This was the third coming in 2010 when the parish congregations Biggetal and Parish Wenden united in St. Severinus Parish Church to form the new parish congregation “Wendener Land”. Since then, the League of Catholic Dioceses has become aligned with the political city of Wenden and links six formerly independent dioceses to eleven Catholic places of worship.

Wenden – Since then, the League of Catholic Dioceses has aligned with the political city of Wenden and links six formerly independent dioceses to eleven Catholic places of worship. Reverend Michael Clinedam has been the parish chamber’s leading clergyman since May 1, 2018. Together with his pastoral care team and many volunteer assistants, he is not only the supreme pastoral pastor of believers in his community – he is also responsible for running an organization that is simultaneously equated with a corporation. medium size.

“In the past few years, the organizational structures in Catholic parishes have become bigger and bigger. The smaller number of believers and fewer priests means that many parishes have to make their way into the future together and under one roof in order to survive,” explains Petra Sapp. She is the Deputy Administrative Director of the Central Community Assembly of the Diocese of Paderborn and is also responsible for the field service administration/administrative administration of the Parish Administrative Service Provider between Hamm and Siegen. “The tasks of running a church have become more and more complex, extensive and complex in recent years. For prominent pastors and parish secretaries as well as for volunteers in church councils, this means a great deal of extra work year after year,” says Petra Sapp.

As part of the ‘Future Process’ in the Diocese of Paderborn, those responsible have developed an entirely new area of ​​responsibility in a joint effort: ‘With the administrative management, the competencies and tasks of the lead pastor and the Church Council for the first time to a third person working full-time in an administrative position, the former structures were relieved , thus priests had more time for pastoral work and volunteer structures were also effectively relieved by taking on many tasks, Petra Sapp explains.

Florian Front becomes the first managing director at Wendener Land

For Florian Freundt of Freudenberg, it is precisely this “pioneering work” that makes him so attractive, among other things, to participate full-time as managing director of the pastoral district in the future. “Through my work I have the opportunity to make an important contribution to the fact that the pastoral team can focus more on pastoral work again and that church councils are effectively relieved,” the future 29-year-old father stated.

Already in the course of his studies he laid the foundation for his new professional challenge, which he will formally take on July 1, by combining courses in Catholic Religious Studies and Economics to form a Bachelor of Arts. “It greatly motivates me to be able to contribute my deep faith in God in the administrative management role of the parish chamber, as well as my professional experience as an insurance and finance salesman and office manager at the Westfälische Provinzial Versicherung,” affirms Florian Frodt.

Reducing administrative organization and creating freedom

He is well aware that the complex tasks of the new administrative department will also pose a great challenge for him: “In the first step it is certainly necessary to work and clearly define the areas of responsibility with priests, ecclesiastical councils and communal assembly to establish”, Freundt sets a clear first intermediate objective. As a management department, he wants to relieve pressure and create freedom so that sponsors can focus more on their actual goals again and volunteer work experiences a lot of support in terms of content and time. “This is the only way the Church Board will remain an affordable elective office as an important body for committed Catholic Christians,” summarizes Ffront.

Florian Freundt explains: “To do this, you must first get to know each other better, set tasks and gain trust through reliable work.” He states that, as managing director, he can relieve the church council of some day-to-day business and can set up and support important operations and projects: “The highest body is always the church council,” he asserts. He sees his duties as a full-time managing director, for example, in the time-consuming supervision and accompaniment of construction work, and practical support, for example with the introduction of new financial accounting and assistance in church council elections and parish council.

Reverend Michael Clinedam expects ‘real relief’

“In the long run, I promise myself to cancel some meeting dates. I hope that by continuing to take an interest in administrative management in many everyday things, some of the thinking and some of the fears will be relieved, which may also make me more internally free again for concrete pastoral care and the development of future-oriented dialects ‘,” says the Principal Pastor of the Wendener Land parish chamber, Michael Clinedam, in the record.

Florian Ffront is warmly welcomed to Wenden and he immediately has a plan for the first few weeks: ‘Getting to know the diverse conditions in our parish room, the many volunteers, and thinking about individual church councils with their different traditions and working methods.’ Reverend Clinedam explains: ‘All of these priorities we must set now “.

For Florian Front, this is also natural: “In the church I can now work with people who have the same values ​​in life as me. We work together on the same big picture: living as a Christian community in today’s society,” he asserts. “For me, the Church of the Future is a church that exists for all people individually and supports them in living the faith.” The church management also plays an important supporting role and he looks forward to being able to make his contribution to it.