Simultaneum Explained

Simultaneum should not be confused with Double church.

A shared church (German: Simultankirche), simultaneum mixtum, a term first coined in 16th-century Germany, is a church in which public worship is conducted by adherents of two or more religious groups. Such churches became common in the German-speaking lands of Europe in the wake of the Protestant Reformation.[1] The different Christian denominations (such as Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, or United, etc.), share the same church building, although they worship at different times and with different clergy. It is thus a form of religious toleration.[1]

Simultaneum as a policy was particularly attractive to rulers who ruled over populations which contained considerable numbers of both Catholics and Protestants. It was often the opposite of cuius regio, eius religio and used in situations where a ruler was of a different religion than the majority of the people, and not strong enough to impose his religion on the population.[1]

During the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), Louis XIV of France occupied the Electorate of the Palatinate, a Protestant region situated mainly in the western part of what is today Germany, where he introduced the simultaneum. At the end of the war the region returned to Protestant control, but a last-minute addition to the Treaty of Ryswick provided for a continuation of the simultaneum. Although intended to apply only to the Palatinate, the simultaneum was subsequently also applied in portions of Protestant Alsace (a region ruled by France, but where the Edict of Fontainebleau was not enforced).

Examples

Belgium

France

Germany

Poland

United Kingdom

United States

Historically, Lutheran (ELCA) and Reformed (UCC) German immigrants commonly shared churches, particularly in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country region, although some congregations have since built their own separate churches.[7]

Holy Land church-sharing

See main article: article and Status quo (Holy Land sites). The main traditional pilgrim churches of Jerusalem and Bethlehem are shared between several denominations. The regulatory work is known as the "Status quo", a type of church-sharing which is in no way related to the West European Protestant-Catholic sharing system described here (the "simultaneum").

See also

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe, Harvard University Press, 2007, Chapter 8, pp. 198. ff.
  2. http://www.main-rheiner.de/region/objekt.php3?artikel_id=3569353 Simultaneum in Boos (Nahe)
  3. http://www.boos-nahe.de/58.html Boos (Nahe), photos of the simultaneum
  4. "St Nicholas' Church Arundel - a brief history" (undated, apparently published by the Vicar and Churchwardens)
  5. Web site: Unique "shared" church to close next month . 21 October 2022 .
  6. 1981. Two Altars, One Mass: Catholics and Episcopalians worship together in a unique church. TIME. 117. 20.
  7. Web site: The Union Church: A Case of Lutheran and Reformed Cooperation.