Gott Nytt År – Happy New Year

Christmas Eve means porridge and ham at Gustav Adolf

It was very busy indeed for Gustav Adolf’s Christmas Eve service. Not ’sold out’, but pretty close, which is good for somewhere that has to not just attract people from some distance away, but to get them to give up their Scandinavian Christmas Eves at home. It looked like business as usual on the way, with queues for shopping, but for us Nordics it was the start of Christmas together in church.

We got some of our most favourite Christmas hymns, and the traditional readings, as well as some ponderings on the amount of snow and of ’skumtomtar’ (don’t ask!). A beautiful bit of Chopin to end.

The church proceedings made us all more than ready for Mette’s offerings in the room downstairs, where we helped ourselves to ham and cheese along with the loveliest of home made bread, rice porridge, glögg and sweet things which included demolishing the kransekake. Yum.

It was good to meet new people to talk to, as well as the ‘old ones’, and we also had a bit of a Q&A session about our future. Luckily we had Robert Lee on hand to tell us what may happen, and what’s happened so far. It would have been good if our visitor from the London church had been as well informed, but we all know what it’s like to be new.

Now that we no longer have a ‘julotta’ the get us out of bed on Christmas Day morning, this was our last meeting for 2009. Next time will be when we throw the tree out, on January 10th.

(Posted by Ann)

From Kyrkans Tidning

We had hoped to give you a link to something written about us in Kyrkans Tidning recently, but have failed to find one.

Here instead is the text as it was provided by Kristoffer Morén:

‘”Vi firade 125 årsjubileet med pompa och ståt i söndags. Vi hade gäster, bland annat Bertil Grunnesjö, präst i kyrkan till 1963, Liverpools borgmästare och landshövdingen Lord Lieutenant i Merseyside, ett antal anglikanska präster från stan var med och så ungefär 100 av oss i församlingen”, säger Helen Metcalf, sekreterare i kyrkorådet i Liverpool.

“Vi bjöd på vanlig tårta och på smörgåstårtor – det är inte engelsmännen vana vid men de uppskattade dem. Och stämningen var god, vi har tillförsikt – det här ska ordna sig.”

Sjömanskyrkan i Liverpool ska stängas och säljas, det har Svenska kyrkan i utlandet beslutat. Men församlingen vill inte det och en del i arbetet för kyrkans överlevnad är den nya bloggen Save the Scandinavian Church in Liverpool.

Församlingsmedlemmen Ann Giles har hand om den.

“Vi vill nå ut med vad vi försöker göra här, visa vilka vi är och varför vi tycker att kyrkan är viktig. Jag hoppas att det ska ge oss mer stöd i arbetet för att få Sjömanskyrkan att överleva,” säger hon.’

More Lucia songs

And thanks to the hard working Lucia followers in Liverpool, we have even more singing to offer here.

It really is beautiful.

(Video by Gina)

Behind the scenes for Lucia

The Lucia celebration in Gustav Adolf Church in Liverpool on Sunday evening was a spellbinding event. People came from near and far and the church was packed, as always, with Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, as well as half Swedish, half Norwegian, and of course the rest of us who are married to Scandinavians and who have developed an interest in Scandinavian traditions. Being a ‘half Swede’ is often equally important to being a ‘whole’ Swede – in some cases more so, as our children, who are bilingual and have dual nationalities, crave to get to know each side of their cultural background equally. To have the backing and facility of the Scandinavian Church in Liverpool as a springboard to pursue and explore this aim is vital, and of greater significance perhaps than the church in Sweden understand.

The choir arrived to the practice session at 1 pm to discover the choir leader was stuck in traffic after an accident on the M62, with no chance of being there much before the kick off at 5 pm – so we did the best practice we could amongst ourselves. This years Lucia was born and brought up in Sweden, but has lived in Liverpool since 2005. She knows all the songs by heart, having taken part in Lucia school celebrations every year, usually as a tomte, but this year she got to wear the crown of candles. Keeping these traditions, passing them on to our children, and feeling there is a place to meet other people with similar backgrounds is very important when one has chosen to live overseas – one can feel very homesick at these special times during the year.

It’s an experience getting used to having a crown on your head – it feels more like a helmet really – and you have to stand very, very steady and make sure the candles remain as upright as possible, to avoid candle wax dripping on your head or down your back. We had the wonderful addition this year of the Head of Music and a teacher, both violinists, from a school in Manchester as the pianist who normally accompanies the choir was unavoidably absent. They were new to Swedish music but picked up the tunes instantly and provided a particularly special atmospheric folk music effect. The choir was made up of young children and members of the congregation and the singing was beautiful.

Roger Metcalf, the Chairman of LiNC, made the welcome speech in the absence of our present Chaplain Göran Capron Lundqvist. Göran was present for the Saturday evening Lucia in the Anglican Cathedral, but sadly did not choose to stay for our own celebration as he felt he must prioritise the London event. Lucia and her followers were cool and collected. There were solo pieces, both singing and instrumental and our ‘Starboy’ did a fine rendition of ‘Staffan var en stalledräng’.

Mette and Stan Royden, the backbone of everything that happens in the church, provided a magnificent meal for the choir and ‘fika’ afterwards for all the onlookers. What would we do without them? They are a constant, along with the joint committee of LiNC and the church council in an uncertain future. We hope and pray we will still be in the position to have this celebration in our church again next December.

(Report by Gina)

Lucia 2009 Gustav Adolf, Liverpool

Due to illness and other minor disasters we have no firsthand review of Lucia at Gustav Adolf yet. Here is a video clip of the first few minutes of the singing, and very lovely it sounds too.

Enjoy.

As I said the other day, it is all there in the backbone.

(Video provided by Gina)

Our children

Some things you are almost born knowing, like Lucia if you’re a Swede. In exile it’s different, unless you have access to a Swedish church like Gustav Adolf. The first time I attended Lucia in Liverpool, I prayed that the toddler on my lap would stay quiet. Hearing the Lucia song start faintly at the bottom of the stairs up to the church sent shivers through my body, and I wondered who was doing this. Couldn’t be the sailors, surely?

Nah, it seemed that there are ‘ordinary’ Swedes in the church, as well, who had taught their children what to do. Now, singing in another language is easy enough, but I was impressed by Lucia reading verses too. Not bad at all.

After some years it was time for the son to don red pyjamas, bought specially by mormor, and join in. And a little later his sister came too, and was persuaded to wear the white dress rather than the pyjamas. She played with the small electric candle, swirling it in her mouth and through the air as though conducting the music. It’s what they do at a certain age. She wasn’t the first and she wasn’t the last.

The informal ranking order of who is Lucia next time has worked well over the years. So has the idea that it’s all right to turn up on the day, if you know what to do. And usually our children do.

The son was eventually promoted from PJs to white dress and white cone on his head, which he kept up to the advanced age of 18. And our own candle swirler made Lucia one year, reading the verses and everything. Who’d have believed it at the start? Even ‘mere’ half Swedes learn a lot in our church.

Our children truly are marvellous and talented. We’re very proud of them all.

(Posted by Ann)

Våra duktiga barn

Vissa saker sitter i ryggmärgen. Man kan dem utan att tänka nämnvärt, och dit hör Lucia om man bor i Sverige. Som lärarbarn har jag dessutom minnet av arla hembesök från lussande skolklasser. Ganska trevligt om man har vett att vara vaken om ifall att.

I exil är det annat. Eller kan vara det om man är isolerad eller inte bor på rätt ställe. För oss som har tillgång till Liverpools kyrka hör Lucia till varje december, precis som “hemma”. Första gången jag satt i Gustav Adolf med liten son och bad böner att ungen skulle hålla tyst, gick det rysningar i kroppen när Lucia-sången började lite tyst på vägen upp för trappan till kyrkan. Jag liksom undrade vem som kunde göra detta. Inte var det väl sjömännen, i alla fall?

Näe, man lärde sig att det fanns “normala” svenskar här, med barn som lärts upp i Luciakonsten med den äran. Sjunga går väl an på ett annat språk, men inte dåligt att Lucian klarar att läsa verser också.

Efter några år var det dags för sonen att vara med, iklädd röd pyjamas inskaffad av mormor. Sedan kom turen till dottern som med möda övertalades att bära lusselinne i stället för pyjamas, och som körde runt det elektriska ljuset i munnen och dirigerade med det i luften. Men det hör ju till. Hon var inte den första, och inte den sista.

Det informella kösystemet för vem som blir Lucia nästa gång fungerade bra. Likaså systemet att man kunde bara dyka upp samma dag och vara med. Sitter det i ryggmärgen så gör det. Och det satt för det mesta.

Sonen befordrades från pyjamas till vitt linne utan att skämmas, med strut på huvudet, och gjorde detta fram tills han var arton. Hans syster blev till slut Lucia, och klarade versläsandet bra. Det hade jag aldrig trott för alla dessa år sedan. Så nog lär man sig mycket i kyrkan, även om man “bara” är halvsvensk.

Jag är säker på att vi här är mycket mera stolta över våra barns lussande. De är duktiga, hela bunten.

(Skrivet av Ann)

Lucia at the Anglican Cathedral

Christmas time is now approaching very quickly. I know this, because we are about to enjoy the Swedish Lucia at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral on Saturday at 6pm.

It is something very special to see and enjoy the candle light ceremony, especially with the Cathedral lighting turned down so the effect of the 50 strong choir from Örebro, Sweden, carrying the candles can be truly appreciated. Every year now we get a choir coming over to Liverpool specially to carry out this special celebration.

The congregation of the Scandinavian Gustaf Adolf church and Liverpool International Nordic Community look forward to seeing you there on Saturday.

(Posted by Roger Metcalf)

Uppsala lights

Your blog editor has made a flying visit to Uppsala in the darkness of December, which included a short look around the Cathedral.

Bloggredaktören har gjort ett snabbesök i Uppsala i vintermörkret, inkluderande en titt på Domkyrkan. Vacker krubba, och fina ljus, både i kyrkan och på gatorna.