Bookwitch

Save our church.

An email yesterday told me my letter to the leading Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter had actually succeeded in getting published, but nobody could find it. A phone call to the Retired Children’s Librarian, revealed that it was in on Sunday (was she intending to tell me?), and the “church powers” got a reply in yesterday.

Uppsala intend to close the Scandinavian church in Liverpool at the end of the year. What’s a thriving congregation in a listed 125-year-old church building in the North West of England worth, when those who know better, want to go to Thailand and start up a new church instead?

It’s not lack of money, as we have been led to believe over the years. London has two churches and two ministers already, but will now get a third minister when we lose ours. And Thailand and Florida and China are going to have both churches and ministers.

The head of churches abroad has had the nerve to say we have the wrong kind of Swedes in Liverpool. Never mind Scandinavians, now, it’s only Swedes who count. The right kind, that is. The right kind lives in Sweden and goes abroad now and then and ends up in trouble and needs help from the church. They like the idea of visiting people in jails and hospitals. It’s nice that they do, but we feel we have the right to survive, without going to jail first.

We have been emailing the Archbishop a lot. We’ve written letters and emails to lots of people. We’ve made it into the news in England. I was at a loss of how to ask for more help here, but then this internet based petition materialised.

Would you sign it, please?

There is now very little time left, and any help is much appreciated.