There are times when life presents one with some astonishing coincidences: this Sunday, 22 May 2022, District Apostle Wolfgang Nadolny will retire from active ministry. It was on exactly the same day 45 years before that he received his first ministry in the Church.
He has led the District Apostle Area of Berlin-Brandenburg for seventeen years, has made countless trips to foreign lands, has conducted umpteen thousand divine services, and has shaken even more hands than that. It’s not as though he is tired of working in his ministry, and he is in the best of health, but since the regular retirement age for New Apostolic ministers lies between 65 and 70 years of age, and since District Apostle Wolfgang Nadolny has reached this age limit now that he is 66 years old, the Chief Apostle has agreed to retire him in a festive divine service this Sunday, 22 May 2022.
A third-generation New Apostolic Christian
Wolfgang Nadolny is a May baby: he was born on 17 May 1956 in Lützen (Saxony-Anhalt). His grandparents were already New Apostolic. So were his parents and four siblings. This Sunday, the qualified civil engineer will have served as a minister of the New Apostolic Church for a total of 45 years to the day, more specifically as an Apostle since 1993, and as a District Apostle since 2005. It is in this capacity that he has travelled the world, sometimes in response to invitations to divine services with the international Church leader, but most of all for pastoral visits to congregations in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—all countries in the care of his Berlin office. His list of publications is long, and his collaboration in various Church committees has made him a familiar face in many subject areas. Through it all, he has remained a modest, honest, and relaxed personage, whose company has always been perceived as pleasant and beneficial.
The divine light shines
One of his personal mottos reflects his positive view of the future. Concerning this, he wrote as follows last year: “For us the future lies in the dark. This can certainly cause insecurity and care. But how good it is to know that the light of God shines for us—even into the future! We have an almighty, triune God: a Father who loves us, a Saviour who delivers us, and the Holy Spirit who comforts us.”
New Regional Church to emerge
Along with him, the former Regional Church of Berlin-Brandenburg will also enter into the annals of history—with immediate effect as far as management levels are concerned, and legally as of 1 January 2023. The new, large German Regional Church will be known as the New Apostolic Church Northern and Eastern Germany. During the amalgamation process, both District Apostles Nadolny and Krause agreed on that. This will result in three large German Regional Churches, the borders of which will be more or less aligned with those of the country’s federal states: the Northern and Eastern Church will incorporate Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia; while the Western Church will include Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland; and the Southern Church will incorporate Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. For several months, eight project groups—General Administration, Finance/Controlling, Minister Training, Real Estate, Information Technology, Church Music, Communications, and Human Resources—have prepared the way for the amalgamation process.
Festive divine service in Berlin
The international leader of the New Apostolic Church, Chief Apostle Jean-Luc Schneider, along with the District Apostles of Germany, are expected in the congregation of Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg on Sunday, 22 May 2022. In addition to the retirement of District Apostle Wolfgang Nadolny and the unification of the Regional Churches of Berlin-Brandenburg and Northern and Eastern Germany, a new Apostle, namely Thomas Krack, will be ordained. This divine service will be translated from German into English, Estonian, Norwegian, Polish, and Sign Language. Also invited are the Apostles and Bishops from both Regional Churches, as well as the Apostles who work in Russia. A digital transmission will be available via IPTV and streamed on YouTube.