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My youngest: "Went to HPE for the first time since winter." You know, one of those little joys. I went to a hairdresser for the first time in three months. Me: "Great." HPE, HPE...? Is it a café, a restaurant, a clothing store, some sort of adventure park or something? I do know that MCD means...

How about a thread for tips and new innovative ideas on how to keep on serving each other and how to be there for each other when lock-downs and social distancing are the new words of our time? Has your church/parish found new ways and forums for fellowship? Share, please! :)

Both good news and bad news. Depending on one's opinion, I suppose, depends which one you consider the good and which one the bad. Good/bad news 1: Good/bad news 2:

Charity begins at home. Finnish Evangelical Lutheran parishes have begun organising confirmation schooling for Muslim asylum seekers who want to convert to Christianity. Although no exact figures on converts are kept, even careful estimates put the number of emigrants who have renounced Islam...

<staff edit> Trump cites nonexistent Sweden incident during his rally on Saturday

Republican Senator John McCain comments follow warnings made by a senior Republican adviser Gabriel Schoenfeld who claimed there was something “deeply wrong with our president and the country is in danger.” "All this would be comical if it were not so alarming. Something is deeply wrong with...

:) Preparations for the Reformation 500th Anniversary are in full swing: The latest craze here in Finland? Playmobil's adorable plucky little pocket-size Martin Luther (this guy), christened taskuMartti in Finnish, "hip-pocket Martin". Taskumatti, you see, is the Finnish nickname for hip-pocket...

Think far north countries like Finland are "dark and gloomy"? Think again. Last night, Nuorgam in the Finnish Lapland still had 36 minutes of "night" between sunset and sunrise: the sun rose at 1:32 a.m. And it won't set again until July 29th. Sales of darkening curtains went a-boom. It's the...

The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (SPAS), the world's oldest peace organization and winner of Nobel Peace Prize, says it has installed an underwater "defence system" known as the Singing Sailor in the waters off Stockholm. Described as a subsurface sonar system, the installation...

You can't teach an old dog new tricks, huh? The average dog's nose is tens of thousands of times as sensitive to odors as ours, and scent hounds (long, droopy ears, large nasal passages) specialize in following a smell or scent. The olfactory ability of dogs have been successfully used for...

A Finnish election April 2015 spinoff of the UK Election thread with a twist ;). Three things that non-Nordic and the US-Americans especially don't seem to get about our Finnish/Nordic values and model or vastly underestimate: 1. The staunch, universal, cross-party support for the Nordic...

On the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle's radio series the holy book of Islam, The Koran, will be read cover-to-cover in 60 half-hour-long instalments. Each instalment will begin with a discussion between Imam Anas Hajjar, a leader of the Finnish Muslim community, and the translator of the text...

[Inspired by this little piece of bizarre news story] THE SCENARIO: You're enjoying some alone-time cutting firewood with an axe in your remote wilderness cabin. The nearest settlement is 20 miles away and there's no phone and no mobile connection. You hit your leg with your axe and it's...

One people -- four countries. The nomadic Sami (Saami, Sámi) are the indigenous people living in the Arctic high north of Europe, in Sápmi, which stretches across the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Russian Kola Peninsula. The Sámi population of Sápmi numbers approximately...

JERUSALEM - On November 10th, 2014, the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem visited Sheikh Abed Al-Atheem, Director of Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Azam Abed Alkhatib Altamimi, Head of the Islamic Waqf of Jerusalem to show their support for the historical Status Quo and a show of solidarity between...

A very timely meeting indeed. On September 2, 2014, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with the Primate of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, Archbishop Kari Mäkinen of Turku and Finland. Patriarch Kirill warmly welcomed Archbishop Mäkinen and his...

World War II started 75 years ago (1 September 1939), with the German invasion of Poland, and ended 69 years ago (2 September 1945), with the surrender of Japan. Why Germany lost? Here's a compilation of reasons: 1. Size matters: German pop. 69 million vs. UK + USSR + US 2. Especially if you...

Apparently, Prime Minister Netanyahu's son Yair is dating Norwegian Sandra Leikanger. And Ms Leikanger *gasp* is not Jewish. Sacrilegious! Intermarriage - when Jews wed non-Jews - has been called a threat to the future survival of the Jewish nation. The fact that Leikanger is not Jewish has...

The Finnish Defence Forces is advertising on the Facebook a great last minute deal for an all-inclusive 6-month adventure holiday starting next Monday, with option for three or six more months: A couple of last minute cancellation places available. Reimbursement for travel expenses from anywhere...

Kerry demands Russia action 'in hours' "It is critical for Russia to show in the next hours, literally, that they are moving to help disarm the separatists, to encourage them to disarm, to call on them to lay down their weapons and begin to be come part of a legitimate political process," Mr...