World Cup Churches 28. Switzerland

Continuing a series of blogs heading round the 32 qualifying countries in the 2022 World Cup - I will pick out one church in each one.  I am not going to choose only churches that are to my liking.  This is an exploration not a recommendation! To see all in the series select the label 'World Cup Churches' below.

Switzerland is one country I've wanted to visit yet never have.  We've had a lodger from Switzerland, a family member also lived there for some years and I've visited every major country it borders - but I've never been there.

I don't doubt that were I to visit I'd be heading straight up some mountains on the amazing railways for which Switzerland is rightly famed.  But were I to visit one church I guess it would be this one in Geneva - though admittedly Geneva is barely in Switzerland.

Despite the name, St. Pierre's Cathedral is not a cathedral any more because, like Church of Scotland 'Cathedrals' it has no Bishop or Diocese since the changes of the Reformation.  My interest in this church building is simple - it is the one in which John Calvin, day in and day out, preached his way through the Scriptures.

I would be much less interested in its Protestant relic pictured here - John Calvin's chair:

Perhaps the most powerful message from this church's story is that, however great a human season is, it is just a season.  Called by the city to the city to cement and spread the Reformation, Calvin steeped the place in Scripture and the Grace of God.

Intervening centuries played around with this, and almost completely in the Canton and eventually in the city that heritage was wasted away - like the revival era chapels in Wales.  Earlier in 2022 the first Catholic mass was held in the building since the Reformation.  You can keep the chair but only God can keep the hearts of the people as they turn to him; a lesson for all of Western Europe.

World Cup Blogs 30: Switzerland

When I was growing up I had a shortlist of countries I'd like to visit someday.  In a non-internet world and from a family that could never go overseas for a holiday it was more dream than aspiration.  In order of preference counting upwards the list was probably as follows;

5 Iceland - wild, cold and an island
4 Norway - snow, mountains, boats and fjords
3 Malta - the only hot one but somewhere we watched a film about in Junior School
2 Switzerland - snow, mountains, little trains going up mountains
1 Canada - huge, snow, mountains, big trains going past mountains

Of these five, I have (with no great sense of intention) visited four. Perhaps it is because my dreams were so sky-high that I have found each of them a little disappointing.  Canada was a lot more boring than I expected, Malta a lot more crowded (buildings as well as tourists), Norway, like Canada, quite sleepy and rather unfriendly though with wonderful scenery.  Iceland fared better though Reykjavik felt too much like a misplaced Reading with its modern malls and office buildings.

I liked each place but they were not the heaven on earth my imagination had built them up to be.  That's very similar to the way football fans look toward competitions like the World Cup - high expectation that is therefore doomed to somewhat disappoint.

Switzerland is the auspicious missing visit from my list - though I have visited other parts of the Alps in Bavaria and Austria.

Maybe one day I'll go there.   But . . .

I have only met - in close proximity - three Swiss people.  One, in one of my pastorates, was very nice but loved England and hardly ever went back to Switzerland even with family there.  Another was a Swiss girl I met when she was working at a Conference Centre I was connected to as a teenager.  She loved England too, and wanted to stay here instead of Switzerland.  The third was someone who lived with us for a year.  She hit new depths of off-puttingness by insisting that she hated (her word) snow and mountains . . .

In other words, my fandom toward Switzerland as a country has been gradually eroded by the people who belonged to it and who have themselves not appeared to be fans.

Hopefully the Swiss fans at the World Cup were more commending of their homeland. And hopefully anyone who meets me - even if they dislike the thought of being a Christian - will at least notice that I'm an enthusiast for Jesus.