2024-10-07 13:19:54
Gothenburg’s new mega-church, Frihamnskyrkan, was completed last year, after more than 15 years of construction.
The church, which replaces the Pentecostal congregation’s previous church, Smyrnakyrkan, has a new and updated focus, highlighting social responsibility, community involvement and internationality, as well as making the church a more welcoming space for outsiders.
The building, which cost over 350 million crowns to build, has a 9,000 square meter hall with space for 1,200 visitors and is rented out to external interest groups “almost every week,” explains Sakarias Winberg, managing director of Smyrna Concert & Congress, the company that manages the church, he told the Christian newspaper Dagen.
Last year the non-profit organization Indian Women in Gothenburg rented the church hall for a Diwali event.
Diwali is a five-day festival of lights celebrated in autumn in India and by Hindus, Sikhs, and some Buddhists around the world. It takes its name from the clay lamps or deepa (the event is sometimes called Deepawali) which many Indians light outside their homes.
Although Diwali is originally a religious holiday, for many in India and abroad it is a cultural holiday celebrated regardless of religion, similar to the role of Christmas in traditionally Christian countries such as Sweden, the United States or the United Kingdom.
After last year’s event, some members of the congregation were concerned that a Diwali celebration had been held at the church, as they did not believe it was appropriate for what is essentially a Hindu or Sikh festival to be celebrated in a venue Christian. of worship.
Frihamnskyrkan has general guidelines for those wishing to rent the church hall, which states that they must take care of the church building and cannot consume alcohol, as well as prohibiting the worship of other gods.
This year, Dagen reports, Winberg spoke with several people in the church congregation, including a former missionary to India and an Indian who has lived in Sweden for more than a decade, who assured him that the event is not and it will not be religious.
Announcement
He added that those who had attended last year’s event, including himself, had been “very positive” towards it.
Despite this, congregation members’ concerns that the event might include worship of non-Christian deities led Winberg to discuss the 2024 event in advance with Indian women in Gothenburg to ensure that no worship of other gods will take place .
“We have received assurances,” he told Dagen.
After discussions with Indian women in Gothenburg, however, both sides agreed to rename this year’s event in internal communications and remove references to Diwali.
“The term is misleading and confusing,” Winberg said.
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