a area i was sent to clear up some misunderstanding or drama in the congregation. The bishop there had offended the patriarch of a big family of that area for saying during a sermon, that everyone is equal in the eyes of god and loved by god as well.
The patriarch is a old konservative guy , that accepted that teaching at first, but when the bishop invited his gay friend over during a social event in church, he got offended that he even invited him.
later on, im being called in by the arch bishop to solve the situation, cause patriarch contacted his contacts in the church higher levels of power and tried to make it so that the bishop would be brought before the court of bishops and be disbanded from his office.
Bishop family found out and were offended that the patriarch even tried to do that, and a local feud was almost started.
To make long story short, i tried to look at both sides, tried to convince both parties to sit down an talk it out.
Patriarch refused, huffed up on his pride, left the church and joined the rival church in the region, taking his whole family with him.
Bishop tried to go back to normal, but patriarch family started to spread lies that the bishop was diddling kids, making the bishop lose his preisthood, his job and having to move to another state, i order to try to start again.
I tried to talk to my arch bishop, but he was friend with the patriarch, dismissed my complaints and gave me a warning for "trying to start disharmony in the church"
After the bishop had left the region, the patriarch returned and everything was "fine" again.
Except that a feud started between two big families and in marries familes in the church.
basically, what I learned: "Their faith is false, since the patriarch only reason for being in church, was the relationships, friends an power he got from having friend in higher leader roles."
Context: Since sweden is a kinda small country, with an even smaller Christian crowd, since a lot of swedes are agnostic or just dont choose to believe in a higher being. Thus, if you have a big family, with connections to many other families, in marriage and such, you basically know everyone. some individuals and families are more well known then others, and thus they get more prestige then a newly converted member or such.
So the bishop was in the middle part of sweden, but had to move to the northern part cause its so widespread from city to city there, and not alot of members live up there.
Also if you wonder why i didnt go to the police? I did, but what do you know, the police man and police chief were members and good friends with the patriarch.