Partnership for World Mission
Connor Diocese and the Diocese of Linköping in the Church of Sweden
The Porvoo Declaration of 1996 brought the Anglican Churches of Britain and Ireland, and the Lutheran Episcopal Churches of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia into full communion with one another. We are now one Church. There is mutual recognition of Church order, organisation and doctrine at every level of Church life.
Historic Partnership
In Autumn 1997 the Diocese of Connor and the Diocese of Linköping in the Church
of Sweden entered into a formal 'Partnership for World Mission' Agreement,
twinning the two Dioceses for three years, renewable for a further two years.
This was an historic event. It is the first time since the sixteenth century
Reformation that an Anglican episcopal diocese and a Lutheran episcopal diocese
have come together in a formal, structured twinning. The
twinning of the two dioceses has been renewed until 2009.
St Thomas's is twinned with Linköping Cathedral Parish. The Cathedral Parish has a membership of 25,000 people and employs about forty full-time staff - priests, hospital chaplains, deacons, youth workers, organists and conductors, administrators, caretakers and ancillary staff. The Parish includes two other modern Church centres, and a chapel at the large and modern University Hospital, besides the magnificent Cathedral. There are thirteen choirs in the Parish. There is coffee-bar provision after the Services and people - many not regular church-attenders - value this opportunity of fellowship.
Church life is very much centered on worship, particularly the Holy Communion. Services are conducted with dignity, yet retain a degree of relaxed informality. Everyone involved in the Service is part of the procession and recession - clergy, deacons, youth workers, readers, intercessors, and churchwardens. A spirit of teamwork, fellowship, and joy in the Gospel, pervades all.
The main Sunday Services, which are well attended, are 11.00 am Hogmassa (Holy Communion) and 7.00 pm Vespers. The daily Midday Prayers are at 12.00 noon. In the weekly cycle there are other Services. On Sundays at 9.00 pm there is an 'Alcoholics Service' of reflection, meditation and music, attended by more than 200 seeking spiritual strength for themselves or their friends or families. On Friday nights, a Service of Prayer and meditation by candlelight, with TaizÈ music, attracts many young people. There are often about sixty babies' buggies at the back of the Cathedral on a Thursday morning: mothers bring their toddlers to the 10.00 am Children's Service. The mothers and infants process behind two student vergers who carry processional candles. In the chancel, the very young children play with toys on large, soft play-mats, while the older ones sit on the floor with their mothers. The Service is short and child-centered, with children's hymns, choruses and prayers, and an illustrated talk. A priest, organist, and three part-time children's ministry staff members conduct the Service.
Other parish twinnings include: Larne & Inver and Valderstate; Antrim & Ekeby; St Bartholomew, Belfast & Gamleby; Ballynure and Ballyeaston & St Johannes, Norrköping; St Matthew, Belfast & Styrstad Norrköping; Agherton & Kisa; Templepatrick & Valsterik; St George, Belfast & Ryd; Eglantine and Vist; Malone, Belfast & Berga; St Mary Magdalene, Belfast & Vastra Harg.