In June my husband and I had the great luck to be in Stockholm, Sweden (for the first time) on a Sunday morning. As we began walking around town, we arrived at the entrance to the Stockholm Cathedral and promptly went inside to worship. Because we were a few minutes late, we grabbed our Swedish hymnals and service folders and made our way to an empty pew near the front (yes, I’m still a “real” Lutheran even though I sat at the front) where we had a clear view of the worship leaders and the altar area.
The service folder was, to no one’s surprise, in Swedish, as were the hymns. I’m sure if I had done some due diligence before I arrived in Stockholm I could have found an English-speaking church; it also turned out that they had English-printed service folders in a back pew, which we found at the end of the service, and was likely announced at the beginning, but again, we were a few minutes late.
And yet. And yet. We listened to the readings in Swedish and an aria from Bach’s St. John Passion in German. We said the Creed and Lord’s Prayer together in our own languages. The peace was exchanged. Bread and wine were consumed.
The ordo was as I experience it in most ELCA churches. Even though I could only approximate the Swedish language from what I knew of pronunciation before, I was fully able to sing the Gradual Hymn, “Amazing Grace,” as well as the Offertory hymn. I was able to follow a sermon in another language because I knew he was preaching on the Parable of the Mustard Seed, and the preacher was excellent. It was all a gift.
Our ELCA worship resources are vast and wide, especially since the publications of ELW and ACS. We have a richness of possibility in our liturgical choices and in our hymns that allows us to really home in on the message of the gospel each and every Sunday. And yet, many congregations choose to establish their own ordo, one which is unfamiliar and requires either constant explanation and announcements, or goes without those completely, stranding us in a liturgy that has no formational motion—only movement of one thing to another.
And so, Sweden. It was only one congregation. But in that service I felt as at home as I would have felt at St. Mark’s ELCA in Baldwinsville, NY. Gathering, Word, Meal, Sending: I knew it by heart. I followed it in Swedish, and rejoiced that in those moments I was reminded that I am a member of the body of Christ no matter where I am. Thanks be to God!
