The Catechism will soon have some more pages to turn

The Catechism of the New Apostolic Church is getting an update. The District Apostle Meeting has just signalled the start of the revision work by specifying the elements that need to change—and why the changes are necessary.

“After the Catechism is always before the Catechism”—this was already a popular phrase in January 2013 when the fundamental text was introduced to the public. Because follow-up questions have arisen in the meantime, especially with respect to the Church’s understanding of ministry.

The three main “construction sites”

A great deal has happened since that time, and many of these questions have now been answered. As of 2019, a structural reform in the Church’s concept of ministry has made a distinction between spiritual powers and leadership functions within the ministerial levels. And since 2023 it has been possible to ordain women into ministry as well.  

But that is not all. In the meantime, some forty articles on various subjects have appeared in special editions of the Divine Service Guide. Many of these are more of a pastoral nature, for example, the one from January 2024 with the appeal to keep the Church doors open. Others set clear doctrinal accents, such as the article on the topic of forgiveness of sins from the year 2015.

And then there are also a number of necessary corrections and adjustments to be made. These range from the elimination of editorial errors to the incorporation of more recent Bible translations. For example, the New Apostolic Church in the German-speaking world has switched to the use of the 2017 version of the Luther Bible.

The procedure

A sixteen-member working group, including German and English-speaking members from Europe, America, and Africa, will be responsible for the Catechism update. Their task will be to examine which new content is doctrinally important and which elements of the Catechism are to be revised. Packages of revisionary measures will then be put together and implemented step by step.

The Theology Work Group will support the Catechism Group. The Coordination Group that supports the Chief Apostle will be in charge of the workflow. The final decisions on all matters will be up to the District Apostle Meeting. While aspects of canon law are reflected in the new Guide for Ministers, the Catechism exclusively describes the teachings of the New Apostolic Church.

It is expected that the necessary revisions will take several years to complete.

The background

The Catechism is the first reference work to ever present the New Apostolic faith in a fundamental and comprehensive manner. A study group began the preliminary work on the project in 2001 by creating an outline. In 2002 the District Apostle Meeting resolved to replace the booklet Questions and Answers concerning the New Apostolic Faith with a new textbook.

In 2003 the then Chief Apostle Richard Fehr issued the mandate to begin work on the new reference work. The New Apostolic Faith Project Group was created to spearhead these efforts and was, in turn, supported by other working groups. The results were presented to the Church’s members at the end of 2012 and introduced to the public at the start of 2013.

Photo: Oliver Rütten