Capella Ecumenica

About the church

Capella Ecumenica Sanctæ Annæ in scopulis is an ecumenical chapel consecrated in 1965 on the island of Västra Gärdsholmen in Trännöfjärden, in the Sankt Anna archipelago in Östergötland. Church activities are carried on in the chapel from May to September; among other things, the chapel is a popular church for baptisms and weddings.

The founder, Hilding Bielkhammar (Bjelkhammar, 1907-1989), came from Sankt Anna parish and actually wanted to restore the ruin of the old church of Sankt Anna. Owing to a lack of interest from the Diocese of Linköping, he chose instead to build, on his own, a chapel in memory of his ancestors' church on the island of Västra Gärsholmen just outside the entrance to Slätbaken, next to the old fairway to Söderköping and Stegeborg. He had been inspired by the ecumenical idea already when, at the age of 18, he attended the ecumenical world conference of 1925 in Stockholm.

In 1958 Bielkhammar began, with the help of family and friends, to carry grey stone to the crest of the small island of Gråholmen. For the altar, stones were collected from, among others, Old Swede's Church in Delaware, the Lavra Monastery in Kiev and the Church of the Annunciation in the Kremlin.

The text has been translated from the article Capella Ecumenica on Swedish Wikipedia and may be used under CC BY-SA 4.0.