Johannes Lilje on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Johannes (Hanns) Ernst Richard Lilje (20 August 1899, in
Johannes (Hanns) Ernst Richard Lilje (20 August 1899, in Hannover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German States of Germany, state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germa ...
– 6 January 1977, in Hannover) was German Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
bishop and one of the pioneers of the ecumenical movement
Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...
.
Lilje was general secretary of the German Student Christian Movement 1924–34. He was involved in Confessing Church
The Confessing Church (german: link=no, Bekennende Kirche, ) was a movement within German Protestantism during Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German E ...
struggle in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
from 1933 onwards. After World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
he became the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover
The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover (german: Evangelisch-lutherische Landeskirche Hannovers) is a Lutheran church body ''( Landeskirche)'' in the northern German state of Lower Saxony and the city of Bremerhaven covering the territory of t ...
in 1947 until his retirement. He was also the presiding bishop of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany The United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany (German: Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands, VELKD) was founded on July 8, 1948, in Eisenach, Germany. Its total membership is 8.6 million people. The Member Churches of this org ...
1955–69, president of the Lutheran World Federation
The Lutheran World Federation (LWF; german: Lutherischer Weltbund) is a global communion of national and regional Lutheran denominations headquartered in the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The federation was founded in the Swedish ...
and World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most juri ...
. He was also abbot of Loccum
Loccum Abbey (Kloster Loccum) is a Lutheran monastery in the town of Rehburg-Loccum, Lower Saxony, near Steinhude Lake.
History
Originating as a foundation of Count Wilbrand of Hallermund, Loccum Abbey was settled from Volkenroda Abbey under the ...
under title Johannes XI.
Following WWII Lilje authored "The Valley of the Shadow" about his experiences during his imprisonment by the Nazis. He was at Dachau concentration camp before being transferred to Buchenwald where he was held in solitary confinement. He was tortured to extract a confession as well as reveal names of other clergy who were working to rid Germany of Hitler. Even his Bible was taken from him but he knew the scriptures well enough to find strength in various verses. His favorite was Romans 14:8 "For whether we live unto the Lord or die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's!"
In 1964, Lilje consecrated Stefano Moshi, first presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) is the federation of Lutheran churches in Tanzania and one of the largest Lutheran denominations in the world, with more than 6 million members, or 13% of the Tanzanian population. It is the secon ...
.
References
*Dictionary of the Ecumenical Movement. *Historical Dictionary of Lutheranism. Günther Gassmann, Duane Howard Larson, Mark W. Oldenburg. Published by Scarecrow Press, 2001. *Roy, Rev. Ralph Lord. "Passover and Easter promise victory over defeat.", Record-Journal, March 24, 2018.External links
* 1899 births 1977 deaths Lutheran primates Members of Christian religious orders Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany People in Christian ecumenism Protestants in the German Resistance 20th-century German Lutheran bishops {{bishop-stub