Interview
Please describe your home context and what inspired you to come to Bossey.
Rev. Nilsson: I am serving as a priest in the Church of Sweden, in the Diocese of Lund. As a student, I lived in an ecumenical community for a year which gave me a first taste for ecumenism, but it is since I arrived in Lund six years ago that I have come to engage more actively in ecumenism. The ecumenical context in Lund and its surroundings is very much alive, especially since the joint commemoration of the Reformation in 2016. We pray together, engage in one another´s celebrations – last year the Cathedral marked 900 years and the Dominican Friars 800 years since they arrived in the city – and share together in service of the broad Christian community in the town. The richness and depth - and support - that lies in sharing in one another´s traditions have turned out to be precious gifts for the whole Christian community in Lund, and for me indispensable in my spiritual life. Through this lived experience of the richness and importance of ecumenism, I have discovered an urgency to strive for the unity of the church for which Christ prays. Out of a wish to be able to engage more fully in this work, which has become a passion of mine, I was inspired to come to Bossey.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of your fellowship with the WCC so far?
Rev. Nilsson: I am doing my fellowship with the Commission on Faith and Order, and the most rewarding aspect of my fellowship so far has been the inspiring persons and work that I have come across, giving me new perspectives on ecumenism and insights into the current work of the commission. To that, I experienced how different commissions and transversals in the WCC challenge and inspire one another in their work, making the ecumenical task if possible even more ecumenical.
What kinds of skills and inspiration would you like to take back home when your studies are complete?
Rev. Nilsson: To be open to the unexpected and to change! This year has been and is intensely rich, academically as well as in all that we have been invited to share in—meetings, conferences, travels. Through the research fellowship, we have come to know and be inspired by the work and engagement in the WCC. Through the visits to the ecumenical communities, as well as shared prayer-life, we have strive to live ecumenically from a spiritual, very inside, perspective. Through the visits to the Swiss parishes and the week in the Vatican in Rome, we have been accustomed to a wide variety of ecclesial contexts and gotten knowledge of the official working groups and dialogues. To that comes life in Bossey, which is living, studying, and praying with colleagues and visiting church leaders of the global Christian community. Taken together, this year has allowed me to develop a theological rationale in ecumenism and, to that, invaluable skills in the broad areas listed above—all invaluable skills for the continuation back home.
Do you keep in contact with your family and friends back home? What do you tell them?
Rev. Nilsson: I do, of course! They have shown great interest in what I am living and I have told them about the richness as well as the challenges in the year here. Even though I was deeply involved in ecumenism before I came here, I hope to engage even more when I come home, sharing in the gifts and experiences that I have made here.
