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Protestant Church of Hesse and Nassau
World News

Robot blessings for German churchgoers

BlessU-2 is being used in an evangelical church in Wittenberug, Germany and has been made to mark the 500th Anniversary of the reformation.

The 'priest' delivers a range of automated blessings in German, French, English, Spanish and Polish and can speak with either a male or a female voice.

It has arms, a face and even a light up nose. Worshipers use its touch screen to tell it what type of blessing they want before it finishes with raising its arms and reciting a bible verse.

It can even print out the chosen blessing.

Coming after half a millennia since the reformation, the robot is once again set to cause a debate about the role of the church and what the future holds for it.

Speaking to the Guardian, Stephen Krebs from the Protestant church in Hesse and Nassau said: "We wanted people to consider if it is possible to be blessed by a machine, or if a human being is needed.

"We don't want to robotise our church work, but see if we can bring a theological perspective to a machine."

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