A state vice-president had announced that she would attend the celebrations of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN), a few members of parliament were there, but the prime minister only sent a letter, as did his colleague from Rhineland-Palatinate.

You can't always be everywhere, you don't have to overestimate the absences - and yet they are brushstrokes on a darkening picture.

The official church, whether Protestant or Catholic, is losing influence in society.

Partly through their own fault, partly because society is changing.

And yet, despite the decline in membership, 1.4 million people are still members of the EKHN.

For comparison: Even the booming football brand Eintracht Frankfurt has "only" a good 115,000 members in the club.

who would come

The times are as they are for the churches, after all, the Catholic bishop from Mainz came to the hook.

But they were even darker for the believing Christians when the new beginning in Friedberg was initiated after the war, when a visit by the Bishop of Mainz, despite an invitation, was of course out of the question.

Martin Niemöller, previously Adolf Hitler's "personal prisoner", stands for this time of new beginnings with his powerful words and stubbornness: his church should be combative and pious at the same time, people no longer wanted to look the other way when injustice was revealed, like the whole church after the war bold to confess, happier to believe, to love more ardently.

The church of the pacifist Niemöller

She has often succeeded, but also alienated some in the process - from earlier questions of rearmament to the rescue of refugees.

And now?

If there is a war in the Ukraine, the church of the pacifist Niemöller clearly takes sides with the Ukrainian people who are suffering from the Russian war of aggression.

The world is debating climate change, and here, too, the Church's position is easy to discern.

A more attractive offer today would not only have to do with political positions.

In fact, the church has only one office: it has to carry the good news of the gospel into the world.

She and her members in all their diversity must be concerned with serving one another.

It's always about God's Word.

Church President Volker Jung took up these thoughts from the sermon at the start of the Church Congress, which led to the founding of his church 75 years ago.

Rightly so, because it is important to remember this in everyday work in the community.

And only if that succeeds will a prime minister come to the 100th anniversary celebrations.