Hanover (dpa) – 1,500 events in 60 places: the Protestant Church’s Kirchentag that started on Wednesday and is taking place until Sunday is drawing around 150,000 visitors to Hanover to attend its religious services and political events and enjoy music. In his opening address, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier praised the Kirchentag as a place where everything could be discussed. “It is the place where we can ask the questions that are currently of burning importance to us,” said Steinmeier on Wednesday. This applied to personal as well as societal matters, he pointed out.
Before the start of the event, Anja Siegesmund, the president of the Kirchentag, said that “Christian faith is political in nature. The things that are our motivation as Christians are not something we simply shed when interacting with other people.” Siegesmund stated that a church was needed that made political statements, too, and that expressed an attitude.
The organisers reported that around 33,000 people took part in two open-air church services that took place simultaneously. Later that day, around 150,000 people gathered in the city centre for an “evening of encounter”. The former Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel was among the many political figures to attend the Kirchentag. The Acting Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected today, it will be one of his final appointments during his term in office.
