Monday, May 29, 2006

Fire in the Porvoo Cathedral


The Porvoo Cathedral of "The Porvoo Communion"-fame (the union between the Lutheran Churches and the Anglican Communion) burned tonight. The Well-known roof of the cathedral was destroyed, but right now it seems the interior can be saved.

The cause of the fire is not known at the moment.

The Porvoo Cathedral is the see of the Swedish-speaking finnish Lutherans.

3 comments:

byron smith said...

Condolences to the congregation(s) there and all for whom it was a spiritual home. And the loss of historic sites is a sad day for all humanity as we lose touch with one more aspect of our past.

Patrik, were you personally connected?

Not meaning in any way to be crass, but having had my own home church burn down a couple of weeks ago, I've posted a few reflections on the matter here.

Patrik said...

Well, my in-laws live in Porvoo so I go there whenever I visit them, and a lot of my friends have been ordained there. But other than that no.

Looks like it were arson. Thank God no one got hurt. But it is a really small town, and the Cathedral, earliest part built un ith 13th century, were the pride of the entire town. And the congragation will have a really hard time find an alternative place to gather while it is rebuilt.

byron smith said...

How frustrating and sad. It takes years to rebuild and there are so many memories and possibilities lost.

Australia has only a short (european) history - so our 150 year old building is (was) one of the oldest churches in the country. Hard to imagine losing an almost 800 year old building...