Magdeburg (dpa/sa) – Magdeburg Bishop Gerhard Feige has campaigned for a return to a communally lived and publicly meaningful religion. It is time for a return of religion that is not instrumentalised, terrorized and not just of a private nature, said Feige on Friday during a service on the high festival of Epiphany in Magdeburg’s St. Sebastian Cathedral. “Every religion must perceive and address the crises and challenges of this time – including its own – must listen and be willing to allow diversity and the unusual.”
Foreclosure, exclusion and devaluation are not part of a sustainable path, he said. Religion must always enter into dialogue with society. Fig recognize “signs of decay”. According to him, more than 1,100 people in the diocese resigned from their church membership last year. “Nevertheless, strangely enough, religion remains an issue.”
Despite an increasing number of people leaving the church, people’s need for spirituality has seldom been greater. “People are looking for something that gives their lives meaning and is simply good for them.” There is a growing number of people who do not feel they belong to any religion, but do not call themselves atheists. “Religion and what people understand by it, how they live it and how they express their faith in it is quite diverse and differentiated.”
Epiphany is the epiphany of the Lord in the Catholic Church. The believers remember the astrologers from the East who came to Jesus’ crib, as handed down in the Bible. The day is a public holiday in many countries and parts of Germany, including in Saxony-Anhalt.
