The secular part of his marriage was already on the agenda of Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner on Thursday afternoon.
At that time, the 43-year-old FDP politician had an appointment on the island of Sylt to marry his 33-year-old fiancé Franca Lehfeldt in front of a registrar.
The church part is to follow on Saturday in the local evangelical church of St. Severin.
However, neither of them is said to be a member of a church.
According to his own statements, Christian Lindner left the Catholic Church at the age of 18.
Franca Lehfeldt also left the church, in this case the evangelical one, reports the “Bild” newspaper.
She should have the best sources, because Lehfeldt works for the television station "Welt", which, like "Bild", belongs to the Axel Springer publishing house.
Reinhard Bingener
Political correspondent for Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen based in Hanover.
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If at least Franca Lehfeldt had remained a member of the Protestant Church, there would be no cause for concern.
Because in the "Principles of Church Action" of the Evangelical Lutheran North Church of 2020, a prerequisite for a marriage is listed that "at least" one of the two partners is a member of the Evangelical Church.
However, the rules do not provide for the case that neither of the two is a member.
The Bochum theology professor Isolde Karle considers the marriage of two non-members to be "amazing and unusual".
From a theological point of view, the validity of the marriage is not the problem at all.
According to the Lutheran view, the marriage is validly concluded before the registrar.
In the church, the pastor then gives the blessing to this covenant that has already been concluded.
However, elements of the Catholic view that the bridal couple marries in church are also carried along in the Protestant wedding ceremony.
Changing the ring and the promise of marriage (“Yes, with God’s help”) are part of this.
The attempt, popular among church officials, to interpret the wedding ceremony “simply” as a blessing service, in which a religious act by the bride and groom is not important, at least does not correspond to the ritual practice of the church.
So how does the North Church justify violating its principles in the Lindner/Lehfeldt case?
The responsible provost Annegret Wegner-Braun emphasizes that there is no "Lex Lindner" and refers to a resolution of the North Church Synod of 2020, according to which a wedding is also possible "if people who are not church members afterwards ask".
Wegner-Braun does not want to exaggerate the obvious contradiction between the two norms, which one and the same synod decided in one and the same year.
Anyone familiar with the processes of a synod knows that these are “consensus papers”.
More important is the pastoral freedom of pastors.
In the parish of St. Severin there is a decision by the parish council that the pastor may also marry non-members in "special exceptional cases" at this "special place" on the island of Sylt.
According to the theology professor Karle, the Lindner/Lehfeldt case is an example of the church's dilemma between "opening" and "closing" in the face of increasing de-churching.
On the one hand, the church wants to be open to everyone and remain present, on the other hand, the church must not self-secularize itself down to its core ritual areas in this process.
It is not only about questions of faith, but also about the continued existence of the church as an organization: If the church dream wedding on the island of Sylt is open to everyone, some church members could at some point ask themselves why they pay church tax month after month.
For such considerations, which one would call "membership pricing" in the corporate world, a market-oriented FDP politician like Christian Lindner should actually have understanding.