Kirchentag Festival is off with a bang. Not sure how many people came out last night for the Opening Ceremony but estimates have been as high as 300,000. Who knows? Counting church people is a tricky affair, as I have blogged about before, so I will leave it to the experts.
Here are my Best Bets for Internationals at Kirchentag 2013
1. Germany's Federal Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel and Helen Clark, New Zealand's ex-PM and now spicing up the UN Development Programme with some kiwi ingenuity, discuss the value of creation in a globalised world with "And God saw that it was Good". If you cant get in, which is the most likely scenario, my friend Tomas Sedlacek from Prague is discussing economics under the title "No More and No Less". Both are Friday at 11am.
2. "Night of Lights" chilled worship led by the brothers from Taize. Tonight At 8pm.
3. Get your Bonhoeffer fix with "You Say That I Am", a series of conversations about Deitrich Bonhoeffer's life, and the opera in 5 scenes based on him.
4. "Unity, Justice and Diversity" led by panel of teachers including Dr Peter Berger. Saturday at three.
5. "The Feeding of the Five Thousand" a Bible study given by yours truly (Andrew Jones) on Saturday morning.