SUNDAY IN VÄXJÖ JULY 2013

Surprised by Sunday Worship in Växjö in July 2013

Växjö – cathedral town, seat of the Bishop of Växjö Diocese, in southern Sweden – is 16 kilometres from here. This particular Sunday, 28 July, I was on my own and I decided to go to the cathedral on bicycle, a most wonderful tour on small roads and cycle paths in a mature summer landscape, as we have been endowed with a warm summer this year.

Holiday time it is and people have fled to the coastal areas and the church was really scarcely populated, a few people scattered all over.

The minister, Anna Borgström however welcomed us with great joy and bravura and the now nearly retired Cathedral Organist, Thomas Niklasson, indeed used the fairly new organ in the southern isle with full gusto. What I enjoy when back in Sweden again is the music in our churches and the professionalism that goes with all our organists and choir leaders.

We were welcomed into the ordinary high mass, the deacon read the gospel. The sermon was relevant in the sense that Borgström talked on stewardship in two ways, it is about, she said, being steward of yourself, your life, and it is about being steward of the gospel of Christ.

So far, so good; only afterwards I realised that she had made no reference to the gospel text from Luke 12.42-48, or any other text read earlier in the service whatsoever. I thought that was remarkable, but this may well be a trend in our church right now. At the first of Advent, many years ago, Professor Leslie Houlden took the service in a south London Anglican church but he did not even bother to preach, he just read a circular letter from the local bishop. I thought this was very poor and was at the same time made aware of the fact that as a Lutheran church we have a tradition that compels us to preach on the biblical texts.

Borgström, who has served as a hospital chaplain in Växjö for many years, ended off the service by declaring from below the altar: now go out into the world and make love as much as possible!

Before I tell about the second leg of this Sunday I just want to indicate that I will comment on the interpretation of biblical texts in worship contexts and I will do so in another blog in the near future. I will then argue that the crucial point here is not how we interpret (within certain limits of course) but the fact that we interpret texts without ceasing. I will also ask what our bishops are prepared to do in terms of equipping clergy for a vigorous proclamation and interpretation of the Word.

After a short chat at the back of the cathedral where indeed coffee was served, I moved on to the lake side about 300 m down the road, a very popular spot in Växjö these days for walks, runs, or frequenting one of the cafés or restaurants there.

As I stopped with my bicycle just outside the café I heard a sound from upstairs as if from somebody hard at prayer. It was correct, on the first floor there was a worship service under way and I made my way upstairs to see what was going on. I was not able to take part much as people were winding up, but I could see for myself the following picture: a fairly small room filled with basically young people, 60 – 80 in all; of these perhaps three were whites the rest were Africans!

I was able to talk to one of the leaders and he gave me a pamphlet about their church, a Växjö based congregation and the church’s name is The Redeemed Christian Church of God; and English they speak. The immigrant communities in Sweden are in various stages of formation and one important part of this formation is establishing Christian churches. One may discuss in how far they pose a challenge to the Church of Sweden and other established churches. I personally feel that we are challenged to the bones of our existence. Just one little aspect; more than half of the congregation at the lakeside consisted of young, black males; in the cathedral there were hardly any young men at all, a standard feature of our church for the last number of years; then those who worshipped in the cathedral were not more than those at the lakeside (one may have to check the cathedral statistics for this).

I however left town a bit later fully convinced that what is taking place in Växjö in terms of Christian religion is absolutely positive and I for one will have to make contact with this new church having chosen the lakeside as worship place.