Posted Sunday 1 June 2008
My usual stamping-ground on behalf of the Scottish Episcopal Church is the triangle bounded by Glasgow, Edinburgh and Castle Douglas, so a recent trip to a conference in Sweden was a rare treat indeed, writes the Rev Canon David Bayne.
Its purpose was to offer Anglican clergy an insight into the Nordic Lutheran Churches with which we are now in communion under the Porvoo Agreement.
From a packed four days I’d like to share just one highlight, in a visit to the Parish Centre at Kista—a quite poor and ethnically diverse parish in the northern suburbs of Stockholm.
The building is a modern symphony in red brick, with the church embedded in a complex that includes meeting rooms, offices, café, crèche and crypt-auditorium.
The rector, Dr Michael Öjermo, explained that the architect had drawn his inspiration from a crucifix that now hangs in the Lady Chapel. Found in a flea-market in Cologne in the aftermath of World War II, the crucifix is the bomb-damaged ruin of a once-valuable object: the cross is no more than a remnant of gold leaf, from which hangs a Christ whose arms have been blown off.
It’s an image both shocking and moving that says to all who see it: ‘I have no hands but yours…’
No longer valuable, but somehow more precious.
From that image has risen a church centre dedicated to working for Christ in its community. And it does indeed work.
On a Saturday afternoon the place bustled with activity that clearly was not just for our benefit: two baptismal parties; practising musicians; meetings; people having a coffee. And then there are the Lutheran, Eritrean Coptic, Iranian and South American congregations who deserve an article to themselves.
This surely has to be one model for the future of the Church. Christians of all kinds of backgrounds sharing their faith, glorying in their diversity, worshipping as they work, for the sake not just of themselves, but of the people around them.
And, at the quiet centre of it all, Christ, gently insistent: ‘I have no hands but yours.’
Category: Companion Dioceses Action Network, Thought for the Month
