiastical ritual than the pre-Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 Church had done. As early as 1526 Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

 observes in
Deutsche Messe und Ordnung des Gottesdiensts: "In sum, this and all
other forma are so to be used that where they give rise to a misuse they
should be forthwith set aside, and a new form be made ready; since outward
forma are intended to serve to the advancement of faith and love, and not
to the detriment of faith. Where this they cease to do, they are already
dead and void, and are of no more value; just as when a good coin is
debased sad retired on account of its abuse, and issued anew; or when
everyday shoes wax old and rub, they are not longer worn, but thrown away
and new ones bought. Form is an external thing, be it ever so good, and
thus it may lapse into misuse; but then it is no longer an orderly form,
but a disorder; so that no external order stands and avails at all of
itself, as hitherto the papal forma are judged to have done, but all forma
have their life, worth, strength, and virtues in proper use; or else they
are of no avail and value whatever" (Werke, Weimar ed., xix. 72 aqq.).
According to Lutheran ecclesiastical teaching (Formula of Concord
Formula of Concord
Formula of Concord is an authoritative Lutheran statement of faith that, in its two parts , makes up the final section of the Lutheran Corpus Doctrinae or Body of Doctrine, known as...

,
II; Solida declaratio, x.; Apology, xiv.; Melanchthon's Loci
Loci Theologici
Loci Theologici was a term applied by Melanchthon to Evangelical systems of dogmatics and retained by many as late as the seventeenth century....

, 2d
redaction in CR, xxi. 555-556; the Saxon Visitationsbuch of 1528; etc.) a
uniform liturgy is requisite only in so far as it is indispensable to uphold proper doctrine and the administration of the sacraments; whereas in general the rightful appointment of the external functions of church officers and their sphere in the congregations is committed to the church
governing board of the state authorities. The spontaneous development of
church law, and especially the regulation of divine service, the
sacraments, and discipline, as Luther ideally conceived it, proved
impracticable, and gave place, though not invariably so, to definition on
the part of temporal sovereigns. All these regulations, especially those of
governments and cities, by means of which the canonical church forms that
had previously prevailed in the land were modified in a reformatory
direction, while the newly developing church system became progressively
established, are called "Church Orders". Those of the sixteenth century
are the most important.

A Church Order usually begins with a dogmatic part in which the
agreement of the State Church
State church
State churches are organizational bodies within a Christian denomination which are given official status or operated by a state.State churches are not necessarily national churches in the ethnic sense of the term, but the two concepts may overlap in the case of a nation state where the state...

 with the general Lutheran confessions
Book of Concord
The Book of Concord or Concordia is the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, consisting of ten credal documents recognized as authoritative in Lutheranism since the 16th century...

 is set forth with
more or less of detail (Credenda); then follow regulations concerning
liturgy
Christian liturgy
A liturgy is a set form of ceremony or pattern of worship. Christian liturgy is a pattern for worship used by a Christian congregation or denomination on a regular basis....

, the appointment of church officers,
organization of church
government, discipline, marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

, schools, the pay of church and school
officials, the administration of church property, care of the poor, etc.
(Agenda
Agenda (liturgy)
The name Agenda is given, particularly in the Lutheran Church, to the official books dealing with the forms andceremonies of divine service.- The Term; its Equivalents Before the Reformation :...

). A systematic topical arrangement is by no means always
adhered to. As a rule, later compilations have made use of earlier forms,
and thus the Orders are grouped in families.

External links

Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des XVI. Jahrhunderts, ed. Emil Sehling.
Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des Sechszehnten Jahrhunderts, ed. Aemilius Ludwig Richter
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