RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Meals, Hebrew Mecklenburg- Strelitz
latitude 21° 30' north, longitude 40° 8' east, in a narrow and barren valley in the province of Hedjaz, sixty-five miles east of Jiddah, its port on the Red Sea, and about two hundred and fifty miles south of Medina. It has no manufactures and no commerce. Its inhabitants depend almost entirely on the pilgrims who come to pray in its celebrated mosque, and to kiss the black stone of the Kaaba. See Kaaba; and Mohammed, Mohammedanism.
MECKLENBURG-SCHWERIN: A grand-duchy of the German empire; area 5,137 square miles; population (1905) 625,045, of whom 609,914 were Lutherans and Reformed, 12,093 Roman Catholics, 742 Greek Catholics, 810 unclassed Christians, and 1,482 Israelites. Mecklenburg became Christian in the twelfth century and accepted Lutheranism in 1549. The practical administration of the Lutheran State Church was committed in 1571, by statutory regulation, to the polity of Superintendencies and Consistories. The reigning sovereign, along with his territorial jus circa sacra, holds the metropolitan jus in sacra. Synodical rights are vested in the territorial estates, the representatives of the landed proprietors and of the towns. The sovereign exercises his jus circa sacra through the ministry of justice; his metropolitan jurisdiction has been exercised, since 1850, through the Superior Church Council in Schwerin. The ecclesiastical courts are the Consistory and, for cases of appeal, the Superior Ecclesiastical Court, both at Rostock. The church is subdivided into six provincial superintendencies (Doberan, Giistrow, Malchin, Parchim, Schwerin), Wismar, and one town superintendency (Rostock). The provincial superintendencies are further subdivided into thirty-five presidencies, under presiding officers called praepositi. There are 308 parishes, and 472 churches, besides 48 chapels. In accordance with the synodical regulation of 1841, the pastors in each presidency hold an annual synod, under the district propositus. There are two general conferences, which alternate in annual sessions, the one consisting of all the pastors, the other of pastors and laymen. With both conferences are associated conventions of the Society for Foreign and Jewish Missions and of the Inner Mission.
The average yearly income of a pastor is approximately 4,000 marks. The superannuating provision of 1900 allows a retirement salary amounting to twenty-five per cent of the stipend after ten years of service, and as high as ninety per cent after fifty years. The widows of pastors, prcepositi, and superintendents, in addition to their parochial tithe and a residential indemnity from the widows' fund, draw pensions of 750, 850, and 1,200 marks respectively. Ecclesiastical patronage is partly vested in the sovereign (to nearly two-thirds of the cures), and partly proprietary or municipal. Candidates for the spiritual office have to undergo two examinations, pro licentia concionandi, and pro ministerio. In the way of practical preparation, the candidates attend the theological seminary at Schwerin for the period of a year between the first examination and the second. The duties of sacristans, precentors and organists are fulfilled, in almost every instance, by public-school teachers,
in a legally regulated connection with their positions. Church-building expenses are generally so divided that the ecclesiastical patrons furnish the material and half the cash cost of construction; the congregation bearing the remainder of the cost.
In the matter of church doctrine, the clergy stand loyal to the Lutheran Confession, and the congregations are at least externally faithful to ecclesiastical ordinances. Open ecclesiastical enmity is of rare occurrence. Christian benevolence has been on the increase for fifty years past, and yields gratifying fruit in such works as those of the House of Deaconesses at Ludwigslust, with some 300 sisters, laboring in 100 stations, and of the Inner Mission (Rescue House at Gehlersdorf, Infirmary at Schwerin, Home for Cripples, and Magdalen Asylum at Rostock, institutional homes, etc.), as also in the support of the Gotteskasten (q.v.) for helping Lutherans abroad (see Diaspora) and of missions to the heathen.
The relation between church and schools is close. The direction of schools is constitutionally in the hands of the church superintendents and pastors, under the supervision of the Ministry of Instruction. Rectors of the municipal public schools are certified theological candidates. Common-school teachers obtain their preparation in two seminaries, whose directors and principal teachers must be divines. The Board of Seminary Curators includes (besides a representative of the government) two divines, a superintendent and the resident pastor. Religious instruction in the seven state high schools is likewise in the hands of approved divines. The five theological professors of the state university at Rostock are appointed by the Ministry of Instruction, subject to the approval of the Superior Church Council.
There are no sects in Mecklenburg on any organized footing. Baptists and Irvingites occur sporadically. The Reformed Church has one pastor, the Roman Catholic Church six pastors, with four congregations, belonging to the diocese of Osnabruck. Heinrich Behm.
Bibliography: J. Wiggers, Kirchengeschichte Mecklenburgs, Parchim, 1840; Mecklenburgische Geschichte in Einzeldarstellung, parts 5 sqq., Berlin, 1899 sqq.; G. Mau, Kirchliche Verhaltnisse in Mecklenburg, ib. 1899; E.Millies, Cirkular-Verordnungen des Oberkirchenrats . aus der Zeit 1849-1894, Schwerin, 1895; idem, Die Emertierungs-Ordnung fur die evangelisch-lutherischen Geistlichen in . . Mecklenburg-Schwerin, ib., 1904; Mecklenburgisches Urkundenbuch, ib., 1907.
MECKLENBURG-STRELITZ: A grand-duchy of the German empire, separate from Mecklenburg- Schwerin since 1701; area 1,131 square miles; population (1905) 100,451, of whom 100,314 were Lutherans, 2,499 Roman Catholics, 128 Greek Catholics, 212 unclassed Christians, and 298 Israelites.
The church organization is similar to that of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (q.v.). In his metropolitan capacity the sovereign exercises his governing power through the consistory at Neu-Strelitz, which also attends to the ecclesiastical administration of the Ratzeburg district. The jus circa sacra is exercised through the state governmei t. The consistory at Neu-Strelitz acts as an ecclesiastical court of first instance; appeals lie to the Superior Ecclesiastical Court at Rostock. Mecklenburg-
Medardus Mediator