Leipzig (dpa / sn) - The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony lost numerous members last year. "Our regional church lost a five-digit number of members last year due to resignations and the large excess of the deceased compared to the newly baptized," said regional bishop Tobias Bilz on Sunday in his pulpit speech in Leipzig's Michaeliskirche. The success as well as the failure of the church must be addressed, demanded Bilz. At the end of 2021, the number of members in the regional church was 628,708.
It can hurt that many of the church's tasks - such as social work, education or pastoral care - are carried out alone within society, says Bilz. "But we are no longer monopolists. Others offer the same thing - and they do it pretty well!"
Bilz also criticized the inertia of the church: "It's as if we're somehow always a step behind because we can't get out of the fold," he said. This applies, for example, to the digitization of the church and the conversion of its structures. In the future, it will also be the task of the church to "keep the hatch open to heaven," said Bilz.
