Wittenberg (dpa/sa) – In her sermon on Reformation Day in the Castle Church in Wittenberg, the chairwoman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), President Annette Kurschus, called for peace talks. She encouraged people to have more faith in the power of words in the Ukraine war. “The alternative to a just peace must not be endless war. War must never replace politics,” she said on Monday, according to a statement, during a celebratory service at the place where the Reformation originated. “Therefore: Do not despise negotiations. Believe in the power of the quick-witted word. Trust the smallest steps.”
There were several services on Monday in Lutherstadt Wittenberg. Devotions, concerts, city tours and a historical market spectacle are also part of the Wittenberg Reformation Festival, to which thousands of visitors are expected. According to the city, a highlight this year is the “95 Wittenberg Sound Theses”. For the art installation, citizens each spoke a thesis of the reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546). They would now be heard via loudspeakers on the Bunkerberg site, it said.
In 1517 Luther published his theses in Wittenberg against the sale of indulgences by the church to buy one’s freedom from sins. According to tradition, on October 31, 1517, he nailed his 95 theses against the sale of indulgences to the door of the Castle Church. This is considered the beginning of the Reformation in church and society.
