Church of St. Fabian and St. Sebastian, Sülze

Ss. Fabian and Sebastian
German: Fabian-und-Sebastian-Kirche
Church of Ss. Fabian and Sebastian, Sülze
Ss. Fabian and Sebastian Location within Lower Saxony
52°46′16.4″N 10°02′18.6″E / 52.771222°N 10.038500°E / 52.771222; 10.038500Coordinates: 52°46′16.4″N 10°02′18.6″E / 52.771222°N 10.038500°E / 52.771222; 10.038500
Location	Sülze
Country	Germany
Denomination	Lutheran
Website	www.kirche-suelze.de
History
Dedication	Pope Fabian Saint Sebastian
Architecture
Status	parish church
Functional status	active
Completed	1754 (1754)
Administration
Parish	Sülze
Deanery	Celle
Synod	Lutheran Church of Hanover

The Church of St. Fabian and St. Sebastian (German: Fabian-und-Sebastian-Kirche) in Sülze is a church of the Evangelical-Lutheran parish in the church district (Kirchenkreis) of Celle and in the Evangelical-Lutheran State Church of Hanover.

From the time of the high Middle Ages, the villages in the present-day parish of Sülze used to belong to the parish of St. Lambertus in Bergen. But poor road conditions and the resulting poor attendance at the church in Bergen led in 1475 to efforts by the Duke of Celle, Frederick the Pious, to build a chapel dedicated to Saint Fabian and Saint Sebastian in Sülze. To begin with this was not given its own rectorate, but was looked after by the priest at Bergen, who celebrated mass there once a week. In 1502 a church foundation was established by the brothers, Carsten and Otto von Harling, and an Eversen widow, Gesche Vlothwedel. A large sum of money, which two years later was topped up, was with the authority of Bishop Henry III of Minden and of the [then] church leaders (Kirchenherren) of Bergen invested in the Monastery of St Michael (Kloster St. Michaelis) in Lüneburg and from the interest a rectorate was established for Sülze. In the foundation deed of 1504 the duties of the priest and the rights of the parish of St. Lambertus for Sülze were reallocated to the Sülze church and the rights of the patron, the von Harling family, were set out in detail. For example, the new priest had to live in Sülze, hold three masses a week and say intercessory prayers for the patron and his family. The rights of the church patron consisted mainly of the right of the appointment of the church warden and sidesmen (Opferleute), the enfeoffment of the farms belonging to the parish and the inspection of church accounts. Otherwise, the rights of the Bergen church remained in existence apart from a settlement in 1645. Exactly when the Reformation was introduced into the parish of Sülze cannot be stated with certainty, however based on the adoption of the new doctrine, it can be deduced that it would have been no later than 1529. In addition to the villages of Eversen and Sülze, parish of Sülze was joined by Altensalzkoth in 1725, Huxahl, Lindhorst und Diesten in 1869, Feuerschützenbostel in 1927, Kohlenbach in 1963, Bergen in 1971 and Miele und Rehwinkel in 2001.