More architectural delights

This is the church we have been attending every Sunday evening, when this Lutheran (Church of Sweden) church of Saint Jacob, the patron saint of pilgrims, hosts an Anglican/Church of England service in English, which is open to anyone and everyone. It is a wonderful service, and the Anglican priest is terrific. There is quite a bit of Taize chanting along with the broad outlines of the Episcopal mass I recognize from the past 8 or so months of attending our local Saint James Episcopal Church in Greenfield, MA (I figured that when the Pope welcomed Anglicans into the Catholic church with no changes in their mass service, and no other changes, he was saying what seemed obvious to me, anyway: there's no real difference between our service and theirs, as long as it's the "High Episcopal" version. Except that there IS a big difference between the mass as St. James and any of the Catholic churches in Western Massachusetts: the attendees at St. James seem to WANT to be there, and they show it in their singing, praying, and general involvement in the service, as well as being the friendliest bunch of people I have ever met. The Catholic masses I have been to in Western Massachusetts have been depressing and DIS-spiriting, although the priests seem to be working very hard to raise the energy levels).
At any rate, Father Nick Howe seems to recognize that everyone at an English-language service in Stockholm is from somewhere else, and probably from a variety of Christian denominations. Without letting go of the most important parts of the service, he is welcoming and compassionate towards all, and helps us celebrate even those church holy days--such as the Assumption, which in the Anglican church is the Feast of Mary--that he personally does not believe in (his sermon on the Feast of the Assumption was about the Assumption, and what it COULD mean for someone who is NOT Roman Catholic. It was a very generous thing to do.
As an aside: the churches in Stockholm, like most of the buildings, are not particularly old. The king ordered that much of the city be leveled, in order to build a beautiful city, in the late Victorian era. Therefore, most of the beautiful buildings and churches were built in the first couple of decades of the 20th century. They are beautiful, nonetheless. The only part of the city that is old is Gamla Stan, and I will provide more photos of that medieval neighborhood/island in another post.