Right to wed?

The majority of the Finns are Lutherans, even though not many seem to practise their religion much, except maybe when getting married and having their offspring christened.

If I have not got it completely wrong, in Finland the church and the state have been separated from each other since the reformation when Finland was a part of Sweden.

According to an interview in a newspaper the bishop of Oulu thinks that “the church should marry couples of the same sex, if Finland is to have a gender neutral marriage law”, and adds “this should be done for the church to save its’ right to marry people”.

I am here not taking any sides on the issue about people of the same sex getting married or not, neither am I talking about them being wed in the church. I am just wondering what the church has to do with the state, as they are separated, that is not married so both can go either way, so to say, if you know what I mean.

Finnish Catholic bishop

Finland got it's first Finnish catholic bishop this year for the first time since reformation, and he was inaugurated this Saturday in Turku Cathedral. And for the first time since the reformation the Cathedral was used for the purpose it was built, for catholic mass.

Having only the opportunity to watch the festivities on TV some things came to mind, the clapping of hands felt a bit strange even though it is considered as a sign of acknowledge and of joy. The catholic church consisting only of male priests it felt odd to see a female Lutheran priest wait in line to be blessed by the new bishop as non-Catholics are not allowed to partake in the catholic communion. The TV broadcast cut just there, so I had no chance to see what happened. Would just have been interesting to see what happened and how much wine they must've had in store to serve all.

Anyway, I really wonder about how people were let in to the church, as not all had the room to enter the cathedral and some priorities must have been made among foreign dignitaries and of the state, guests of honour from other churches in an ecumenical spirit, devout Catholics from the Finnish parishes and common peers just wanting to see...

Religion matters

Friday afternoon the Serbian ambassador presented the Finnish Foreign Ministry with a formal written protest against the recognition of Kosovo’s independence and at the same time calling its’ ambassador back home from Finland.

This is not one singular case as Serbia apparently has recalled all it’s ambassadors from all the countries so far having recognized Kosovo’s independence. So given time we will see whether the Eurovision song contest will take place in Serbia in May as planned or not.

As a strange coincidence sit seems to me that the First World War began in the same area that have for so long been unquiet and visited with war. I have often wondered abut how good an excuse religion can be when people disagree on no matter what subject. Like the European thirty-year war in the 1500’s, a religious war when Catholics fought against the religiously reformed Lutherans who were actually economically supported by the Pope.

Anyway, there is an Internet site where you can end your membership in the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran church. Some 10.000 people have already taken advantage if this easy way to leave the state church. Whether it is done out of religious reasons, or rather the lack of religion, or only in order to ease the taxes you have to pay. In Finland you pay church taxes if you belong to the church, which almost every Finn have tended to do out of tradition and it is easier to do it over the Internet than having to go through the proper paperwork handing it in.

There have for some time now been talks about the secularization of the Western world, with a simultaneous growth in New-Age and pagan religions as well as Islam growing the most as a world religion.

The western world’s economy currently seems to in a downward trend and many of the more wealthy Islamic countries are buying their way into owning the economy of the western world, like for instance the acquiring of the Finnish OMX stocks trade.

Maybe we will soon all have to convert to Islam as it is the common way, even here in Finland and soon there might be an Internet site to convert to Islam.

Or is there already one?

Lighting a fire

The Mormon Church in Tampere was set ablaze and burned to the ground this weekend and it seems to have been arson but it is not the single on, there seems to have been more of them lately. The Pentecostal Fellowship church in Viitasaari burned in May 2006 and was tried to light again four months later in September. The church in Lappenranta was tried to lit up in spring 2006 and the of Porvoo 15^th century church was burnt to the ground with two more contemporary Lutheran churches and the Jehovah’s witnesses church in Vantaa in the same year.

I always wonder what it means, just a spur of the moment thing, lighting a match seeing if it catches or something against the religion, or something personal against that particular church or congregation.

Anyway, the variation in TV programmes by the end of the year can sometimes be very tedious, list of music from the previous year, various flashbacks looking back at the year gone, “How the Eurovision were made 2007” and so on, might be nice for the ones interested but some programs that have become traditions are just the utter waste of time, like the Victoria’s secret annual fashion show.

It is said to be the greatest honour to be chosen as an under wear model of Victoria’s, only the best of supermodels get there, and men are said to be the greatest fans of Victoria’s, more than women the under wear is designed for to use daily. I must confess I am a sucker for lingerie, the less of it, the better. The more luxurious silk and see-through laces the better. I enjoy feeling sexy underneath as it is my own secret that no one knows about.

I do not advertise about it as I do not dress for the joy of my husband but for my own pleasure, but I must admit it is an advantage if he enjoys my lingerie as much as I do, lighting my fire, if you know what I mean.

So getting to the point here soon, I wonder how many men really are interested in seeing this Victoria’s secret fashion show that is aid to be one of the annual highlights of the fashion world, at least according to the media. My problem here is that I do not know one single man that is addicted to seeing it, neither is anyone thrilled about the catalogue being released. Does this mean that the men I know are mature enough to not fall for as frivolous things or do they just not dare to confess it publicly? Or is it just a thing, like the Chippendales for women, a lot of talk but not much action really? Which by the way I still have missed the opportunity to see so far even though they were in Finland not so long ago.

Or maybe Victoria’s secret means, being secretly addicted to it without ever admitting it to yourself?

What bride?

Finland has received its’ first Islamic political party.

Currently the party still only has a dozen members but they aim to collect the needed 5,000 signatures by the end of the year in order to get registered as an official political party here in Finland. The Islamist party will be working for the removal of alcoholic beverages from supermarkets and to achieve exemption for Muslim students from subjects in school considered to be opposed to the Islamic values. The party also intends to have candidates ready for the next parliamentary elections in four years.

I can understand that you out of religious reasons are not allowed to eat drinks foods or drink certain beverages, but I am not sure whether you can demand to be excused from certain school subjects as they are part of the required subject to be taught and you need to have the knowledge in order to get a diploma or your grades. Maybe alcoholic beverages are not so important to be sold in every corner shop, but we still have to bear in mind that this is Finland and we immigrants should adapt ourselves into the rules and ways of this society and not the other way around.

Anyway, one silly thought came to mind, when you get married the official, whether the clergyman when getting married in church or the official at the registrar’s office, they declare you man and wife and then saying “You may kiss the bride”.

What bride?!?

There is no more a bride as she was just declared to be the wife of the man she married! How stupid, and this has been going on for centuries and no one has noticed anything strange with it.

I wonder if the Muslims say the same when they marry.

Visits in vain

Antique icons of the Greek Orthodox Church are much coveted and sought after as they are as beautiful as valuable and yesterday one Icon from the 18th century was stolen from the Helsinki Uspenskij Cathedral. The icon in question was stolen during the church’s’ opening hours with tourists visiting the church premises at the same time. It was not until some time later was discovered that the icon was missing.

Quite a daring way to steal something, daring to do it with all people around but seems strange it has been done totally unnoticed.

Anyway, the Finnish public health service is world renowned for being good and efficient; well my opinion of having the experiences I have had and heard of others’, the health service is badly overrated. If you make an appointment with the doctor through the public sector, tell what you want to see the doctor about and if it happens to be something out of the normal routine it all goes wrong as you get to see some locum instead who is there just for the day and is not even allowed to take care of more than standard routine acute cases. So there was one more useless time that you saw a doctor just in vain and as the matter in question has to be taken care of you have to go see another doctor later on, what a waste of resources and money!

Another thing that bugs me with the health care is that if you get referred to a specialist they only search and determine what you were referred to them for, they do not see what causes it and this sometimes makes you have to visit hospitals and specialists many times before the right diagnosis is made, if ever, as instead of finding out what is wrong you just shuffle people around in hospitals from one clinic to another and in the end no one knows who started it. At least you have seen several specialists and hopefully had nice chats with them but it still does not get to the point, why you are ill with the symptoms still prevailing as the disease has not gone away and you still know no more than before.

So there is another way to waste the excellent resources by inefficiency, not making use of what you have got.

There is a so called health guarantee, that you in the national health care shall get to see a specialist, or a dentist for that matter, but it does not always work the way it should, you just get to wait for months, and in worst case for years over the given time limit anyway.

The acute part of the health care here in Finland is mostly excellent, when breaking a bone for instance, you are expertly and efficiently x-rayed and plastered in hardly any time at all but having something more diffuse like an unusual thyroid condition for instance you are mostly treated as a hypochondriac until someone finally really reads through your case file and thank God you are saved just in time!

It is sad that the doctors here in Finland do neither have the time nor the ability to listen to their patients properly instead of writing them off before time and making presumptions. One good thing though, you usually get your migraine medications if you just remember to refill your prescriptions in time before the next attack hits you hard. Guess this is one thing that keeps me sane.

Oh, and there is someone very dear I must not forget to wish a happy birthday today!

Free to preach

The Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, London is world famous but now there is Speaker’s sermon in Tampere Finland.

Anyone could keep a sermon from the church’s pulpit in Tampere Old church on the evening 9^th August about any subject that lying near their heart. The event was advertised with ”Say your word! Are you annoyed with what their sermon’s are about? Come and keep your own sermon in person”. The speaker’s sermon was one event among many happenings around town in the Tampere theatre summer festival and all the sermons to be held were pre-announced with some invited celebrities among the preachers. You were allowed four minutes to say you meaning with a jury of experienced preachers giving feedback and according to persons interviewed having attended the mass, the sermons were very much the same as usually done by the vicars, many were about faith and church and some were boring and just about the same old thing that the vicars preaching’s usually are about.

When the vicar himself was interviewed about the event he stated he had had high hopes and anticipated more boldness in the sermons and was a bit disappointed but thought it had been a good, refreshing experience all in all.

Heat has the strangest effect on people’s minds, when down on southern Europe driving always becomes more hectic and the honking of horns for instance is more frequent than normal as there seems to be more morons driving then. Or it is just the temper that gets flaming hot with the weather maybe?!?

Anyway, even here in Finland you can see a considerable change in people’s behaviour and especially men tend to be DTC, “D*** takes control” if you know what I mean. Being blond even enhances their reaction but ordinary brunettes get their fare share of it as well. Like yesterday for instance when most men around either stopped or were in danger on walking into something as ordinary me was hurrying over the street before the lights turned red for pedestrians. I have never before noticed having had such an impact on so many men before as I did yesterday in my little, red skimpy summer top with my skirt flowing up around my legs. I guess I only should take it as a compliment of still being quite good looking, and discussing the matter with dear husband of mine ha agreed with me that it must just have been the hot weather makes means brains softer and sinking to the region of their groin = DTC.

Or is this just a way for him to accept that men in town might have been mistaken about my attractiveness, make it easier for him to handle his jealousy? Or was he just pleased with having an attractive wife?

God I think I need a cold drink; this heat is getting to my brains as well!

Refugee

The Lutheran Church in Finland has given refuge to asylum seekers, and this time it is the churches in Kuopio that has offered refuge to a Sudanese asylum seeking woman who currently faces expulsion from the country. According to my knowledge it is not common for the church to hide people from the authorities here in Finland.

Children growing up are nice in a way and a pestilence in other ways, like being late and going for a shower to find out that someone at present is living in the shower, happy and singing. No use asking politely if it is possible to hurry up, the singing is too loud anyway and shouting makes it even worse, then the shower is even prolonged from what was from the beginning intended. Teenagers are definitely waterproof; they can stay there for hours! Interesting is though that the new Harry Potter film was seen in the movies just yesterday but the book that is to be released tomorrow has not at all been mentioned and all the previous books had to be bought right at the instance they were available in the bookstores! Maybe this is another sign of growing up, is it?

Not worth discussing the issue either in vain, it just makes you mad and it is not taken in concern next time anyway as it is not of any importance when it is not them having to get ready in time.

A hiking trip has been planned for the weekend the weather allowing it, out in the woods to see a national park of special importance and beauty. I really enjoy walking especially in the wilderness having my camera with me. My husband does not understand this whim of mine to take photos of things even though he used to be quite keen on it himself in earlier times.

Anyway, the pick-nick part of the hiking is always my favourite, to plan what to bring along into the woods, how to cook and if to cook at all. In this national park you are allowed to have open fire in places designed for it and I was surprised to hear you are even allowed to fish there, which of course got my husband and his colleague’s interest. The only thing now is, husband off fishing in some of the lakes in the area with his friend, leaves me alone with the entertaining of his wife that I have only met about three times, all day long.

She is not into photographing as I am the wife, don’t know what she is into, at least I know it is not fishing. I am quite happy even on my own in the woods but having someone with me all day I do not even know properly, well that kind of makes me feel uneasy about it all.

Either we this weekend see if my knee is up to walking longer distances again or I have to use it as an excuse to stay home. Meeting new people is nice when done in limited time and conditions like when invited for coffee or dinner but hiking in the woods always brings the worst out of people if you are not used to it, especially if the weather is bad.
And there is no church to take refuge in if I needed there is just me and the wife the woods!

A book is only a book!

Salman Rushdie just got knighted by Queen Elizabeth the II of the United Kingdom and the Muslims are offended by this as he is one of the most hated men in the Muslim world since he wrote the Satanic verses in the 1980’s. Well I have read the book and I do not get what is so offensive about the story in the book. But then I am not a Muslim, and there might be hints about things I do not understand. I think freedom of speech is good and a book is only a book

Islam wants that the western world to pay more respect to the Muslims and their faith Islam. Well why not the same thing around, why should the Muslims not have any respect for other religions? The Christians seem to be the enemy number one.

During the French revolution in the late 1700 century people wanted freedom, equality and brotherhood and that should be every ones’ right to no matter the religion you confess yourself to. I guess killing all the French aristocrats at the time in order to obtain the freedom, equality and brotherhood was not a very suave way and it seems like the same thing is done over and over again, Palestine being a good example of irreconcilable differences.

I really do not understand why people that are of another religion than your own are bad, why people who think differently should be killed because of their religion differing from ours. And according to what I have read in the Quran, the idea of Islam is not very far from the Christian or Jewish faith written in the Old Testament and the Bible. The ethics and guidelines are much the same so I see no difference as the definition of how you see God, is basically the same just a matter of choosing the name. I mean, you pray to God, even with the name changing from Allah, Yahweh and God.

I think diversity is the exciting thing about people, that people are different and not all the same. Meeting new people and getting to know them, is thrilling and you can learn so many new things. I have friends of different religions and do not think any less or better of them because of it, they just are what or who they are, friends.

Finally a new hat

The summertime is always a time of festivities graduations and also in the Finnish Lutheran church with all the weddings and also the confirmations for the adolescents that turn 15 during the same year are celebrated.

When it is time for confirmation in many places around the country you are going away for a week’s confirmation camp and have the confirmation itself some time later. The previous winter has normally already been full with church visits and Sunday masses and weekly gatherings with the vicar for the requested amount of education.

The difficult thing with all this is not catering for all the relatives and friends attending your home for the celebrations, nor to house your guests for the night. No the real problem lies in what to get the youngsters.

Flowers with a single rose to give away is one among the most common ones, also a nice tradition, jewellery in various looks and to everybody’s taste is also usual, but many times you just have no idea of what to get them as they today have “everything”. Nowadays a gift voucher has become more and more acceptable and also in many cases handy for the giver to get, even by a late date, and is appreciated by the receiver as they can get many vouchers from the same place and get to buy more and bigger, more expensive things of their own choice.

I remember that we used to have a list of things we wished that our parents kept for birthdays and graduations. Everybody who was invited to these occasions was told about the list and nobody got doubles as book was kept on what was going to be bought, kind of similar to a wedding list. I have done the same thing with the off-spring as has my sister as well during the years with great success.

Now I just have to decide whether to be original and inventive, and get something for the confirmed in forth nights time or just be plain, old and boring and give away another gift-voucher and a single rose as everybody else.

Finally an excellent reason for me to get a new hat!

Flag Day

Today the 450^th anniversary of the death of Mikael Agricola is the celebrated with a national flag day.

Agricola was the boy of a farmer, as you can detect from this name and became the inventor of literary Finnish. Before Agricola thought about putting Finnish, and how to put it, on paper there was nothing written in it, thus becoming the inventor or creator of the Finnish written language. He translated the holy bible into Finnish and also created the first

“Aapinen” , the very first spelling-book where you could learn to read Finnish and still today 60% of the words Agricola invented are used in their original form in Finnish of today and he is the man we are to thank for Finnish being such a complex language for all us foreigners to learn.

Agricola was also a great reformer of Christian faith as he was there to reform the Roman Catholic Church and beliefs into the protestant Lutheran church. Wonder what he would have thought about what is going on in the church of today?

So today we are flagging off Easter as well and going back to normal routines tomorrow. Enjoy last day of the holidays! To tell you the truth, I am glad it has come to an end; too much is too much and being without my own, home-alone-quiet time is making me crazy! So I am celebrating going back to normal tomorrow.

Thread Saturday

Yes, today is Easter Saturday, here called “Thread Saturday”. Why?!? I have not got the slightest idea.

Today is just an ordinary Saturday and the shops are open as normal and we had planned to go for a walk and window shopping in the city centre… but with the cold northern wind that has been blowing now for almost a week has not yet shown any signs of stopping, we decided to stay at home and just be. And guess most of the day, at least mine, will be spent cooking our Easter meal today.

Hmm…a thread, does this have anything to do with loosing the thread in the conversation, or your own thoughts?

So if Jesus was crucified and died on Good Friday after having been betrayed after his last supper on Thursday and as he is to rise after three days, showing himself to his apostles, when was he buried, on the Friday or the day after?

If he dies on Friday and is buried the same day, well then the second Easter day is when he rose from the dead. So why do we then celebrate the first Easter day?!?

I mean today, as it really seems to have no more importance than having a long weekend with four days off work.
Enough of this, I better get on with the cooking!

Looong Friday

Well, today is Good Friday, here in Finland called “Long Friday” or should it be “Looong Friday”?

According to the old tradition you were not allowed to enjoy yourself and certainly not to smile with your teeth showing today. And all this to join Jesus in his pains when he some 2000 years ago, well guess he dies in his thirties, so sometime 1970 years ago really, carried the cross on Via Dolorosa and got crucified.

Anyway, still today this is one of the days the whole country really shuts down and is quiet. You are not supposed to be visiting or have parties, and the neighbours that are either not Christian or too young to care consider or respect anything had a party that went on to the early hours. So it really was a long Friday, it felt like it would never come to an end.

The music went on for hours until the early morning, and so did the shouting on the balcony.

Even having a party on Easter Thursday, which here is called “Busy Thursday” would have been easier to accept, anyway, the noise way not bothering really until their balcony door was opened for going smoking outdoors smoking, and having had a couple of drinks you tend to talk a bit louder than really needed.

One more summit, and this time a major summit took place today about what to do about global warming, and according to the information I have it was a long one, so maybe the name “Long Friday” would be appropriate.

So we had just fish to celebrate the end of lent and fasting, which we did not really do, but to even more enjoy the Easter food tomorrow. Prawn-cocktail as starters, poached salmon with asparagus and sauce Hollandaise and a mousse au chocolat noir as dessert. And this really is according to all the rules of Lent, even the most puritan Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox could have eaten this on Good Friday.

Splitting in two or three?

Ever since last Sunday when a male priest did not appear to church to perform his duties at Sunday mass with the female parson the discussions have been going high. Did he do wrong or not?

The official stand-point of the Finnish Lutheran church is that if you work in the church, then you have to accept the views agreed upon policies, having female priests in the church being one of them or not performing marriages between people of the same sex. So there is going to be a full investigation in this matter and the culprit will have to face the reprimands.

One bishop interviewed on TV stated that “if your consciousness is against females to officiate in churches then maybe you should resign, form one church of your own splitting the church more officially than it is already divided today in just opinions. Divide the church in one with no female priests and the other one “mixed”.

Which I think is a good idea then everybody can feel at home in church as you can choose the church you attend to, if at all.

I also heard that one female priest some time ago blessed a lesbian couple after they got married, or "registered their partnership at the registrar’s office" as it is called here in Finland. This I do not know if they are going to investigate or not, but this is also something that is discussed, and it also divides the church in two. So maybe splitting the Lutheran church in three would be better?

I have always thought that female priests in a Christian church feels a bit odd, guess I have not got used to it yet, but in another religion it would be okay. ? I have never heard of a female rabbi, guru, or lama, not even a female Shinto priest.

Is there any other religion where there are females as priests?

Priest or not priest

The Finnish evangelical Lutheran church has been around for over 850 years and has today about 550 congregations with an average of 80% of the Finns belonging to the church even though not many still go to church regularly on Sundays.

Depending on how you read your bible there always are different ways to interpret things, are you reading what it says literally or are you reading between the lines in the Holy Bible. Another thing often forgotten is, from which language was your copy of the Bible translated from. Is it translated from one language to another and this done several times, then the right and original meaning has been distorted, and maybe is even completely lost.

Is God a he or a she as the word for God in Hebrew it is non-sexed and can mean either, Hebrew having been used to write the Old testament.

And in Greek, which most of the scrolls the gospels were written in, the original word for priest or officiator is also non-sexed and can be either. So if it says in the Bible “he” today, which was the intended meaning for the word used originally? Could it mean she as well?

Or “the woman shall be silent in the congregation”? Is this that one woman in particular or all women in general?
And we would even get a new meaning to each sentence letting the devil himself translate it to us!

Anyway, the first female priests were first ordained in the Finnish Lutheran church two decades ago and it has been a great controversial ever since with male priests protesting against along with members of the congregations. Last Sunday, that is yesterday, one male priest did not turn up to work in church, the one and only day they are obliged to work, Sunday, as he was to co-officiate holy mass together with the female parson.

According to my knowledge, there has been a petition passed around among the male priests in the church with 900 (?) signatures in protest against female priests in the Lutheran church. Are there even that many male priests in the church?

The church has until today officially tried to pretend that this is no problem and does not even exist, but maybe now they will have to take some kind of action, instead of just trying to smooth things over and pretend that everything is like it used to be, what you see is not there.

Or is it there? Can you see God?

Does God then exist?

Holy midnight-mass

Funny little protestant me had to move all the way here to Finland to get closely acquainted with the Catholic Church because of close friends happens to be Catholics!

There is quite a lot to be aware of when participating in a catholic mass being an outsider. For example you can’t go and have communion but you can join the others that participate in the Holy Communion and be blessed by the priest by holding your right hand over your left shoulder.

But the best part of it all is that the congregation keep its' parties together. Image how nice and cosy to go to the Midnight-mass on Christmas Eve and all gather for coffee and chats afterwards in the middle of the night, children and adults and elders instead of having to wake up early in the freezing morning to go to church. Well, this year it was not that cold but anyway.

So now I am considering converting to Catholicism as I prefer to sleep long in the mornings.