Upon arrival in Sigtuna folkhögskola, I suddenly felt like I’m home seeing the program coordinators and my companions in this exchange program. The gathering signaled the end of my stay at the first congregation in Stockholm Diocese.
Mixed emotions, was the phrase that best described how I felt throughout the day. As expected, the feeling of sadness was over me because I had to end the five weeks of stay in my first host congregation but on the other hand, my heart jumped in happiness seeing my fellow participants and lastly, excitement started to sink into my consciousness slowly, thinking about the start of a new journey in a new parish.
But before embarking on a new journey, the mid-gathering gave opportunities for participants to unload concerns and thoughts, to recharge batteries and to share insights with the group.
During the sharing of diverse experiences from several settings, I could imagine an artist working on a canvas with the goal of creating a masterpiece from materials like brushes of varied sizes and paints of different colors. Indeed, the unique experiences comprised the whole image of what is called the youth exchange program.
Hearing my fellow participants express their different experiences, thoughts, reactions, opinions and reflections, made me revisit my first blog’s title: “Looking at Rainbows.”
But now, I get to realize how intertwined are such occurrences like a spider web or with this context, I will be calling it the web of experiences. One experience may differ from the other but certainly, each thread of learning is connected in order to come up with a support system and a unified impact for the Swedish society and the Church of Sweden.
Within the days of the middle gathering, simple questions about the Swedish society triggered the thinking minds of the participants resulting to the unending brilliant discussions. Talking about the societal issues in comparison to participating nation’s contexts caused the outbreak of numerous learning insights.
On the other hand, the gathering was not only meant to give clarifications but it has also enlightened the faith of the participants through the inspiring message of a priest during the Sunday Mass at the lake’s view deck and the moving Bible study experience in the afternoon.
There was that reminder to be at the fulcrum – a person in the middle and to set aside the background where one comes from, when meeting new people in the congregations.
Doing away with prejudice was also a very profound suggestion which encouraged me to delve deeper on people’s lives and actions towards church and society.
With all the intertwined web of experiences, I concur with what the Bible study facilitator shared that it could be dangerous to leave our own Jerusalem (comfort zones) like Jesus in order to set foot in Samaria. But as he said, leaving the comfort zones (countries and contexts) can also be exciting because it is only where one could listen to different kinds of people with a rainbow of views.
But in the end, I see the meetings and conversations as a venue to elicit more personal realizations about faith and life in an international context.
//Klein F. Emperado is one of the exchange students in the exchange programme ”Young in the World Wide Chuch” 2014. During three months he will be spending time in Sweden, sharing life, faith and every day life. Klein is a Mass Communications graduate from Silliman University, Dumaguete, Philippines and also he works as Editorial Assistant for the said university. In the exchange he represents the Philippine Independent Church/Iglesia Filipina Independiente. His line of ministry is focused mainly on Liturgy and Music for the Diocese of Negros Oriental and Siquijor.
// Klein F. Emperado är en av deltagarna i utbytesprogrammet Ung i den världsvida kyrkan 2014. Under tre månader delar han vardag, tro och liv med människor här i Sverige. Under sin första månad spenderar han tid i St Mikaels församling i Stockholms stift. Klein har tagit examen i masskommunikation vid Silliman University, Dumaguete, Filippinerna och han jobbar idag som redaktörsassistent för nämnda universitet. I utbytesprogrammet representerar han den Filippinska oberoende kyrkan (Iglesia Filipina Independiente). Hans stora intresse och inriktning innom kyrkan är främst liturgi och musik för stiftet i Negros Oriental och Siquijor.
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