Not Our Cup of Tea

This Sunday we resumed what we have come to call our religious odyssey by attending Sunday service at The English Church here in Stockholm.  Also known as St. Peter & St. Siegfried’s, the English Church is a Church of England Anglican Episcopal house of worship.

We began our pilgrimages to houses of worship when we lived in Bangalore (2005 – 2007).  Distant from our familiar Unitarian Universalist churches, we ventured forth on Sundays to partake in local religious worship.  Many of our journeys were to Christian churches left behind by the British in southern India.  To expand our religious boundaries and despite our feeble understanding of Hindu rituals, at times we partook in individualistic religious worship when we encountered a Hindu temple.

Common to all our odyssey adventures was the openness extended to us to join in religious ceremony.  Also unifying was the deep devotion we witnessed in the faithful across a wide spectrum of beliefs and faith.  Such was our experience on Sunday.

Upon arrival, we were welcomed by the cheery, British-accented minister, the Reverend Nick Howe, and invited to find seats in the sanctuary.  The church was originally built in Liverpool in 1866 and later moved to Stockholm in 1913.  Designed in a neo-Gothic style using red and pink sandstone, a circular extension was added in 1984.

 The service began promptly at 11:00 and proceeded on its own languid and solemn pace for the next hour and twenty minutes. 

The faithful, numbering between 90  and 100 souls, participated with devotion in the theist-centric traditions on which the service was rooted.   We, too, were once grounded to such roots, but long ago ventured forth on a different religious course.   Thus, we comprehended the rhythm of pray, absolution, communion and benediction, but witnessed all from a respectful distance.  Our spirits were not renewed. We will continue our search for a religious home.

Yet, this was an inviting congregation.  After the service, we accepted a kind initiation to attend the social hour where coffee, finger food and conversation are exchanged.    The main event of this social hour was closely coordinated with the Sunday sermon theme of harvest and bounty.   An auction to sell the bounty provided by congregants had been planned to raise funds for a children’s orphanage in Riga, Latvia and a soup kitchen in Johannesburg, South Africa.  

Helen was an active bidder.  “Who will bid 50 crowns for this jar of homemade strawberry-rhubarb jam?”  In response, Helen’s hand would quickly fly heavenward.  Our eventual “take” was a pan of homemade brownies and two plastic bags filled with the most delicious butternut squash soup.

So at the close of this Sunday’s religious odyssey, our souls remained hungry, but our stomachs were filled.   

Amen…Shalom…May it be so.