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Tuesday
21st December:
Focus: We gave this day to explore
a wider base for African-European Churches
partnership work in Africa
We
travelled to Stockhom to talk with the
International Department of the Church
of Sweden (Lutheran). We spent quite a
time with the information officer, Eva
Bulow.
She
indicated the four arms of the Swedish
Churches:
a)
Education
b)
The Diaconate (caring services)
c) The congregations (local congregations)
d)
Mission - which includes overseas work
and evangelism by local teams/congregations.
She
also mentioned alongside Mission the Swedish
Aid which channels relief resources to
the Churches overseas.
She
also indicated that there is the Polvore
Agreement between the Swedish Church
and the Anglican church which helps to
enable the two to team up (and avoid duplication)
in overseas mission work. She named the
Lutheran World Federation and the World
Council of churches as wider Church organisations
which the Swedish Church participates
and fellowships. However, within Sweden,
the Christian Churches Council of Sweden
is separate from the church of Sweden.
Both the Church of Sweden and the Christian
Churches Council of Sweden work parallel
to each other in overseas missions and
services.
Henry
and James then visited the leadership
of the Word of Love Church in Stockholm.
This is an independent Church whose membership
mostly live in the deprived parts of Stockholm.
The Churches serves mostly the African
communities in the city. The Church is
led by Catherine with her husband Israel
assisting. We discussed with the couple
on 'Pastoral Ministry in the Urban Setting'.
We concluded the discussion with a conviction
that the pastoral team of the urban Church
is always bigger than the Sunday preaching/worshipping
team; that such pastoral team is inter-sectoral
and inter-disciplinary from training or
experience.
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A
day at Stockholm 
