During the opening of the World Football Championship taking place in Germany, an ecumenical celebration will take place at Liebfrauendom, the Munich cathedral. The service is one of the many initiatives set up by the Christian Churches in the different places which will host the meetings, with the aim of changing the world championship into a “hospitality and meeting feast”, as the German Bishops’ Conference and the Evangelical Church jointly declared. The celebration, which will be broadcast live by the second German channel (ZDF) was set up by the two Churches in collaboration with the workshop of the Christian Churches (ACK). It will be presided over by the President of the German Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Karl Lehmann; the President of the German Evangelical Church Council (EKD), Bishop Wolfgang Huber; the Archbishop of the diocese of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter; the Bishop of Bavarian Land for the Lutheran Evangelical Church, Johannes Friedrich; and the President of ACK, Walter Klaiber. Among the others, there will also be the participations of Federal President Horst Köhler; Federal Internal Minister Wolfgang Schäuble; the President of the Ministers of Bavaria, Edmund Stoiber; the President of the German Football League, Theo Zwanziger; as well as other exponents of political and public life. After the service, there will be a welcome feast for showing all the initiatives promoted by the Churches during the world football championship.
