Ulf Ekmans conversion to Catholicism

 

Here you can see Ulf Ekman preaching at last sundays service at Livets Ord church ("Word of Life") in Uppsala, Sweden. He explains why he and his wife Birgitta are in the process of converting to the Catholic Church.

For those of us who have followed the development at Livets Ord over the last few years this does not come as a great surprise, even though it must have been a bit of a chock for a lot of members in the church (and all over the globe) that the Ekman couple do not end by just showing a mere interest and openness toward the historic Churches, but actually choose to leave the church they have founded and pastored for 30 years and join the Catholic Church (Ulf Ekmans motivation in the Swedish main paper Dagens Nyheter).

I personally consider this a very thrilling turn of events! I can honestly state that as for me, being a christian, it is subordinate which church or denomination I belong to. I am totally convinced that it is possible to be a devoted and bornagain (a carismatic expression) christian, no matter which church you belong to! I could concider being an orthodox, a catholic, a lutheran, a methodist, a hutterite, a pentacostal, a baptist of a carismatic ("livetsordare"="wordoflifer") and what other -ist or -an you could think of. As long as the Bible is the guideline, and the Apostolic Confession (and also the Athansian, which states that Jesus is at the same time 100% God and 100% man).

For me, it is not the visible rituals, the doctrines, the way you organize the service / mass, or who is the leader that matters, but the personal faith and relationship with the Lord. I am alos convinced that it in all churches are warm and zealous believers which also means that the docrines can be understood in connection to the context, even though they can be concidered strange and appalling to others. In the same way there are in all different traditions (even at Livetsord) a "cultural christianity" where people belong just because the are born and grown up in the church and have never really made any personal decision neither "for" nor "against". Naturally this form of religiosity is more common within catholic circles it is such a big and old church where so many generations have been raised with this identity rather than they have made a chose out of their own convincement. 

I which Ulf and Birgitta Ekman all the best on their future path. Only a few weeks ago we had a sensational report from a Kenneth Copeland conference i the US. Kenneth Copeland has been a key figure in the "faith movement" and inspired Ulf Ekman in the beginning. At the actual service one of Copelands earlier coworkers, Tony Palmer, gave a speech, including a greeting taken up on Palmers' IPhone to the conference. So similare processes are taking place in several places. 

Saying all this I would like to wish all the best to Joakim Lundqvist, the new pastor at Livets Ord, Uppsala. Ulf and Birgitta leaving the church should not be seen as a rejection of Livets Ord or as an act of alienation, which they also themselves pointed out. Ulf Ekman is very satisfied with the development and contents of Livets Ord. But now Joakim will be there and he will as the pastor point out a clear heading for the church as an evangelical, carismatic church, even though a lot of the members are feeling insecure about the future development. I think everything will be just fine! The best is yet to come!

See the papers ViD, (interview), (editorial), opinions from churchleaders,

Dagen, (interview) , editorial

DN

SvD

Tv4

AB, Birro

UNT

Radio Uppland

Bengts´ blog

Tommy Dahlman

Stefan Svärd

Joel Halldorf

This is a transcript of my Swedish-speaking blog!!

Lucia in Mikaels church

My daughter Rebecca is one in the choire singing in Mikaels´ Church in Uppsala. She opened the concert with a Christmas song on the cello. It is the music profile classes of her School making this traditional Lucia concert on the 13th of december. However the repertoire was not that traditional - very entertaining though!

Swedish female Zebra Crossing

In Sweden it has been decided to replace half of the "Herr Gårman" ("Mr Walkman", can also be understood as "Here you walk") - signs with female versions. All in the name of equality of sexes. The problem is that in Uppsala the wrong version of the sign has been erected (UNT) and it is to be replaced by a more moderat version, with longer skirt and hair and smaller breasts (the article above).

Ebba Busch, the Christian Democratic vice mayor thinks the wrong signs should be auctioned out in order to cover some of the costs. It is now possible to make a bid on Tradera! 

Actually the "wrong" version of the sign was designed by Kars-Gustaf Gustafsson - the designer of the original male sign.

You can read more on funny Swedish traffic signs here, see another femalizied sign here, and here you can see the original sign

DN, DN, AB,

What´s the problem with the Swedish Democrats?

I have followed the thrilling result of the counting of the votes in the Swedish Parliament election. The right wing "Alliance" coalition does not succeed in gaining a majority lacking only 9 votes in Gothenburg and 7 in Värmland! Now all the votes are counted. But it has already been challenged...

When we, the Christian Democrats in Uppsala, followed the count right after the election everyone shouted with excitement when the forecast of 175 mandates for the "Alliance" came up (175 makes a majority out of the 349 seats in the Swedish Riksdag). And of course it would have been wonderful if a historical Swedish right wing majority government would have been reelected! A unique period would have been followed by another unique one.

But I see no problem with the Swedish "Alliance" government ruling as a minority government! The common situation in Sweden has been the Social democrats governing with support of a minority in the parliament and the passive support of the more or less undemocratic leftist party (former communists). What then is the problem with an Alliance government depending on a passive support of the Swedish Democrats?

The left wing coalition has showed themselves from the worst side critizising the government for cooperating with the Swedish Democrats. It is natural that the biggest coalition form a government! Or are the left coalition prepared to vote against the "Alliance" with the only result that they themselves would have to depend on SD?

No, hypocrats and bad loosers are what the leftists are! They should accept that they have lost the election and let prime minister Reinfeldt & Co go on with governing Sweden in peace!

Dn 1,2, XP 1, SVT 1, SvD 1,2,3,4 AB 1,2,3, 4

When truth turns into lie

A short study in the dramaturgy of the bloggosphere. After my two articles concerning the Ships to Gaza, I suddenly received a lot of strange comments about paintball-guns. After a day or so, I realized that the Swedish left-wing blog Alliansfrittsverige.nu had put me as one of four examples of "The tasteless reactions on the massacre by the right". They think it astonishing that I on my 'patriarchal blog' mean that the "israli soldiers came in peace with paint-ball-guns."

I can understand that someone not knowing the facts sees it as a natural contradiction that there has been a "massacre" using paintball-guns. And therefore these people automatically conludes that what I am writing is wrong and an example of "The tasteless reactions on the massacre by the right". My 'obvious lie' was spread as such on the internet (ex. Sundin & Homopoliticus), but why has noone tried to find out the facts?

I got the information last monday from my good friend Stefan Olsson, who is right now on the West Bank as an ecumenical accompanier (EAPPI). It was an article named "A brutal ambush at sea" which well describes what happened. That it was paint-ball-guns that where used has been confirmed from many others, including Swedish MP Mehmet Kaplan who where on one of the ships (SvD ). And also Ulf Carmesund.

The bloggosphere is a nice democratic project in some ways, at the same time there are a lot of strange things which are advocated and spread without any critical check-up or reflection. There are definately a need for a better ethical standard in the Internet. That truth turns inte lie is of course a general problem in our community, yes it is almost as if people tend to want to be fooled.

It is good that a number of facts lately has made known what kind of organisation IHH is (DN), who has initiated the trip, and more as a propaganda show than for humanitarian reasons. It is even more so tragic that the Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt participates in this game and let Swedish extremists on the left set the standard for the Swedish foreign policy.

SvD 1,2,3,4 DN 1,2 Dagen 1,2 VG 1,2 Världen idag 1,2,3

Tragic result of 'peace convoy'

The peace-convoy did not reach its destination of the peaceloving Hamas-ruled Gaza-strip. The convoy showed itself not to be so peaceloving when Israeli soldiers put down on the deck of Mavi Marmaras were met with well-trained combattants with sticks and far from passive resistance. Equipped with paint-ball guns and with an ambition to avoid violence the IDF-group finally had to give in and use guns to defend themselves, seeing one of their friend being thrown down to the deck below.

Israel has been very clear that they will not allow the convoy to reach the blocked Hamas-ruled Gaza-strip. Instead they have offered to receive the material at the harbour of Ashdod for further delivery to the Gaza-strip. Of course one might question the blockade of Gaza, and the justice in boarding the convoy on international waters. But one has also to bear in mind that out of an Israeli perspective it is a matter of survival as a nation, floating like an Island in a sea of hatred. The reception on the Mavi Marmaras illustrates all to well the hatred against Israel which is now also shown in the squares and streets of Sweden and other countries.

DN 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 Dagen 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 SvD 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 VG 1("hevn,hevn"),2,3

Unfaithfulness discussed in Sweden

In the "free" Sweden the private life of celebrities and politicians is usually not very much discussed or exposed. Apart from certain magazines. There is definately a big contrast towards the US where a marriage is an important part of a PR - facade, and where a sidestep can meen the end of the carreers of politicians, media profiles and other celebrities.

As it has become known that Tiger Woods have been cheated on his Swedish wife Elin Nordegren, daugther of the governor (former Minister of immigration) Barbro Holmberg and the journalist Thomas Nordegren (known from the Swedish radiochannel 1) - source Wikipedia - the private life of an american celebrity has become hot stuff in Sweden. This time it is not any american scandal, but this time a Swedish woman is involved. And therefore someone who Swedish people feel more sympathy for. And, besides, it is not every day a Swedish woman has been cheeted on by a mega-celebrity (Aftonbladet) and also asks for 2 miljard crowns if there would be a divorce (Expressen).

So the phenomenon is suddenly widely discussed by columnists and writers also in the more respectable Swedish press and media. Dagens Nyheter is writing about sex-addiction as a problem where there is also treatment to get.

I hope this will mean a renewed debate on relational problems. The tragic in this particular case is that Tiger Woods does not seem to realize the problem and take responsibility for all the side-steps he has done. Obviously he has built up an entire enterprise in order to cover up his side-steps. Very costsome, bur all is not possible to buy with money! I beleive that a family is one of the greatest riches to find here on earth. Something that has to be stewarded, and something not to be taken for granted. Now, there are always to parts in a relationship. Elin Nordegren does not either seem to have a very good education in how to keep a family together - her parents being divorced and her father Thomas married for the third time. But if you need help there is to get! My absolute convincement is that there are no hopeless cases, if you just want to and try hard. And more should do, not least for the sake of the children!