The principle of subsidiarity in church administration

“Principle of subsidiarity in church admnistration: Guiding principle in administration development or just a different term for chaotic inefficiency?” This will be the topic of my keynote speech at the 2. Church conference  of the Wilken company in Ulm on 22. June 2016. In Addition to this speech I was also invited to host a workshop on the conversion to double-entry bookkeeping: „Conversion to Doppik! Exchange on success factors, pitfalls and project planning”.  You can register for the conference here.

My keynote speech deals with the following question: The principle of subsidiarity is an essential feature of both the Protestant and Catholic church. The lower administration units are supposed to organize themselves and make decisions on their own. Pastoral development processes aim at strengthening local churches. The general vicariat or regional church office usually has a bad reputation among the people of the church (and the priests) and its powers are supposed to be limited. But does that not contradict the aim of creating a more efficient administration? Is it not necessary to centralize certain services and to enforce certain common standards, e. g. in IT?