- the fuzzy
pictures are from video-film, and the rain outside made everything so
dark inside -
Around
70 people met up at the Old Church of Ytterlennes on Friday 12th August
2005 to celebrate the 190th anniversary of the Roadside Church together
with the closing of the 2005 season.
The
evening offered a rich selection of tones and words, and 16 musicians
aged between 5 and 50 sang in parts and played violins, trumpet, recorder,
harpsichord, harp and organ from all the corners of the church.
- photos:
Sven Palmquist -
From
the coffee-house a procession went up to the church , and in through
the porch to the notes of Laudate omnes gentes in the Taizé
tradition.
Then
a Swedish student-songs from the period when the Ytterlennes madonna
was new, around 1500, pieces from Catholic Rome, from Protestant England
and from the
Baptist part-singing tradition of the American South.
As a symbol of the Roadside
church as a weaving-together of many different contributions, six people
with different connections to the church - a priest, a church-warden,
a caretaker, a former guide, a guide-in-training and a regular visitor
- read a verse each of the 23rd psalm, The Lord is my shepherd,
to illustrative tones from the harp.
Dean
Karin Bodin gave an address and the blessing, coördinator David
Kettlewell gave an overview
of the season just past. This had seen 50% more visitors than the previous
year, with presentations in Swedish, English, German and French, to
people from Lutheran, Catholic and Orthodox backgrounds as well as from
Hindu, Bhuddist and Taoist cultures. They came from Tai Pei, Bangkok
and Calcutta, from Balujistan, Cuba, and USA, and from the nearby villages
of Hällsjö, Sandslån and Sunnanåker.
In the
coffee-house local farmer Olle Svanholm and neighbour Vivi-Anne Wallin
described how a grain store and garage was converted into a delightful
coffee-house. Diocesan priest Leif Selling talked about the development
of the concept of the Roadside church from a national perspective, brought
a greeting and blessing from the Bishop, and assured us that today's
Roadside church in Ytterlennes is something big and contains many elements
not found elsewhere. Håkan Wallstén and Karin Skoglund
described how the Roadside church started in Ytterlennes with guide
training and the coffee house, and the evening finished with an informal
exchange of stories and memories from many others.
