Christ Church on Convent Road in Bangkok was filled with Scandinavians and the sound of Nordic hymns filled the Church on 24 December 2011 when the Swedish vicar Lovisa Moller led the community in a traditional Christmas Service in Bangkok.
Parts of the gospel was once again delivered by various members of the community. The Icelandic part was read by Viktor Sveinsson, the Norwegian part by Ambassador Katja Nordgaard, the Swedish part by Ambassador Klas Molin. The Danish part was this year not delivered by Poul Weber but … surprise!.. by Manu Sareen, Denmark’s Minister of Church and Equality!
The minister was vacationing in Hua Hin and had come to Bangkok with the single purpose to participate in the service and he left immediatly after the service to drive back to Hua Hin again.
“I came early to have a chat with the Swedish vicar,” he told ScandAsia.
“I am investigating if we could let the Church tax of the Danes abroad follow them abroad, so to speak, as it is the case in Sweden. This could form the basis of the income that a Church in Bangkok would need, but the Danish community would have to provide the rest,” he said.
It was clearly still just an idea, but several of the Danes present encouraged the Minister to carry on his investigation.
The Christmas service was interspersed with several solo performances of Christmas carols. One was by Vanessa Bekassy, who was back from her studies in London to spend Christmas with her parents Agneta and Stefan Bekassy; three others was by Johanna Hintz.
After the service, Scandinavian Society Siam hosted a reception outside the Church. This year, the traditional glass of red wine was upgraded with a small buffet provided by ScanDeli.
When the Swedes, Danes and Norwegians had left the church, the Finnish community took over and held a Finnish Christmas Service.
