Reformed parish of Guebwiller
Welcome
Cultes en mai 2024
Guebwiller : tous les dimanches à 10h15.
19 mai, Pentecôte, confirmations
26 mai échange de chaire, culte par Anne Heitzmann
Soultz : samedi 25 mai, 18h.
2 juin : 15h, culte d'action de grâce avec la présence du pasteur Pierre Magne de la Croix
Worship every Sunday at 10:15 a.m.
except Sunday January 29, ecumenical celebration.
"To be a Christian is not to speak of Christ but to live like him"
Ulrich Zwingli
Bienvenue
Pastor: Roland Kauffmann
03 89 76 91 57 / 06 87 50 76 24
For the rental of rooms
Protestant Home clickhere
Thanks to the siteHuguenots infofor this valuable information
Historical
Located at the foot of the Grand Ballon, Guebwiller, a Catholic wine-growing town, was owned by Murbach Abbey from 774 to the French Revolution.
The conditions for the introduction of Protestantism were favorable only with the arrival of a Swiss population of specialized workers working in the emerging textile industries.
In 1804, Jacques de Bary-Merian from Basel bought the castle from the prince-abbot, which had become “national property” and, accompanied by 200 workers, he set up a ribbon factory.
The arrival of other textile industries, among them a cotton spinning mill created by Nicolas Schlumberger from Mulhouse, increased the population from 2,770 inhabitants in 1800 to 7,250 in 1841. In 1809, there were already 700 Protestants. During the centenary of the parish in 1905, they will be 1,700.
From 1805, services were celebrated in the great corridor of the old castle, the Neuenbourg, property of the Bary family The first preacher-teacher, Martin von Brunn, was engaged in the same year.
But the place of worship becomes too small. With the “Réunion des notables” which financed the activities, Pierre Moder, the first pastor appointed by the Government in 1819, had the temple built on land from the castle (rue des Chanoines) made available by the owner. It was inaugurated in 1824.
Adjoining the temple, the parish built a presbytery and a school, and later, a home. The walls of the rectangular temple, equipped with tribunes on three sides, have been covered with wood paneling which gives the place a warm atmosphere. In 1827, the temple received an organ built by the Rouffachois organbuilder Callinet.
The parish also cares about diakonia. In 1838, Madame Bourcart, wife of the industrialist Jean-Jacques Bourcart, brought Amélie Speckel from the house of deaconesses in Strasbourg: she visited the poor, organized workrooms for mothers and factory workers, directed an asylum room and an orphanage.
With the help of two other deaconesses, she takes care of the Protestant hospital. Indeed, in 1856, a bequest enabled the parish to create a house for the poor and the sick in a wing of the Dominican convent. This "Hospital and Protestant Work" was recognized as being of public utility in 1862. A new construction, the Diaconate, housed it from 1891.
Sold to the city in 1976, it is now a home for the elderly (les Érables). Activities multiplied during the second half of the century: the parish created a choir in 1866, groups for adolescents and young men; an average of 190 children then attend Sunday school!
In 1928, the parish built a home (rue Joffre) which would be the rallying point for the community for 50 years. The sale of this building to the city in 1980 allowed him to fit out the premises next to the temple, in order to group the activities there.
The Callinet organ, restored and completed in 1884 by Koulen and in 1976 by Muhleisen.