Hochkirchlicher Apostolat St. Ansgar (HAStA) (''High Church Apostolate St. Ansgar'') is one of the smaller German Lutheran High Church societies. The background of the ''Apostolate St Ansgar'' was in late 1960s. At that time the understanding of the ordained ministry and Eucharist in general were in decline in the

Evangelical Church in Germany The Evangelical Church in Germany (german: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, abbreviated EKD) is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist) and United (e.g. Prussian Union) Protestant regional churches and denominations in German ...

, and ordinations without laying on of hands and strange communion services were held. In this situation a trade school pastor Karl August Hahne from Gelsenkirchen decided to found a religious brotherhood, which could retain among other things also the right understanding of the office and the Eucharist within it. Hahne was re-ordained in August 1971 by Bishop Helmut Echternach from St. Athanasius-Bruderschaft and consecrated as auxiliary bishop for HAStA in apostolic succession on 11 December 1971 by Hans Heuer, bishop of ''Ordo Militiae Crucis Templi Jerusalem'', with recommendation of Bishop Echternach. In order to form the intended high church brotherhood, somewhat more loosely organized

Apostolate An apostolate is a Christian organization "directed to serving and evangelizing the world", most often associated with the Anglican Communion or the Catholic Church. In more general usage, an apostolate is an association of persons dedicated to the ...

Ansgar Ansgar (8 September 801 – 3 February 865), also known as Anskar, Saint Ansgar, Saint Anschar or Oscar, was Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in the northern part of the Kingdom of the East Franks. Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North" b ...

was formed in the beginning on the way to a religious brotherhood. However, when Hahne died, the brotherhood had not established itself well enough to survive the founder's death and thus the group in Gelsenkirchen dispersed. Hahne's coadjutor, professor Helmut Tramnitz actively continued to lead the apostolate and its work in

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of t ...

. The apostolate has remained a small fellowship and loosely organised as a society. Theologically it is Lutheran and faithful to Bible. It has published several books by Karsten Bürgener. In celebration of

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

, HAStA uses its own missal, "Die St.Ansgar-Messe". From the activity of HAStA has even born “Kommunität St. Michael”, a small High Church community in

Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exte ...

Apostolic succession

Apostolic succession in HAStA is as follows: * Gerard Gul * Arnold Harris Mathew, * de Landas Berghes, * Carmel Henry Carfora, *Georg F. Davis, *Hans Heuer, *KARL AUGUST HAHNE *Helmut Paulus Tramnitz. *Karsten Reinhard Bürgener *Matthias Niche

References

External links

Hochkirchlicher Apostolat St. Ansgar

HAStA-Selbstverlag

Kommunität St. Michael
Lutheran orders and societies Lutheran organizations established in the 20th century Christian religious orders established in the 20th century Lutheranism in Germany {{Lutheran-stub