A Grief Observed- On Being a Priest in a Dying Church

[via] The Confessing Reader (and other sources) ^ | 2004 | Folke T. Olofsson

[sionnsar]

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Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15

[Lion in Winter]

Apparently, the CHURCH OF SWEDEN IS THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN not of Jesus Christ.

So, pastor leave that Church and find your way HOME to Jesus Christ. YOU can do it.

[utahguy]

(snip) Am I depressed or even dejected? Yes. Am I overweight due to inertia, lack of exercise and comfort eating? Yes. Is my blood pressure too high

of exercise and comfort eating? Yes

For what it's worth . . .. The Bible says to sow seeds. you can't do that sitting on your rear feeling sorry for yourself. A guy named Jesus showed us the way, and it wasn't exactly peachs & cream for him.

[sionnsar]

At my installation twenty-three years ago I promised before the altar of God, before the then Archbishop Dr. Bertil Werkström and before the whole congregation, that I would undertake the office of a pastor for the congregations of Rasbo, Rasbokil, Tuna and Stavby, and as this commission has not been revoked, is that what I am going to do until further notice?

I agree with both of you -- but I don't fully understand the nature of the promise he made. Is it as binding as, say, a wedding vow (ought to be), but without at least the relief of a separation? I do not know.

I've seen some of what he saw in my old church, and the grief of leaving, of even considering leaving, is very real. (But at least once having left, it is behind one.)

[redgolum]

FYI ping

[hinckley buzzard]

"Apparently, the CHURCH OF SWEDEN IS THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN not of Jesus Christ."

The Church of Sweden was a Lutheran church before it sold out. There is nothing Lutheran, nor Christian, about it now.

The American ELCA is following down the same path.
Next August a number of Lutheran Churches will leave the ELCA over its abandonment of Scripture at the behest of the homosexual pressure groups. The ELCA powers-that-be will be grimly and self-righteously indifferent to the grievous wound they have caused to the body of Christ.

[Salvation]

Excellent yet sad article.

[fiercebunny]

Very interesting, especially because I have good friends who went to Sweden last year as missionaries with the Vineyard Church. They are hopeful about their mission, but say the situation there is dire. IIRC, they said that only 4% of the population attends church, and that is mainly the elderly. On top of that, consider that many of the attendees may not even be Christians. Church is viewed as an old fashioned thing that's no longer in style.

The out of wedlock birth rate in Sweden is sky high because marriage is practically irrelevant -- couples choose to live together instead of marry. "Stay at home moms" are almost non-existant -- our friends say every mom they know works outside of the home, and that Swedes are perplexed by the idea of staying home (some of this is due to their outrageous tax rate, I am sure). Sex among the unmarried is treated casually, more as "healthy exercise" than anything else.

Our friends are, however, seeing a lot of conversions amongst the immigrant population, who were long abused by native Swedes. So it's not all bad, but it's bad for Western Europe in general, which, IMO, has long since discarded God.

[Charles Henrickson]

I'm back.

Ping to the Swedish Ping List.

[Charles Henrickson]

Ping to the Lutheran Ping List.

[Styria]

The good news in Sweden deserves linking too.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1337460/posts

http://paulmccain.worldmagblog.com/paulmccain/archives/012473.html

[Nowhere Man]

Good article but sad, a good blueprint on how things can happen here (and are happening) if we don't watch out He better watch, the Swedish PC police will get him. B-(

[franksolich]

All of this talk about the "decline" of the church (any church; mine happens to be Roman Catholic), the decline of belief and trust in God, is bantered about by people who have no concept of history.

Right now, yeah, sure, it's cool, it's hip, it's trendy, to be a "rational" person--to disbelieve anything that cannot be "explained" in the cerebral morass of the human mind.

If it cannot be "explained," it does not exist.

Bah, humbug.

Been there, done that, seen that.

I doubt it is going to happen any time soon, but based upon the known tendencies of mankind throughout the ages, I have no doubt that some day, sooner or later, something is going to happen, and people will come to their senses, and the churches of Sweden (and everywhere else) are going to be jampacked to the rafters, all these pious non-believers suddenly realizing that God exists, and God is here.

[hinckley buzzard]

You've been through the mill, it looks like! I was first LCA then ELCA, now ???

Sad, because it was the classic conservative Lutheran theology which attracted me. No sooner did I join, than they began to try to be "relevant." Sheesh.

[sionnsar]

Thank you for posting this link. I don't know Swedish but at the very least it was a fascinating exercise to read this, relying on an my little bit of German & Latin (Gaelic was unsurprisingly no help) -- with fallback to the Swedish-speaking wife when all else failed. (I have also now discerned that English is rather closer to Norwegian than Swedish.)

But his story... what a heartache...