Ecclesiastical law
DISCIPLINARY AND CIVIL SERVICE LAW
Ecclesiastical law
The canon law of the EKD and the member churches determines the duties and rights of pastors and lay people. The ALBRECHT law firm has the personal and professional qualifications to represent you as an employee of the church in church administrative or court proceedings.
Disciplinary proceedings
In our experience, pastors who are subject to disciplinary proceedings are usually alone. For some time now, church leaders have pursued such proceedings with a certain mercilessness.
It is true that the disciplinary proceedings serve to determine the relevant facts of the case. However, even the preliminary ruling often reads like a prior conviction.
If you do not want to accept this, please contact us. We have represented and continue to represent our clients in disciplinary and summary proceedings before member churches (e.g. Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck (EKKW), Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN)) and the EKD (Disciplinary Chamber at the Church Court of the Evangelical Church in Germany).
Ban on conducting official business
If the church leadership is in a particular hurry, you will be banned from conducting official business in advance. This is a decision under civil service law. In contrast, temporary suspension is a disciplinary decision.
The ban on conducting official business is the preliminary stage to suspension.
You are entitled to appeal against these decisions, which you can do with our help. Even if the church administrations believe they can use these measures, they are by no means always lawful.
Suspension
Suspension is also known as provisional dismissal. This means that you are prohibited from performing your duties. Your salary may also be reduced as a result.
Church administrations find it difficult to comply with the formal and material requirements for suspension. Suspension is only permissible if the disciplinary proceedings are likely to impose the maximum measure or if the operation of the service/investigations would be jeopardized if the civil servant continued to appear for duty.
We review your decisions, but also represent you from the hearing procedure onwards. Since
Waiting status
Waiting status has not existed in German civil service law for a good 70 years. This unworthy instrument still exists in Protestant church law. Retirement is accompanied by a reduction in salary and usually also damage to reputation.
Retirement was introduced in many member churches from 1939 to 1942 in order to get rid of pastors they disliked. After 1945, the member churches retained this instrument.
If you are to be placed on suspension, we will be there for you, lodge an objection, conduct interim injunction proceedings and/or file an action for annulment.
Disciplinary proceedings within the protestant church
What to expect
The regularly permissible disciplinary measures for Protestant pastors can be: reprimand, fine, reduction of salary, demotion, removal from office for transfer to another position, removal from office with retirement, removal from office with retirement, withdrawal of ordination rights and removal from the ministry.
How can I defend myself?
As a rule, you can (and should) do this. In practice, the official proceedings before the respective regional church are not much good. The processes before the disciplinary courts, with their special constitutional safeguards, offer a much greater guarantee of correctness. In other words, the decisions of the church authorities often appear to be predetermined from the outset.
What's the worst that could happen to me?
They can be removed from the ministry as the most severe disciplinary measure to be imposed. This is usually announced (if intended by the regional church office) as early as the initiation decision and can be combined with suspension or temporary dismissal.
Is there a statute of limitations in disciplinary law?
There is no statute of limitations in the narrower sense, but rather a "prohibition of measures after the passage of time". Disciplinary proceedings can therefore still be initiated and carried out many years later. After four years, reprimands, fines or reductions in pay may no longer be imposed. The proceedings are then discontinued in accordance with Section 38 (1) No. 3. The "tougher" measures are not prevented by the passage of time.
Will there be only one accusation?
No. The church authorities are usually not professionals in disciplinary law. If, in the course of the defense, the authority notices that the "skin" of the original accusation is "swimming away", it regularly adds to it. This is permitted under § 25 DG.EKD. In some proceedings, this gets completely out of hand until dozens of alleged, sometimes hair-raisingly abstruse accusations are made against you, apparently only in order to achieve the desired measure. It also happened that completely new allegations were laid down in the final measure, which were never presented in the proceedings. Such cases were then logically dismissed by the disciplinary court.
How does the procedure work?
The procedure begins with the initiation order. (Written) statements are drawn up. You will be given a deadline for this, within which the files will first be inspected. This is often followed by a hearing of evidence in which witnesses are heard. At the end, a decision is made which results in a measure or a discontinuation. You can (and should as a rule) appeal against the measure to the disciplinary court.
How is the hearing of evidence conducted?
As a rule, witness evidence is taken. You can ask the summoned witnesses questions in our presence. The regional church offices have the unfortunate habit of primarily summoning witnesses to testify against you. This is unlawful and regularly leads to the measure being challenged. This is because the duty to investigate includes both the incriminating and the exonerating circumstances that are significant for the assessment of the disciplinary measure (Section 28 DG.EKD).