[Transcript of an oral presentation at the closing ceremony on Freday 12th August 2005]

There is so much to tell you about: but I'm not going to do it, otherwise we'll be here all night, I'm just going to mention a few key points. At the end of every season I feel as if it's been a uniquely exciting experience with a countless significant meetings, but this year was really special!

The number of visitors was 50% more than last year, that's a lot, over 2000, if we say that we normally get 30-40 visitors a day, this year we had four days with over10 and one day it was 130, and that was without any bus groups even, it was families and groups of friends, there were a couple of dozen poeple there the whole time, almost like some kind of holiday camp, they were in the church, in the café, in the mediæval workshop and outside - it was very delightful, as long as we could manage to satisfy people needs, spiritual and well as bodily.

For the 'Andrum' at 2 pm every day

(that's a pun on 'breathing space' and 'space for the spirit', a kind of free ecumenical service, it can even be pantheistic, max. 10 minutes)

we had as many as nine different leaders - very stimulating to have so many; we hade everything from 56 attendees to none at all, one day I held it completely on my own, it felt very Catholic and delightful - actually there were two people there, but they had no intention of getting involved, they just imbibed it in the background as they went around enjoying the church in their own way.

It was specially nice that so many poeple came back, like the regular visitor who came every day for the first three weeks, went home to work for three weeks, and then came back for the last week. One older man from Stockholm came with a bus-group organised by the local community college, and the following week came back by car with his mum, who was maybe 85, to buy another CD-ROM.

We've had people from the state concerts organisation Rikskonserter, from the Forestry Management Authority, from the County Museum - two restorers and one pedagogue - and from the museum for the Dales county; we had an organist from Carl Larsson's Sundborn and two others from Stockholm, we've had a pastor from Wisconsin, USA, we had a caretaker from Uppsala cathedral, we had Sweden's youngest church-warden, from Sundsvall. We had a Polish professor who said we would lose all the wall-paintings if we didn't replace the present whitewash on the outside of the church with a porous variety, we had people from the museum who said the pedestal the madonna stands on is so ugly we have to paint it - lots to think about.

We had Swedish Lutherans, of course, we had humanists: we had American Lutherans, Catholics, Orthodox, Hindus, Buddhists and Taoists.

And they've written in the guest book things like

"Thanks for a fantastic presentation in words and music"

"... a memorable moment ..."

"Just to think that there's such a beautiful church so near where you live"

If you look in the mediæval workshop beside the café you'll see there are many lovely paintings, one says in English "Love is wonderful", another "Love is all around" - it's just great when people are so inspired that they paint something like that here; another says

"My name is Katarina Bodin. I'm 13. I live in Stockholm. I'm a bit unusual, but then so is everyone. Have a good time!!! Love from Katta."

We've had so many musicians come; one day we had a pro trumpet-player from Bern in Switzerland, he was very keen to play, he had a concert coming up in a couple of weeks and wanted to stay in practice, he came back the second day and Göran our other organist who also plays trumpet was free, so we had a fantastic 'andrum' with two trumpets and harp and organ, and the Swiss guy even played a Vivaldi trumpet concerto.

Another day four of us, two guides and two church-musicians, were trying out a new song in the café, it was completely new but a young couple asked "Is this for a concert we can come to this evening?!", and we said "No, but we can sing in the church if you like"; on the way up to the church we discovered that while the girl was Swedish, the guy was from Riga in Latvia, studying music himself in Lübeck, so then there were five of us singing up the front there instead of four, he said he didn't usually sing, but he had a divine tenor voice and he could sight-read the whole of this unknown piece like an angel; and then there were two more people singing in the pews and they said exactly the same thing, "Are you practising for a concert we can come to this evening?!" and it turns out the woman was also an experienced singer, she'd sung with my old friend Erik in Forsa, Hälsingland, so she came up and sang too, so then we were six ...

Another day we had a Swedish singer who had with her an Indian friend from Calcutta: and we were compeltely spellbound, he sang for half-an-hour in Sanskrit ... you'd love to record these things, but you know the magic would be compeltely gone if you did: it was a fantastic experience, he said he would come back another day.

We have given presentations in Swedish, in English, in German and in French.

They came from

• Hong Kong, Thailand, Tai Pei in Taiwan;
• they came from Rio de Janeiro, Cuba, Balujistan in Iran
• from New York, from Olympia, Washington, from Weston, Wisconsin
• Madrid in Spain, Chinon in France, Wallis in Switzerland
• Brussels, Rotterdam, Flensburg
• Danmark's Bornholm, Norway's Haugesund, Finland's Jyväskylä
• Eslöv, Höör and Höörby in Skåne
• Falkenberg, Vimmerby, Falun in the South
• Arjeplog, Gammelstad, Pajala in the North
• from the local tourist centres Bönhamn, Långsele and Kramfors
• and they have come from the nearby villages of Hällsjö, Sandslån, and Sunnanåker

- and many, many other places too.

The mediæval mass felt like the smoothest to date: several of the regular participants had to skip it this year, but we were happy to welcome several new ones who managed to melt in with great flexibility and freshness.

The 'herb promenade' attracted a small but fascinated band: leader Bernt identified a rare species which we signposted.

One art teacher was inspired to make some paintings in the church

A new sign encourages people to park just below the coffee-house to keep the area near the church free of cars. The illuminated 'P' was supposed to be blue with white highlights, but turned out white with blue highlights, and once it was done there wasn't time to redo it - next year ...

It's a fantastic task, a fantastic way to spend the summer, to be entrusted with coördinating all this: as some people know, I've had a heart-attack and in principle only work 50%, but the doctor has prescribed that I do what feels good - and who wouldn't function well under those conditions! - and I've been here nearly every day because that's what feels good; it's an unbelievably complicated task, the work schedule alone has 35 names on it, and there are many others who contribute in so many different ways. I heard one of the guides say that this was the world's best place to work: I can only say that this is the world's best working team! - so a big 'thank-you' to all who have contributed.

David Kettlewell
Coördinator