Tributes will come from Germany, Poland, England, Switzerland, Italy and elsewhere: celebrations to mark the centenary of the birth on 4 February of the Lutheran theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer (4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945), condemned to death for his opposition to the Nazi regime, will have a pan-European dimension. The Evangelical press agency “NEV” has drawn up a calendar of the various events. “A saint in the Protestant sense”, i.e. “a model of faith for others”: that’s how Bonhoeffer was defined by Bishop Wolfgang Huber, president of the German Evangelical Church (EKD). He added: “In this sense a saint is not a person who has fled from the world, but someone with his feet firmly on the ground”. A commemoration organized by the Polish Ecumenical Council in Bonhoeffer’s birthplace (then the German city of Breslau, now Wroclaw in Poland) will be held on 4 February; it will be attended among others by the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the Polish Lutheran bishop Ryszard Bogusz. A “Lied-Oratorium” in memory of the theologian, with a tribute in his honour by the former president of the Bundestag, Rita Süssmuth, will be held in Berlin. A “Bonhoeffer-Mass” for choir, organ and strings will be performed at St. George’s church in London, while a service of commemoration will be held in Westminster Abbey with the presence of the Lutheran bishop of Hannover, Margot Kässman. The conferences and seminars include the study day on “Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s contribution to theology, ethics and spirituality” (Lugano, 4 February), and an international conference “Bonhoeffer: Christian heritage and modernity”, at Vercelli near Turin (9-11 February).
