HEREFORD Cathedral will hold a special commemorative Eucharist to mark the 70th anniversary of a church leader at the hands of Hitler's henchmen.

The event, on Thursday, April 9, will celebrate the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazi regime in 1945.

The service, which begins at 12.15pm, will be a Lutheran Eucharist conducted by Pastor Brigitte Malik, who is working in the Diocese of Hereford for three years as a member of the Ludlow Team Ministry.

The preacher will be Pastor Ivo Huber, Ecumenical Officer of the Lutheran Church of Bavaria, who is coming over from Germany especially for this one service.

The service will be a ecumenical first in that Lutheran Eucharist has never been celebrated in Hereford Cathedral before.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the most significant theologians and church leaders in Germany in the 20th century. In the 1930s he worked for a time as Pastor of the Lutheran Church in London.

Returning to Germany, he worked with Karl Barth and Martin Niemoeller to lead the Confessing Church which refused to take oath to Hitler.

However, he allowed himself to be recruited into the German counter-intelligence service, where he worked underground for the resistance.

He was a member of the circle involved in the failed attempt on Hitler’s life in 1944, and he was arrested, imprisoned and executed shortly before the Allied victory.

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