The German Bishops’ Conference has announced that Catholics and
Lutherans will take part in a major ecumenical festival on September 16
as the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation begins to draw to
a close.The name of the festival, which will take place in Bochum, is “on earth, as it is in heaven.”
The festival’s theme is the “commitment of Christians to the shaping of politics and society in Germany and the world.”
The day will conclude with an ecumenical service led by Cardinal Reinhard Marx and Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, leader of the Evangelical Church in Germany.