Kista kyrka

KISTA CHURCH

The world meets in Kista We move a thousand years back in time, and sail in our imagination up the Igelbäckens valley. The water level is three meters higher than today, which means that many of today's districts and farms now only stand out like islands in the bay. We leave Solenö (Solna) behind us, and soon we enter Risenö (Rissne) on the port side. On both sides of the bay are farms with names like Kymlinge, Ärvinge, Ekeby (Eggeby), Graensby (Granby), Husby and Akalla. The landscape is mostly deciduous forest, with acorns and hazelnuts as food for the pigs. When we go ashore, we can read on the rune stones along the village road about those who live on the farms and about the fates they have met. It is often a father, a son or a brother who was left behind somewhere out in the world during the Viking voyage. Today the world has come here. In Kista Church, Zoltan Bedec's octagonal brick temple from 1978, services are held in Armenian, Farsi or Tigrinya, a language spoken in Eritrea. We all pray to the same God in this church, which is full of Christian symbols. The braided corners, walled in obliquely, symbolize the clasped hands in prayer. The bare bulbs of the chandeliers evoke the bunches of grapes in the vineyard, and the fountain of life, the baptismal font, is placed in the middle of the church. The life-giving sunlight shines in through the high lantern.

From "Ingegerdsleden: Pilgrimage route for spirituality, culture and peace" published by the Church of Sweden. Available as PDF: https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/filer/Ingegerdsleden_bok.pdf