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New theme on Reformation Day

The theme of Luther Year 2016 is “Reformation and One World”.

22.10.2015
© dpa/Sebastian Kahnert - Reformation Day

In exactly two years, on 31 October 2017, Protestants will celebrate the 500th anniversary of the publication of the Ninety-Five Theses, which Martin Luther fastened to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, thereby initiating fundamental church reform. Since 2008, the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) has been carefully preparing for this very special Reformation jubilee by focusing on a different theme in each year of the so-called Luther Decade. “Reformation and One World” is the theme for the year 2016, which begins with Reformation Day on 31 October 2015. The year will be officially opened in Strasbourg, France, on that day.

According to the Evangelical Church, the Reformation is a “world citizen”, while the German Bundestag speaks of an “event of global importance”. The Luther Decade in preparation for the grand jubilee is inviting people from all over the world to visit the original venues of the Reformation in Germany before October 2017; many events and travel offers are being organised.

Many towns lay claim to Martin Luther’s fame

Luther was born in Eisleben, studied in Erfurt, preached in Wittenberg, was ordered to Rome, interrogated in Augsburg, debated at the Diet of Worms, translated the Bible into German in Wartburg Castle and was banished to Coburg Fortress – many towns lay claim to Martin Luther’s fame. He is remembered everywhere – also in Nuremberg, the media centre of the late Middle Ages that played a significant role in disseminating Luther’s writings, in Altenburg and in Halle. Exhibitions, concerts, historical town festivals, theatre performances and festivals invite people to celebrate the Reformation.

“What we today with hindsight describe as the Reformation and sometimes rather simply associate with events in Wittenberg 500 years ago has achieved a global impact,” writes the chairman of the Council of the EKD, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, in his foreword to a 100-page brochure that the EKD has published on the theme of the year. The subject directs “attention to the present-day need for a reformation of our activity, our behaviour in the world,” states Bedford-Strohm. He argues for a church that centres on “One World”, which is extremely threatened by social injustice, by war and violence and by economic activity that continues to destroy nature.

www.luther2017.de

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