Church hosts service celebrating ‘Star Wars’ release

A church in Berlin marked the release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” with a galactic service, Reuters reports.

At the Zion Church Sunday children carried toy lightsabers and an organist played the movie series’ them, according to Reuters. Vicar-in-training Ulrike Garve opened the Protestant service by saying, “The wait is over – the Force has awakened,” Reuters reports.

Five hundred people packed the church Sunday for the service, which included a screen next to the altar on which a clip from a “Star Wars” movie was played, according to Reuters. The selected clip showed Luke Skywalker defeating Darth Vader and declaring he would never turn to the Dark Side.

Garve and Lucas Ludewig, also a vicar in training, said the clip reflected the importance of eschewing violence, Reuters reports.

“The more we talked about it, the more parallels we discovered between Christian traditions and the movies,” said Garve. “We wanted to make churchgoers aware of these analogies.”

According to Reuters, some people on social media have called the service sinful and disgraceful.