Again and again we read in the newspapers that people in Sweden are leaving the Church. During 2016, 80.000 people left the Church, a record high. In the past as soon as you were born or became a Swedish resident you were automatically a member in the Swedish state Church. That's not the case anymore. Lots of peole are not becoming members since they have another faith or no faith at all. Rather many people are leaving the Church for the same reasons but what the media, Church and government don't really understand is that many people in Sweden are leaving the Church because they are Christians, they have a strong faith but they don't feel the Swedish Church has that. As one Christian journalist said " People are not leaving the Church because they are not Christians, they are leaving the Church because they are! How to change the situation?
Living in a city as I am, in Malmo, Sweden, it feels natural to talk about bridges.In the year 2000 we got a bridge over the Sound to Copenhagen, Denmark. A bridge between two nations once fighting each other, now connected.We need to continue to build bridges, between different cultures, ideas, people etc. These bridges are harder to build but necessary in the society we have today.We need these bridges in order to reach people with the "Good news"