Apostolic Christian Church / Nazarene / ETG / Fröhlich Congregations Worldwide Maps
Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2019 12:48 pm
Dear all,
I have created two maps on Google My Maps on which I tried to include all congregations of the "Fröhlich Faith", i.e. congregations going back to Samuel H. Froehlich. They go (roughly) by the name of Apostolic Christian Church in America, Nazarenes in Eastern Europe and Gemeinschaft Evangelisch Taufgesinnter / Evangelische Täufergemeinden in Western Europe. If you click on the pins, more info will show up.
Both maps have the same content but the layers are different.
The first map has one layer per denomination or set of denominations (there were too many subsplits as Google only gives 10 layers so I bundled all conservative subsplits in one layer). There is also one layer for former congregations that do not exist anymore.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=11CfYa ... sp=sharing
The other map shows the chronological establishment of the congregations.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=17tzsc ... sp=sharing
You can, for example, clearly see how many congregations were formed during Fröhlich's life time, the massive growth in former Austro-Hungary and in the US from 1850 onwards and the relatively few new establishments in Western Europe during the 100 or so years thereafter. New congregations were planted after WWII by Nazarene brethren from the East seeking refuge in Germany and Austria but many of them were abandoned soon as they moved on to the Americas or Australia. Further, new missionary activity took off within the ETG denomination around the 1960ies spawning a good 30 new congregations of which only a few survived until today, though. The ACCA was more successful with a constant growth of new congregations throughout the 20 century but suffered a few splits, the most recent one in 2012.
You can also play with the layers and compare the footprint of both sides of the faith since the 1905 split. It turns out that the "tolerant" (Nazarene) side and the "intolerant" (ACCA/GET) side today seem to have a fairly similar number of congregations with the bulk of the Nazarenes in Eastern Europe and the bulk of the "intolerant" churches in America (ACCA). Not sure if it is the same in term of members.
The maps are based on publicly (mostly online) available information. It is an approximative work, obviously. I had a hard time identifying some of the churches, in particular I had no luck in countries such as Ukraine, Slovakia and Croatia (I know there must be at least a few congregations there). Further, it is not always clear whether congregations are still active or not. Despite all of its shortcomings, they give a good overview of the Fröhlich congregations and the hotspots of the Fröhlich faith.
I invite you to have a look. Let me know if you have additional information, precisions or clarifications which I am happy to add. If you have questions, post in this thread or send me a direct message.
I have created two maps on Google My Maps on which I tried to include all congregations of the "Fröhlich Faith", i.e. congregations going back to Samuel H. Froehlich. They go (roughly) by the name of Apostolic Christian Church in America, Nazarenes in Eastern Europe and Gemeinschaft Evangelisch Taufgesinnter / Evangelische Täufergemeinden in Western Europe. If you click on the pins, more info will show up.
Both maps have the same content but the layers are different.
The first map has one layer per denomination or set of denominations (there were too many subsplits as Google only gives 10 layers so I bundled all conservative subsplits in one layer). There is also one layer for former congregations that do not exist anymore.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=11CfYa ... sp=sharing
The other map shows the chronological establishment of the congregations.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=17tzsc ... sp=sharing
You can, for example, clearly see how many congregations were formed during Fröhlich's life time, the massive growth in former Austro-Hungary and in the US from 1850 onwards and the relatively few new establishments in Western Europe during the 100 or so years thereafter. New congregations were planted after WWII by Nazarene brethren from the East seeking refuge in Germany and Austria but many of them were abandoned soon as they moved on to the Americas or Australia. Further, new missionary activity took off within the ETG denomination around the 1960ies spawning a good 30 new congregations of which only a few survived until today, though. The ACCA was more successful with a constant growth of new congregations throughout the 20 century but suffered a few splits, the most recent one in 2012.
You can also play with the layers and compare the footprint of both sides of the faith since the 1905 split. It turns out that the "tolerant" (Nazarene) side and the "intolerant" (ACCA/GET) side today seem to have a fairly similar number of congregations with the bulk of the Nazarenes in Eastern Europe and the bulk of the "intolerant" churches in America (ACCA). Not sure if it is the same in term of members.
The maps are based on publicly (mostly online) available information. It is an approximative work, obviously. I had a hard time identifying some of the churches, in particular I had no luck in countries such as Ukraine, Slovakia and Croatia (I know there must be at least a few congregations there). Further, it is not always clear whether congregations are still active or not. Despite all of its shortcomings, they give a good overview of the Fröhlich congregations and the hotspots of the Fröhlich faith.
I invite you to have a look. Let me know if you have additional information, precisions or clarifications which I am happy to add. If you have questions, post in this thread or send me a direct message.
This makes it seem like a very diminished church, but I'm not sure if that is an accurate assessment.