01 September 2006

Sad Reading

Dr. Tighe recently was kind enough to share this piece with me. Very sad. An insider's view of the take-over of the Swedish Church. I warn you, it's long, but it is also gripping. It's worth printing it out and reading it through. Most intriguing to me were these words, which ring hauntingly familiar:

The Free Synod was met with questions and suspicion, but even more with overt hostility not only from the Socialist and Liberal press which instinctively struck at and vilified the Synod or anyone or anything that resembled it, its leaders and its members. The hostility also come from the Bishops and the religio-political establishment. Seen in a retrospect the Synod proved to be a failure, and one reason for this failure being that the inbuilt tension between the catholicizers and the confessionalists never really was resolved. It was not enough to be a champion of the Bible and opposing the politicization of the church, the ordination of women being one of its symptoms. It is always easy to unite against something; it is much more difficult to rally people for something.

http://www.kalin.nu/english/olofsson.htm

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The excerpt that you meant to highlight is illegible.

Btw, elsewhere on Pastor Kalin's website he has posted the long essay that I wrote on the Church of Sweden and which was published in *Touchstone* in March 2003 and in *New Directions* in May of that year. In fact, I believe that he has posted both the original version that I wrote, and the shortened (but also updated) published version. you may find it of interest as well.

Anonymous said...

Not up for the lengthy read, I opted to copy the teeny, tiny text over to my word processor and increase the font size.

The text reads:

The Free Synod was met with questions and suspicion, but even more with overt hostility not only from the Socialist and Liberal press which instinctively struck at and vilified the Synod or anyone or anything that resembled it, its leaders and its members. The hostility also come from the Bishops and the religio-political establishment. Seen in a retrospect the Synod proved to be a failure, and one reason for this failure being that the inbuilt tension between the catholicizers and the confessionalists never really was resolved. It was not enough to be a champion of the Bible and opposing the politicization of the church, the ordination of women being one of its symptoms. It is always easy to unite against something; it is much more difficult to rally people for something.

William Weedon said...

Thanks, Dixie (Rose?). The text came through clear in the post on my computer so I am not exactly sure what the problem is, but I'm glad someone fixed it!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Dixie (Rose?).

Whoops!!! Yes, it's Rose. Forgot where I was! It's Rose on the Lutheran blogs, Dixie on the Orthodox blogs and Sister Margaret Joseph on the Latin Mass only Roman Catholic blogs. No wonder I can't keep it all straight! ;) (joking, of course, about the last one anyway!)