Every year we celebrate the International Lutheran Service on Pentecost Sunday. This year, we had the particular pleasure and honour of welcoming Bishop Paulina Hławiczka-Trotman from the Lutheran Church in Great Britain to St Finian’s. Along with the bishop, a total of eight clergy members took part, including: Dean Imants Miezis (Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church Worldwide), Pastor Wojciech Froehlich (Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland), Chaplain Magdalena Sjöholm and Deacon Kerstin Garplid (Church of Sweden in London), Monica Buttler (Mountain Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) 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 17 languages, with English, German, Swedish, Polish and Latvian being the most frequently heard.

During the service, a memorandum was also signed aimed at strengthening cooperation with the Latvian, Polish and Swedish congregations at St Finian’s and securing them a permanent place of worship there.

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