Berlin church celebrates 'Star Wars' service

A Berlin church celebrated a service with a "Star Wars" theme Sunday, with lightsaber-wielding pastors preaching parallels between Christianity and the blockbuster movie series to costumed parishioners.

The Zion Church in the Mitte district seized on last week's world premiere of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", which is breaking box office records, as a universal parable of good and evil.

A few hundred people turned out for the event at the Protestant house of worship four days before Christmas, at a time when many German churches are struggling to keep up attendance, membership and donations. Pastors-in-training Ulrike Garve, 29, and Lucas Ludewig, 30, brandished red toy lightsabers as they delivered their sermon from the altar.

"The more we talked about the films, the more parallels we saw with Christian traditions," Garve said in a statement ahead of the event. "We want to explain these parallels to visitors of the church service."

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