Rewarding visit to Gothenburg

We always enjoy being on the west coast of Sweden. The second largest city of our country, Göteborg (Gothenburg in translation), is friendly and has always been multicultural. People traditionally have a good sense of humour. Unfortunately I have to avoid sharing some of the jokes. They are usually impossible to translate to another language.

We went there on Friday and spent a nice evening with my eldest brother and his wife. Saturday morning we joined the Lerum Parish and their two buses headed for Åh Diocesan Conference centre. The parish, where my brother serves as Rector, went for a Parish outing with games, food and workshops. We ended with a Holy Communion service.

Two things are important to mention (among others). First, we had promised prayer, contextual bible study, singing and dancing in our workshop. Swedish people generally describe themselves as stiff (when it comes to dancing) and shy (singing or praying). This was, however, not our experience yesterday. I was so happy to see the participants, especially some elderly ladies, and their excitement about dancing and singing. When we asked everyone to say a prayer, somebody said loudly:

Now it will become silent!

But that did not happen. Almost everyone said a prayer. Our interpretation is that members of the Church of Sweden want to participate. They are not shy. They are not often invited to participate.

Second, the concluding Eucharist service started with dance. A group of children and their leaders danced in front of the altar and we were invited to take part.

After spending the evening with good friends, we joined them for the Sunday Service in Bergsjön Lutheran Church. Bergsjön is a well-known part of Göteborg. There are many social problems there. People from more than 100 nationalities live there and there is a lot of poverty and unemployment. The congregation functions very well in this context. Part of the Church is a second hand shop. The congregation also give all kind of support to immigrants in general and refugees in particular. There is a clinic with medical doctors, lawyers go there voluntarily etc.

Before the service started we took a short walk in the neighbourhood and paid a visit to the Syrian Orthodox Church where our host-family have friends. It's an impressing church. But we did not stay more than a few minutes before we walked back to the Lutheran Church.

So, we enjoyed a High mass with lots of nationalities and prayers in Arabic and Tigrinya as a complement to Swedish.

When we had tea and coffee in the hall after the service we shared table with a refugee from Iran, who had been in Sweden eight years and two persons from Syria, who had been in Sweden two days.

This weekend gave us so much. Meeting family, friends and people who come from other parts of the world – it is so enriching.

Children and adults dancing in front of the altar.

Prayers in different languages

The risen Jesus Christ above the altar, priest and lay ministers.

The Sunday School sings!