June 2, 2006

HELSINKI, Finland/GENEVA – Bishop Dr Eero Huovinen, vice-president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Nordic region, says the medieval Porvoo Cathedral, partially destroyed in a recent fire, is a significant historical marker. Its importance is not only in relation to local congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF) and the country but also to global ecumenism.

The cathedral in Porvoo, 50 km east of the capital Helsinki, was damaged by fire early in the morning of 29 May. Reports from the Finnish media say police had questioned three suspects – two young men and one young woman, who had given themselves up claiming responsibility for the fire that burned the cathedral's roof.

In a recent interview with Lutheran World Information (LWI), Huovinen, bishop of the ELCF Diocese of Helsinki, which covers Porvoo's Finnish-speaking congregations, said Finland's history was directly linked to the cathedral. In 1809, it was where Tsar Alexander I had declared Finland, then under the Swedish crown, an autonomous territory of the Russian empire. This opened the way to the country's independence more than a century later.

Huovinen said he had joined Bishop Erik Vikstroem of the Swedish-speaking Diocese of Porvoo in a well-attended prayer service for the cathedral, held in the city's market square in the afternoon after the incident.

Huovinen, chairperson of the LWF Council's Program Committee for Ecumenical Affairs, underscored the cathedral's ecumenical significance: Porvoo was the venue for the 1992 historic agreement to the Porvoo Common Statement, between the British and Irish Anglican churches and Baltic and Nordic Lutheran churches. The agreement, which was subsequently signed, allows the churches to recognize each other's ordained ministry including at the episcopal level, and opens up closer church relations and co-operation.

LWF General Secretary, Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko told LWI, "The large, finely shaped cross in the gable of the cathedral's western wall, has in a certain way, become the visual picture of the Porvoo agreement itself." The damage, especially to the roof, would sadden all those who loved the cathedral, he added, but "the ecumenical force that the cathedral represents will remain intact," he affirmed.

Lutheran World Information
The ELCF Communications Center contributed to this article.