[Dialogue] Spong in Scandinavia, and a great Q&A on the Unity Church

[KroegerD at aol.com]

January 3, 2006 
Watching Christianity Evolve in  Scandinavia  
During the early winter of this year, my wife and I went to Scandinavia for  
16 lectures, 5 press interviews and extensive conversations. I returned with a 
 deeper sense of where Christianity is, at least in Norway and Sweden. It was 
 both revealing and hopeful.  
The tour began in late November with a 4 session seminar in Oslo, Norway,  
where the major church is a Reformed Church in the Lutheran tradition. When my  
visit was first announced in the Church Press conservative evangelical 
elements  in this church let out howls of protest. The content of their concern 
included  the strange charge, at least to me, that this man who had served for 24 
years as  a bishop and 21 years as a priest in his own church really did not 
believe in  God and was not a Christian, at least as they defined Christian. I 
wondered why  they thought I sought or served in an ordained career. In one of 
their more  clever references they said that I was "a wolf in wolf's 
clothing!" The Church  press was filled with letters of protest. When the University of 
Oslo invited me  to speak there, this group began a campaign to convince the 
University that I  was not "academically qualified." The University's 
invitation was temporarily  suspended while they investigated. I must confess I have 
no desire to speak  where I am not welcomed, but I bided my time and patiently 
answered the  University's queries. I have received six honorary doctorates 
from  well-established universities. I have been on the faculty of the Graduate 
School  of Theology in Berkeley, California, on seven different occasions, 
regularly  drawing the biggest class of the session. I have been elected 
"Quatercentenary  Scholar at Emmanuel College of Cambridge University and served a 
semester there  as an honored scholar, an opportunity that does not come to many. 
I have been a  "Scholar in residence" at Christ Church (College) of Oxford 
University and have  given public lectures there. In 2000 I was appointed the 
William Belden Noble  lecturer at Harvard University, a lectureship that 
requires the publication of  the lectures delivered, a requirement I met. I have also 
taught at Harvard  Divinity School and at the University of the Pacific in 
Stockton, California, as  well as being a guest lecturer at universities across 
America, Canada, England,  Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. I have 
authored or co-authored 21 books  that have sold over a million copies and have been 
translated into almost every  language in Europe plus Korean and Arabic. When 
these answers were supplied to  the University, the invitation was re-extended 
with apologies. A dinner party  was held the night before the lecture in our 
honor at the home of one of Oslo  University's outstanding theologians. Dinner 
guests included two other  theological faculty members; a member of the music 
faculty, who is one of  Norway's best-known composers, and two lively 
students. It was an incredibly  rich and memorable evening.  
This controversy succeeded in giving massive, nationwide publicity to my  
visit with the result that this Oslo seminar held at Paulus Kirke (St. Paul's  
Church) attracted four times the expected audience. People, who had long given  
up on what the Church had become, came out in surprising numbers. They heard  
things that lifted the Bible out of its "either believe it is the literal word 
 of God or dismiss it altogether" choice that has been so frequently offered 
to  people as their only alternatives. Norway's deeply closeted liberal clergy 
dared  to step out of their hiding places and to claim their heritage and 
identity in  the light of day. One of them, who earlier in his career had been 
accused of  heresy and removed from the parish he was serving, assisted in 
conducting the  worship service that ended the seminar. He glowed with a new 
confidence in the  realization that he was no longer alone. He has recently 
published a book that I  hope will now be read as he seeks to become a guide to the 
"believers in exile"  in his Norwegian audience as they seek to be Christians 
with integrity in the  21st century.  
The pastor who first issued the Norwegian invitation was Grete Hauge, a  
lively woman with a courageous heart and an infectious smile. She, along with  two 
extraordinary laywomen, Jane Robertson and Else Margarethe Stromay, had been  
to a conference I led in Sweden a year earlier and returned a "subversive  
threesome." For a year they organized and promoted my proposed visit, raising  
financial support and attracting people who are seldom in church. Before I left 
 Norway, two Norwegian publishers approached me for the rights to translate 
and  publish my books in Norwegian. I put them in touch with Harper/Collins who 
 handles such things, but it was indicative of the response I received.  
Next, we went to Rattvik, Sweden to a magnificent conference center, operated 
 by the Swedish Lutheran Church. This was a live-in conference where I 
delivered  six lectures, each followed by a question and answer period of at least 
an hour.  Every meal and tea break became another seminar, making it an 
intensely  concentrated four days. This was my third visit to this center and I was  
gratified both by the attendance and by the fact that a significant number of  
the delegates were pastors or in training to be pastors. The Swedish Church 
has  always impressed me. Its top leadership is courageous, well informed and 
willing  to lead. These qualities say much for the Church that chooses them to 
be its  leaders. Two of its bishops, K. G. Hammer, the recently retired 
Archbishop, and  Claes-Bertil Ytterburg, the Bishop of Vasteras, are among the 
finest church  leaders I have ever met. Clergy in the next generation, like Sven 
Hillert, the  principal of the Pastoral Institute, Tina Johansson, the 
homiletics professor,  John Linman now on a mission assignment in Mozambique, Annette 
Alfredsson, a  youth worker of consummate skill and Nils Aberg, the present 
director of  programs at the Rattvik Center, give evidence of a vibrant future.  
Next we went to Stockholm where I had the privilege of being the guest of the 
 Bishop of Stockholm, Caroline Krook and her cabinet of about 20 people, made 
up  of the Cathedral dean, the Bishop's chaplain, the rural deans and the  
chancellor. Together for about 90 minutes, we ranged over the issues facing the  
Church in our day. I came away deeply impressed with both the Bishop and this 
 group of leaders. As I left, Bishop Krook assured me of her welcome to her  
Diocese any time. It was a graceful and much appreciated moment.  
That evening I gave a well attended public lecture at Sophia Church in  
downtown Stockholm. The pastor there, Hans Ulfvebrand, and his wife Asa have  over 
the last four years become good friends. Hans is emerging as a significant  
leader of the new Christianity struggling to be born in Sweden. He closed the  
evening by reading a poem written by another Swedish Lutheran pastor, Tor  
Littmark, after he had attended a conference with me three years earlier.  Somehow 
my words gave him the encouragement to pen these lines that touched me  
deeply.  
Dare to question, dare to test things,
Dare to seek, search unconfined,  
God’s embodied in your question
Already God had you in mind. 
Dare to question, dare to feel doubt 
Dare to take the path you  chose
God’s is already deep inside you
Closer than you dare suppose.
Dare to question, dare to say no to
Far too simple, glib replies,
Dare  to wait and dare to waver,
God will still be at your side
Dare to question, bold and fearless, 
God will still believe in  you
Life in you is God’s own purpose,
Already, God has you in view. 
Dare to question, doubt and wonder, 
You are loved, by God retrieved  
You are longed for, seen, discovered,
Free to live and to believe
I live to discover pastors like Tor Littmark.  
My next assignment was at the Theological College of Uppsala University. I  
spent an entire morning from 9 - 12:30 with 30 candidates in the final stages 
of  preparation for ordination next June. They were an attractive, bright group 
of  young adults, eager to learn and very responsive. I gave two lectures and 
 responded to their questions. I took them as deeply as I could into the 
gospels  in general and the miracle stories in particular. I had a sense that if 
this  group represented the Swedish clergy of the future, there was nothing 
beyond the  scope of possibility. I concluded my tour with a public lecture at a 
Reformed  Church in downtown Uppsala. The topic assigned, "What's left of 
Christianity?"  reflected the anxiety of a two retired clergy. Hampered by a title 
that set a  negative mood, I decided to state the dimensions of the problem 
that traditional  believers have in our post-modern world, by tracing the 
intellectual revolution  from Copernicus to Einstein that has produced the world 
that the Church must  engage. I wanted to show why Christianity's energy should 
not be wasted in  resisting new knowledge for fear that it might threaten 
people's understanding  of God. Intelligent design is one of the more obvious 
aspects of this defeatist  attitude. I am firmly convinced that if God must be 
defended against new  knowledge arising from any source then God has already 
died. I have no idea what  the response to that lecture was though the audience 
was attentive and the  questions following were good. Only one of the retired 
ministers went to the  microphone to announce that he had five questions. The 
rules of the evening  allowed him only one so he rolled several into one. He was 
still locked into the  neo-orthodoxy of Karl Barth, a great Christian leader 
in the post World War I  era. However, while the world has moved far beyond 
Barth, this clergyman had not  and he seemed to believe that his world was 
collapsing. I wish that I had been  able to move him from the despair of asking, 
"What is left?" to a celebration of  the vision of a Christian future that I 
believe is bright and exciting, but that  requires him to be willing to engage 
the modern questions.  
The bright spot of that evening for me was the pastor of the host church, Per 
 Duregärd, whose vision of the future was clear. He will be a factor in the  
development of a new Christianity in Sweden. Ordained for only five years 
after  a teaching career, I was delighted to meet this kindred spirit. I hope our 
paths  will cross again.  
There is new life in Scandinavian Christianity, well established in Sweden,  
just beginning in Norway. Both nations encouraged me enormously.  
John Shelby Spong  
_Note from  the Editor: Bishop Spong's new book is available now at 
bookstores everywhere  and by clicking here!_ (http://www.a
mazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060762055/agoramedia-20)   
Question and Answer
With John  Shelby Spong 
Valerie Howells from Elgin, IL, via the Internet, writes:  
I grew up ECLA Lutheran. My mother was raised Mennonite, which contributed  
pacifist beliefs. My father was an ordained Methodist minister but worked in a  
different profession. I married into a Lutheran family and my parents now  
worship at the United Methodist Church.  
I tried very hard to "make it work" in mainline Christianity. I read,  
"Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism" and that started me on the path of  
questioning everything. I've been working my way through all of your books and  
enjoying them quite a bit. Some of your sentences are so finely crafted and  
beautiful in their content. My mother and I constantly discuss your work. It is  
very difficult, however, to reconcile our newfound awareness with our Sunday  
morning experiences. Certain statements, hymn lyrics or rites have to be  
outright rejected or translated in my mind. (I refused to allow the Creed at my  
daughter's baptism!).  
I understand your desire for people to stay and fight for change within their 
 particular churches, but that is like trying single-handedly to turn the 
Titanic  around. I have only one life to live. I need to go where my soul is fed. 
I have  recently found the Unity Church and started attending services. I am 
interested  to know what your opinion is of the Unity Church.  
P.S. I highly respect your opinion, but please do not feel that I am waiting  
for your answer in my decision to attend services. I do not mean to imply  
anything of that nature.  
Dear Valerie,  
Thank you for your letter and for your kind words. I am glad that you have  
found Unity. I think it is one of the most exciting movements within  
Christianity in the world today.  
I had never heard of Unity until about ten years ago. While on a lecture tour 
 of Alaska, I received an invitation to speak at the Unity Church of 
Anchorage.  My response was that "these people don't know how to spell Unitarian!" I 
had,  however, already spoken at the Unitarian Church in Anchorage, meeting 
there the  Rev. Dr. Richard Gay who was, and is, one of the finest clergy I have 
ever  encountered, so I was in some wonderment about what Unity was. I went 
and that  was the first of many enriching experiences I have had with the Unity 
Movement  across the United States and throughout the world.  
Unity traces its roots to Mary Baker Eddy and what we once called the  
Christian Science movement. It has, however, evolved well beyond its origins. It  is 
distinctively Christian but they have managed to escape the traditional  
Christian obsession with sin, guilt, rescue and control. They teach the goodness  
of God's creation, the capacity of human beings to grow spiritually and they  
avoid dated concepts like sacrifice and the sacredness of shed blood.  
I have found their clergy to be bright, well trained, open and positive.  
Their Spiritual Center and Training School is in Lee's Summit, Missouri. The  
things that attract me to Unity are their dedication to education; the  
consistently high quality of their music; their commitment to affirm their  children 
rather than to make them feel inadequate; their care for one another  and the 
joy that permeates Unity worship. I don't know that Unity will be the  future of 
Christianity but I do believe that the Christianity of the future will  have 
many of the marks of Unity within it. I find that many people are like you,  
they discover Unity when they awaken to what Christianity can be and compare it 
 to what they experience in many churches on Sunday morning.  
I remain committed to reforming the church of my birth but I am deeply  
grateful for what Unity has done for me and for the way that Unity has enriched  my 
life.  
I wish you well on your journey.  
John Shelby Spong  
 
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