Local Contexts of Interpreting a Cold War Relationship

Abstract

This article explores how an East-west inter-church relationship during the Cold War was given multiple meanings. The link that emerged during the late 1970s between Vaxjo diocese (Church of Sweden) and Pommersche Landeskirche is used to illustrate the case in point. Whereas an Uppsala-based national church leadership saw such connections as efforts to bring peace and reconciliation, the regional promoters explored alternative meanings. Instead of seeing this bond of friendship between two Lutheran churches as a way to further international understanding, the representatives of Vaxjo diocese saw this opportunity to offer support and material aid in the form of various building projects. In so doing they reached back to an earlier narrative that emphasized aid-work as being at the heart of international relationships between ›sister churches‹. The article concludes with a reflection on the need to recognize how different contextualizations of international could operate side-by-side within the same church. (Less)