Michael Kraus (minister)

Michael Kraus (born Mihail Krauss ;) ( born March 26, 1908 in Meeburg, Romania, † 16 November 2003 in Kitchener, Ontario ) was a native of Romania, Canadian businessman and minister of the New Apostolic Church Canada.

Biography

Mihail Krauss was born on 26 March 1908 in Meeburg (Romania). He grew up in German on the farm of his parents, his father owned a tavern in addition, on. A teacher told him in the School of Canada and the money that one can earn there. Therefore, Michael Kraus decided to emigrate at the age of 18 years to Canada.

His first job he found in a chocolate factory in Kitchener. In 1930 he met his future wife Hilda, he still married in the same year. Friends invited the couple one year after the wedding at a church service in the New Apostolic Church. From the first visit to them remained in the community Kitchener and were sealed a few months later.

Kraus felt Canada as his new home, where he wanted to be actively involved in the New Apostolic Church. Thus he started with fellow officials of the municipality Kitchener the door - to-door mission to convince more people from the Apostolic faith. From 1933 he served as deacon and from 1936 as a priest in the village of Kitchener, one of four communities in Canada. Kraus worked now in a furniture factory; In 1941, he began importing of upholstery fabrics. Five years later he became a partner in a pulp mill. Meanwhile, in 1944 he was ordained as an evangelist and 1946 as district elder. In 1951, he empfieng the office of a bishop, and in the context of a church service in Zurich, Switzerland, he was ordained by the then Chief Apostle Johann Gottfried Bischoff as apostles.

Kraus received in 1958 the office of District Apostle and was commissioned as church president of the newly created District Church of Canada in this office. At the age of 63 years, he founded a yarn factory. The Kraus Carpet Mills today employ employees in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

Overall, he brought for the first time the New Apostolic teaching in 70 countries, including Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia, as well as a number of countries in West and Central Africa. Among the countries in which the New Apostolic Church and Apostolic Christians could manifest counts ( numbers claims to the New Apostolic Church ) include Zambia ( 1,305,000 - held in the 1960s, here for the very first time a Chief Apostle Walter Schmidt, a service in sub-Saharan Africa, India ( 900,000 - in the 1980s and over one million ), Democratic Republic of the Congo ( 2.6 million ) and Pakistan ( 200,000 ).

This mission work began with Walter Schmidt, who supported the work especially in countries of the former Christianization. Chief Apostle Hans Urwyler wanted " discolouring the white spots on the New Apostolic World Map " and brought the New Apostolic faith with Michael Kraus then mainly in African countries. Around the year 1980 included the District Apostle Canada 1 million Sealed ( by then 2.2 million members worldwide ). On December 4, 1994 4 million members, the District Church counted ( by then about 8 million worldwide).

Overall, he was 61 years worked as a minister in his church, of which 36 years as District Apostle of the District Church of North America. His hometown was the Canadian city of Kitchener.

Offices in the New Apostolic Church

• Deacon, 1933
• Priest, 1936
• Evangelist, 1944
• District Evangelist, 1944
• District Elder, 1946
• Bishop, 1951
• Acts, 1955
• District Apostle, 1958

Conservative management and controversies

Kraus was not respected by all. Some called and berated him as a " megalomaniac ", " abfordernden " and "trivial tyrant " who insisted that each of his statements without ifs and buts will be accepted on the part of members.

Extract from a letter in March 1989 for the North American communities: ( translation from English )

" A neuapostolisches church member, a so-called scholar of the royal highness that waits for him only has to meet one, namely: TO DO WHAT IT SAYS MAN. HE HAS CLEAN NOTHING TO SAY. If God would allow his children, for the one already paid the ultimate price, with their ideas to object, this would be the first step to a mass confusion, as we see in today's world too well. We pray: YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IN HEAVEN. Thus also in the Hereafter / sky (except for God ) nothing to say: ONLY THE SPIRIT OF GOD DECIDES WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. The opposite of democracy, which brought together a mass of confusion in our time, is autocracy. We proposed in a dictionary, where the word autocracy was called THE DIVINE WILL. The Divine Will reigns as divine obligation in our church and is the Chief Apostle, the highest ranking, preserved, we all support with our lives. The will of man is poison in opposition to the will of God and in our church is no place for poison. To those who do not comply with the above, I say that the Lord Jesus, these gathered in a separate group and he gave them a special name. HE CALLED YOU FOOLS "

This letter caused criticism from the faithful, as even the apostle circle, since it had never been an interpretation of the New Apostolic Church, to compare the leadership of officers with theocracy, which would confuse Michael Kraus clearly in this letter. Even someone fool to call, who would not agree with him, brought him a criticism.

Until the term of office of the Chief Apostle Richard Fehr was to make the New Apostolic believers are not allowed to exercise any questions or criticism, in order to achieve improvements or compromises in teaching. For the church leadership, it had been clear that it was assumed the ecclesiastical doctrine of free will or not. Richard Fehr noticed at the latest during the great champagne discussion in Central Europe, that questions relating to the teaching of the faithful always has to enter into a dialogue to curb big misunderstanding no unity.