The spiritual duet of Scott Hahn and wife
Kimberly, evangelical Protestants who converted to the Catholic Church and
chronicled their journey to Catholicism in the famous book ‘Rome Sweet Home’,
is one of the most gracious, moving and convincing stories of recent times. A
similar inspiring story has emerged in Sweden where Ulf Ekman announced he
and his wife, Birgitta, are converting to Roman Catholicism.
Ekman is the founder of Word of Life, a
megachurch in Uppsala, Sweden. “During our last Sunday service, pastor Ulf
Ekman shared the news that he and his wife Birgitta will be received into the
Catholic Church. A process of many years of prayer and reflection led to this
decision,” Word of Life Ministry said in a report on its website last week.
Ekman has an India connection. He met and married Birgitta, daughter of a Methodist pastor and his wife and raised in India where her parents were missionaries.
Ekman has an India connection. He met and married Birgitta, daughter of a Methodist pastor and his wife and raised in India where her parents were missionaries.
During the last ten years, Ulf and Birgitta
have had contact with catholics and catholic faith, mostly internationally but
also in Sweden.
This has made them reflect more on the catholic faith and on the spiritual life
they have seen in their catholic brothers and sisters, it said. “For Birgitta
and me, this has been a slow process were we have gone from discovering new
things, to appreciating what we have discovered, to approach and even learn
from our fellow Christians,” Ulf Ekman said.
Ekman said, “it has not been our agenda to
lead Word of Life in this direction, or to collectively unite the church with
the Catholic Church. That would be unreasonable.” In his speech to the church,
Ekman stressed that this step was not going from something, but more
importantly going towards something else.
Word of
Life says it will continue its work. “For me personally it has been a
great honor and privilege to be able to work alongside pastor Ulf in the
International work, as missionary to Russia and Kazakhstan during the 90s,
and then as Missions Director since 2000, where the work has gone out to new
areas and countries. That work will continue to develop and spread at the same
time as pastor Ulf takes this step,”Christian Åkerhielm of Word
of Life said.
Word of Life is a non denominational
Charismatic church that around 3,300 people call their spiritual home. The
church offers a broad range of activities, services and gatherings for young
and old alike, a rich music life, educational facilities and various social
projects.
Ekman’s spiritual journey
Ekman was born in Gothenburg, Sweden,
and in 1970 – a few days before graduating from high school– he had an
encounter with Jesus Christ and became a Christian, an incident that left him
totally transformed and that radically changed the direction of his life. He
enrolled at Uppsala
University and acquired
degrees in theology, history and ethnography, says the website of Word of Life.
In 1976, he met and married Birgitta,
daughter of a Methodist pastor and his wife and raised in India where her
parents were missionaries. In January of 1979, Ekman was ordained minister of
the Swedish Lutheran
Church, and for some years he worked
as a student chaplain at Uppsala
University.
In 1983, Ekman founded Word of Life Church and
Word of Life Bible Centre in Uppsala, Sweden and resigned from the Lutheran
Church and his name and face become known all over the nation. Already from
start Word of Life has been the biggest church of the faith movement in Sweden
and Ulf Ekman is a highly appreciated and often-invited speaker at churches and
conferences of various denominations, not only in Scandinavia but also
internationally, it says.
Word of Life Bible Centre has graduated more
than 9,500 students since its inception in 1983. Ekman is also founder and
President of Livets Ord Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with Oral
Roberts University (ORU) in Tulsa,
USA. Through
the seminary, he has helped tailoring a mobile, one-year pastors’ education for
active free-church pastors without formal academic training. This course so far
has been conducted in nine countries for 1,600 pastors from 43 nations.
Ekman has written some 50 books and booklets,
translated into around 50 different languages. For many years, Ekman appeared
weekly on his TV programme Another Day of Victory, broadcasted in 200 countries
via 15 different satellites, besides several cable TV networks.
During the years 2002-2005, Ekman and
Birgitta resided in Jerusalem,
Israel, where
they established a Study and Information Centre to promote an understanding
between Jews and Christians. Oral
Roberts University
has awarded Ekman the Doctor of Laws degree (Honorary doctorate).
He became a Catholic in 2014.
No comments:
Post a Comment