Category: blog

Today, I have wondered if it would be possible to get the Church in Sweden to adopt the diocese of Argyll and the Isles. 

We need nothing more than the crumbs from the table, you see.

A priest came today to tell us about his church.  He is the vicar in community of about 20,000 people.  On his staff he has:

• 8 priests
• 5 permanent deacons
• 10 full time youth & childrens´workers
• 2 caretakers
• 2 accountants
• 1 secretary
• 2 administrative assistants
• 4 full time musicians
• 1 caretaker
• several grounds workers 
• a number of others whose roles I forget

The annual budget is roughly equivalent to four million pounds.

Now, once I stopped laughing hysterically, I could see that it was not all rosey.  The effect of so many trained and paid staff is that it can be very hard for lay people in the congregation to offer their gifts or feel that they can contribute meaningfully.  It may also be much harder to encourage people to believe that they have a role in the church, or to grow in adult discipleship.  

There are questions too to be raised about what this means for the vicar and how he remains priest rather than business manager. 

But still, a few crumbs would be nice.  Let´s say, one priest, one deacon, an administrative assistant, a groundsworker and a one-off gift of half a million pounds?  But I suppose that is just for Cowal and Bute…

(pray for me.  the spell check is in Swedish…)

Uppsala feels strangely familiar.  I sat at breakfast, watching the ducks on the water and so easily could have been sitting in Boston, looking across the river to Harvard.  There are more bicycles, of course.  And more cured fish.  But these are little things.

I didn´t expect Sweden to be so easy.  It helps that everyone speaks such good English.  But it is more than that.  In France I feel foreign, even if I´m among English speakers.  Not so here.

The church does feel different.  Lots of money, lots of clergy, lots of haste (whoops, where did that eucharistic prayer go? body and blood already.)  One of the theories offered yesterday was that churches stagnate when worship is done in one way at one time, and grow when the patten of worship is abundant and diverse.  So, that sounds like an easy plan for growth.  But the person speaking also said that the challenge was to get clergy to try new things.  I wonder if that is made worse by the history of economic stability in the church — by the tradition that says ´this is how we do things.   Why change?´

That said, if it is true in Sweden, it may be equally true in the UK.

The church also feels more Anglican than I was expecting it to.  Bishops very much evident in the ecclesiology.  Familiar visual aesthetic.  This is not the German Lutheranism that is more familiar to me from the States.  

So, today, we get more statistics (is the love of statistics an “establishment” thing?) and a seminar on music.  I´m hoping for some theology before we go, but I fear I may hope in vain.

If any of you see Molly before I do, give her my love.  Poor  puss. 

 

Do you suppose News from Lake Wobegone provides sufficient cultural context for an American Scottish Epsicopalian about to travel to Sweden for a conference on the Lutheran church?

(this question sponsored by Bertha’s Kitty Boutique.  Remember, if you must leave your cat behind, the least you can do is bring them herring.)

Things I just couldn’t make sense of today and find disturbing:

• Rent a Dog. Too busy to commit? Just treat an animal like a DVD.
• Hilary Clinton. Dear Iran: we would totally obliterate you.
• Behind every great man. Margaret Cook interviews the woman married to the man known as ‘Britain’s worst chauvinist’. A powerful reminder of why Consciousness Raising is still necessary. You need to go at least 5 minutes in before true colours begin to show.