The heavens descend on Berlin for Germany's 'Kirchentag'

[Sunlei]

Source: Deutsche Welle

Former US president Barack Obama addressed the church congress saying 'we can not hide behind a wall.' This year, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation is the featured topic, with many big names making an appearance.

It is a star-studded occasion: 2,500 events, 30,000 contributors and guests from all over the world celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and the Protestant culture of debate.

More than 100,000 worshippers attended three open-air services on Wednesday evening in central Berlin to mark the start of "Kirchentag," a multi-day Protestant gathering.

Those attending include Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba, Grand Imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque Sheik Ahmed el-Tayyib, philanthropist Melinda Gates, German singer and songwriter Max Giesinger, German climate change researcher Ottmar Edenhofer, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura and Israeli author Amos Oz.


Read more: http://www.dw.com/en/the-heavens-descend-on-berlin-for-germanys-kirchentag/a-38961665

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Old friends

The Kirchentag marks Obama's eighth visit to Germany. His first to Berlin took place during his first presidential race. In July 2008, the then-presidential candidate gave a foreign policy speech at the Victory Column in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 200,000 people. Long before anyone had ever heard of a US surveillance scandal, many young Germans were enamored with Obama.

[George II]

1. I loved that bottom photograph 8-9 years ago, stunning! And...

...if any people can understand the concept of "we can not hide behind a wall", it's Berliners.

[FailureToCommunicate]

2. We were living in Germany during the celebrations of the 450th Reformation anniversary...

My father attended as a representative of U.S. Protestant churches. This was 1967, East Germany, East Berlin still had ruined buildings and visible artillery scars of WW ll fighting. The Berlin Wall was in place, and the contrast of West Berlin to the very impoverished East side was startling. Protests for resistance to Communism, and reunification with the West were being strongly supported by the Protestant churches on both sides of Germany and the strength of the 450th celebrations encouraged even more resistance over the next few years.

"The vigorous way the Protestant churches in East Germany celebrated the 450th anniversary of the Reformation on October 31, 1967, demonstrated their strength in the communist state. The emergence of the peace movement in the German Democratic Republic in the late 1970s and 1980s, which could be seen as an opposition group to the communist regime, took place under the protection of the Protestant churches, and the churches were the rallying points for the demonstrations of 1989 that eventually led to the collapse of the communist regime and the unification of the two Germanys."

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Protestantism/Protestantism-since-the-early-20th-century

[riversedge]

3. k for visibility

[Judi Lynn]

4. Great story, so good to see. Thank you, Sunlei. n/t

[Sunlei]

5. He was awesome on this trip, they love him. He hit the points on healthcare again. You're so right

You're so right President Obama, 20 million of us Americans today, have decent insurance," We ARE better off today".