Evangelical church gala show 5000 Protestants celebrated the Reformation in the Telekom Dome
Bonn · Bonn and Bad Godesberg church districts celebrated in the Telekom Dome on the evening of the Reformation. The event, with 5000 guests, was the largest jubilee show in Germany.
Who would have expected the prim Evangelists to put on such a thrilling gala show in the Telekom Dome for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, as applauded by 5000 guests? Under a storm of spotlights, 700 musicians really fired up, including an excellently arranged Beethoven orchestra with general music director, Dirk Kaftan, conducting.
Hosts Mathias Mölleken and Eckart Wüster, deans of the Bonn and Bad Godesberg-Voreifel church districts, together with Lord Mayor, Ashok Sridharan, joyfully invited the public to celebrate with them under the motto “Luther – devilishly good.” “We have the largest Reformation celebration in the country here tonight for the finale of the jubilee year. We will allow the Lutheran freedom of Christian people to be felt from the very first minute,” explained Pfarrer Siegfried Eckert, who came up with the idea and was a co-organiser, to the GA while WDR was filming the show.
The team brought a host of prominent guests, such as Manfred Rekowski, the head of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, onto the stage. The Judy Bailey band, under the direction of Molly Spitta, Wise-Guy Eddi Hünecke, the singer Schirin Partowi, a large gala choir and the “Winds of Jericho” made sure that things took off musically between the speeches.
Even Minister President Armin Laschet, who had hurried from a celebration in the Altenberg Cathedral, was infected by the celebratory mood. “This Reformation Day is very important. Christian message is the best that one can offer to this world. We churches have so much in common, that we shouldn’t argue with each other.”
Original text: Ebba Hagenberg-Miliu. Translated by Kate Carey.
