Comin' at ya, from the States!

What a trip! I’m now back “home”, and have had a few days to process our journey, but am still flooded with a mix of thoughts, feelings and emotions. I can’t stop thinking about the new friends from Wartburg that I made during this trip. The generous hospitality of everyone we met in Iceland is something that is unforgettable. But the devastation in Haiti still weighs heavily on my heart. My prayers continue to be with all the citizens and rescue workers in Haiti, but especially (and maybe selfishly) with those classmates from Trinity and Wartburg and other seminaries who were there, and the family and friends of those who didn’t make it back.

Yet, being in this situation while in Iceland only added to the experience. What better community to be in when something like this occurs than with your seminary classmates? There was no better example of pastoral care, both given and received, than what happened with our group. Between the tears, the hugs, the quiet encouragement, and the prayers, I couldn’t imagine a better group to be with at that time.

My first question for this trip centered on how the church in Iceland differs from the church that I am familiar with in the USA. The established church in Iceland is Lutheran, so there were many similarities. The sacrament of baptism is a very important rite that most people take part in, many more than who worship on a regular basis, just like here. Confirmation for youth, the act of affirming their baptism, is an extremely important milestone, with a greater percentage of youth taking part than here. This emphasis of this milestone is probably comparable to graduation from high school for us. And just like in the USA, once confirmed many of the youth are never seen again inside the church. But from here the differences were what struck me. Weekly worship services and receiving the sacrament of communion on a regular basis are not necessarily typical. Some parishes, especially the in the more rural areas, may only worship every other week, or even just monthly. Many also don’t believe that communion needs to be a regular occurrence. Most of the priests we talked with don’t necessarily believe these things, but what can they do when most of their congregants do? Stewardship of money is unheard of because the money that goes to the church is taken out of the government taxes. Quite a foreign concept to us, but it seems to work (for the most part) for them.

I also learned a great deal about the role of a priest in the established church. They are a public figurehead of their community, which can be good and bad. Good in the sense that they could knock on someone’s door in their community, tell them they are the parish priest, and they would be let in. Bad because they are very much in the public spotlight and can end up on the front page of the paper if someone in their family does something wrong. But, because of this, their emphasis is more on pastoral care and not so much on programming and administration (at least from what I observed.) They tend to be more of a pastor to the people rather than a pastor to a congregation, which is something that I would certainly like to model in my ministry.

My other objective in taking part in this J-Term class was to learn what it’s like to be an outsider. I thought that going to a country where my language is not their native language and where I would have to be dependent on others for my daily needs would be a challenge. But the friendship and hospitality that we received made me feel right at home. It was certainly a wonderful model of how to treat the stranger that I hope I can bring back as well.

I can’t end without thanking our hosts, Gunnar and þora, for Guðni and Asdis for opening their home to me, and my new friends at Wartburg for opening their trip and their hearts to us non-Wartburgers. It was a beautiful trip that I am not soon to forget.

Bless!

Oh God, we are your hands and feet in this world. Thank you for those who are witnesses of your love and compassion and welcome strangers into their lives. Thank you for unique and diverse models of ministry that we are called to learn from. Bless us and send us into this world to continue the work that was started by your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.