I'm scrolling through emails and WhatsApp apps with pictures from last weekend. My brain is still in a state of “Babylonian linguistic confusion”. We communicated in German, Swedish and English - in a jumbled mess. 

But my heart is full of gratitude for a weekend of successful Christian (pilgrimage) fellowship.

A group of seven pilgrims from Sweden visited us for a good two days. Pilgrim pastor Magnus Malmgren from Lund Cathedral came with a partly Protestant and partly Catholic delegation from southern Sweden for the Marian pilgrimage to Bergen and the ecumenical service in Stralsund.

The couple Kaj and Tina Sundström Engelhard were also present as envoys of the Archbishop of Stockholm, Anders Cardinal Arborelius;

Together, we explored the old Hanseatic city of Stralsund with its churches and its partly Swedish history. We made a pilgrimage from Putbus to Bergen together with the Catholic coastal youth and took part in the mass for the Marian pilgrimage in Bergen. We ate together, exchanged (life) stories and felt like sisters and brothers in Christ. A piece of lived ecumenism.

The reason for the visit was two anniversaries: in 2025, Stralsund will commemorate 500 years of the Reformation in the Hanseatic city and 250 years of the re-establishment of a Catholic parish in Stralsund with the explicit permission of the Swedish king. This also makes the Catholic parish in Stralsund the oldest Catholic parish on Swedish soil after the Reformation.

At the same time - as Kaj reported - the Swedish king also allowed the Jewish community in Stockholm to build a place of worship.  The basic tribe of this Jewish community had emigrated to Stockholm from the Hanseatic city of Stralsund.

The historical connections across the Baltic Sea are rich. It is good to remember these connections and breathe new life into them.

In 2023, we had already traveled from Lund to St. Olov with a group of German pilgrims in Skåne. Now it was time for a return visit.

Pilgrimage connects. But it is also good to recognize and endure differences;

Tolerance of ambiguity - as experience shows - is an important building block for good and fraternal coexistence;

Understanding others in their differences as an enrichment and yet living reconciled in one's own tradition is a gift from God. 

The weekend was a good building block for this.

Many thanks to everyone who took part, both in providing for and accompanying the guests and on the pilgrimage.

Ellen Nemitz