German Church Celebrates Star Wars During Sunday Service

A church in Germany combined its celebration of the latest Star Wars release with its Sunday service, luring in hundreds of congregants wielding lightsabers and Darth Vader masks.

About 500 people packed into Berlin’s Zion Church for a special Sunday service meant to mark the release of the latest The Force Awakens blockbuster while drawing more young people into the holy house, Reuters reports. It was more than twice the average congregation size.

“We were very happy to see so many people in the church today,” pastor Lucas Ludewig told The Guardian. “They trust us to make them part of the church service without making it too Christian or too Star Wars, but to find a good compromise.”

The iconic theme song played from the organs while a screen set up next to the altar showed a clip from the saga, according to Reuters.

Church leaders compared Star Wars to references in the New Testament of the Christian Bible of overcoming evil with good.

“The more we talked about it, the more parallels we discovered between Christian traditions and the movies,” Ulrike Garve, a vicar in training, told the news agency. “We wanted to make churchgoers aware of these analogies.”