I’ve been here in Porvoo for the last three days – at a meeting of the Primates of the churches of the Communion. It’s a very beautiful place – about 50 km from Helsinki.
I preached at the closing Eucharist in the Cathedral [above]. The [slightly remarkable] picture is with the Bishop of Porvoo and the Dean.
The Lutheran Churches are fascinating. The founding documents of the Lutheran Federation state that ‘This Federation is a Communion’. So they deal with the same issues as beset Anglicans. They also have stresses and strains around sexuality issues.
And then there are the eye-watering amounts of money which come from church tax. Porvoo is much smaller than Perth. The parish has 25000 people and 10 priests. Could it really be that the income of the Finnish Lutheran Church is 800 m euro per year and it has 21000 staff?
Would like to read the sermon – link looks to be broken.
Sorry – I’ve never been able to manage the latest update of WordPress. I can do photos but not upload files. I’ll have to explore a bit round the back