Every year we celebrate the International Lutheran Service on Pentecost Sunday. This year too, the service was a special highlight in the life of our church. The service was led by Rector Håkan E Wilhelmsson (Church of Sweden in London), Pastor Wojciech Froehlich (Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland) and Lead Pastors Anja and Florian von Issendorff and Pastor Martin Sauter (The Lutheran Church in Ireland).

The service was also intended to show the diversity of our members, who come from all over the world, and to strengthen the communion of the Lutheran churches represented in Ireland. The service was therefore celebrated in over 20 languages, with English, German, Swedish, Polish and Latvian being the most frequently heard.

This year also marked a special occasion: the Lutheran Church in Ireland was re-established exactly 70 years ago, after the old Lutheran Church in Poolbeg Street ceased to exist in the 19th century. Incidentally, this church was never intended to be a German church. It was always an international community of Lutherans. The Lutheran World Federation therefore organised its foundation. And it was more of a coincidence that a German became the first pastor. The church were therefore multilingual right from the start.

Especially the Church of Sweden has always played an important role in the Lutheran Church in Ireland since its re-establishment. It is therefore all the more fitting that Rector Håkan, as a representative of the Church of Sweden, took a leading role in the service this year.

Caption from left to right: Lead Pastor Florian von Issendorff, Rector Håkan E Wilhelmsson, Lead Pastor Anja von Issendorff, Pastor Martin Sauter, Pastor Wojciech Froehlich