Equal & Different - again...
EQUAL AND DIFFERENT - again...
"Equal and different…" - this is a pretty good start for defining this website theme "The Swedish Christianity". Following expression says the main meaning: "The Swedish Christianity is equal and different".
Sweden Finns - people from Finland with the Finnish language as mother tongue - are almost 500.000 inhabitants in Sweden. They have their church fellowship in the Church of Sweden, or the Finnish Orthodox church or they belong to the about 75.000 Tornio River valley Laestadians.
Equal and different… We are Swedes and Finns in The Swedish Christianity. We are equal in the basics of Faith, but different in language, dogmas, traditions and Service and Mess agendas.
Michael Harper, Anglican priest converted to the Orthodox church, wrote a book with the title Equal and Different, 1994. Read more about Harper >>
About a >> charismatic catholic Conference in Rimini 1996 April 25th-28th.
The Book is about leadership in Church and Family and talks about male and female as equal and different. In church and family we are equal and different.
Equal and different… So also in The Swedish Christianity. Sweden Finns, Anglicans, Laestadians, Orthodox etc
In the province Småland of Sweden a young couple went as missionaries to Africa in the ´50ies. And... Off they went.
They have been out there working for more than 50 years. They had different backgrounds, one from Swedish Alliance Missionary Society, the other from Evangelical Lutheran Mission or ELM. The got support from different donors, one got it from The Swedish Salvation Army. Sometimes the Church of Sweden missed a Swedish preacher. Therefore one of these Swedish SAM missionaries stood serving people with the Swedish Mess agenda, "högässa utan nattvard".
This is another example of what we are focusing - The Swedish Christianity as both Equal and Different. My friends have been in Africa for 50 years and are recently home-comers. They are - in their experiences during decades - wonderful pictures with the manifoldness in the global and national Body of Christ.
Equal and Different… Equal in ministries with many churches and denominations and in different manners and traditions, nut Equal in the centre of faith and grace. Christ Jesus is the One who is able to bless and deepen the relations to each other. So… it is in The Swedish Christianity.
/DS
