Six municipalities in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis: Large Earf Effectusion from 2026!

Six municipalities in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis: Large Earf Effectusion from 2026!

The Catholic Church in the northern Werra-Meißner district faces a significant change: on January 1, 2026, six communities are to merge and form a new parish. The affected communities are the divine Redeemer Witzenhausen, Christkönig Hessisch Lichtenau, Mariae Name Großalmerode, St. Elisabeth Waldkappel and St. Joseph Hebenshausen. This measure is part of a comprehensive restructuring that started in the diocese of Fulda in 2017 and is to be completed until the 2030s, reports hna .

Head of the process is Pastor Simon Graef, who works on implementation together with the administrative and parish councils of the affected communities. "The approval of all committees is needed to create the new parish," said Graef. In the parish of St. Elisabeth, steps have already taken place in this direction, where new meeting places and services were created.

overarching perspectives

The aim of this restructuring is to bring the individual Catholic communities together in the Werra-Meißner district into a strong community. But the implementation brings challenges: the distances between the communities can be up to 40 kilometers. This does not make the merging easy. The Dom emphasizes that the number of Christians in Germany is less than 50 percent, and in the Werra-Meißner-Kreis there are more deaths as baptism Relevance of such steps underlines.

Bishop Gerber also emphasizes the need for more networking across parish borders. He refers to the writings of the New Testament that tell of a network of the first Christian communities. "Different contacts and experiences with faith are more important than ever today," he adds. A video for parish development shows that faith in young people thrives especially where local experiences are supplemented by local events. thus before the challenge to present the faith in a contemporary manner.