The website of the Apostolic Community of Saarland (AGdS) reports that this traditional community disbanded last Sunday, November 24, 2024, by decision of the general meeting. This ends a history of more than seventy years, which can be read in detail in our wiki.
The AGdS was founded in 1952, primarily as a collective movement of excluded former New Apostolic Christians in Saarland. It was constituted as an association in 1955 and subsequently maintained contact with the newly emerging Apostolic Community in Düsseldorf. In the process, the AGdS experienced several minor schisms.
When the Apostolic Community tried to integrate the AGdS into its structures in 1968, there was another split, as a result of which some of the AGdS parishioners joined the Apostolic Community. The remaining community no longer worked with the Apostolic Community and subsequently remained independent. After that, the AGdS magazines still mentioned eight different congregations (Völklingen, Saarbrücken, Merzig/Hilbringen, Walpershofen, Bischmisheim, Quierschied, Derlen and Eschringen), of which only the congregations of Eschringen (closed in 2006) and Völklingen (as the last remaining congregation) still existed after the turn of the millennium.
Even before the turn of the millennium, the AGdS sought dialogue with the NAC as the “mother church” and was also in contact with other apostolic communities. As a result, it introduced the New Apostolic hymnal of 1925 and replaced the hymnal of the Apostolic Community that had been in use until then. However, the AGdS did not adopt the Hymnal of the New Apostolic Church when it was introduced in 2005. Instead, the “old” hymnal of the NAC remains in use there to this day.
From 2006 onwards, after discussions with District Apostle Hagen Wend, the members of the AGdS were invited to participate in New Apostolic services and to partake of the New Apostolic holy communion. For a long time, a group from the AGdS attended the New Apostolic service in Saarbrücken every other week. In the intervening weeks, the AGdS usually celebrated its own service in its church in Völklingen. Part of the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Apostolic History Network was also held there.
Theologically, the AGdS has been characterized in recent years by critical inquiries into Christian dogmas. It also brought these positions into discussions with the NAC and other apostolic communities.
It is not yet known to us which path the remaining members will take and what will happen to the AGdS church building.