Hope Cathedral

Autumn 2022

          A visit from young Hindus

Sunday the 7th of august, we had a beautiful ceremony on Hope Cathedral. 20 youth from the Arena of young Hindus from Oslo came by bus and spent the whole day with us. They brought their own altar, colourful fabrics, icons and artifacts and decorated the Cathedral and held a ceremony with song, prayer and wonderful ceremonious food. Afterwards, we had pizza and a very nice time by the riverside. We do appreciate that the Cathedral can be used for occasions like this, and be a holy place also for the young!

The Kavli Foundation has sponsored us with a bike!

We got a box bike! It will be fabulous for transporting what we need around the island. But also for going into town and inform about the work we do with school workshops and the production of bee cathedrals (bee hotels). This is part of our work within social sustainability, and connects to the Sustainable Development Goals nr 15 and 17. Thank you so much!

Diapraxis at Hope Cathedral

24. of August, we had a visit from the Inter-Religious Climate Network, which consists of members from different religions who meet regularly to talk about how we together can make a positive impact on our planet. They loved being back at Hope Cathedral – many were here years ago when we barked the pillars of the cathedral. And we use diapraxis as a method – so it was a good mix of work and dialogue when we met ;)

Beautiful Music in the Cathedral

In August, we had two wonderful concerts on Hope Cathedral. The Swedish singer/songwriter Dan Fagerquist touched us profoundly with his beautiful songs. And Mikkel Gaup performed traditional Sami music, and told stories for a very enthusiastic audience. The concert with Mikkel Gaup was a part of Sami Culture Day at the Church City Mission in Fredrikstad.

We do look forward to more acoustic concerts in the Cathedral! Because it is pure magic to hear beautiful music underneath the tall and colourful ceiling made out of plastic from the ocean.

Watch a sneak peak from Dan Fägerquists concert here.

Watch a sneak peak from Mikkel Gaups concert here.

Visit from women from Ukraine

As part of our work with integration of immigrants, we often welcome groups of people who are new in Norway. In August we were visited by women from Ukraine, together with women from the organization “Soroptimistene”. We had lunch together and talked about Hope Cathedral. The “Soroptimistene” had spent the summer teaching Norwegian to these Ukrainian women - this makes us very happy! We talked a little english, a little Norwegian, body language and the universal language of laughter:) We even got to taste some of the delicious Ukrainian food they had brought.

Solveig Egeland on Norwegian National Radio

This summer Solveig was a guest at a progrramme called “Sommer i P2.” There she talks about her art projects in general and also about Hope Cathedral.

Have a cup of coffee or tea, sit down and listen to the epiosode here (in Norwegian).

Hope Cathedral is a multi-religious environment and art project about building HOPE through collaboration. The cathedral, which is open to all, is a meeting place between people of all ages, nationalities and faiths.

We have built a 120 m2 wooden barge which is the foundation of the cathedral, that floats on the water. The structure is inspired by stave churches, while the 300 m2 large roof has been created as an innovation project of recycled plastic from the sea.

Hope Cathedral works with environmental, social and economic sustainability. We work with diapraxis, meaning that people from different religions and cultures come together to work.
We believe that not only talking, but actually doing something together is good both for our health and for our planet and it helps to create more understanding between us.