The Danish Church in London (ed. from the website)
tion on-line across national boundaries have meant that there is a less acute need for cultural societies such as ours to act as the cultural outlet for all things Finnish and the emphasis is now greater on helping the Scottish Finnish community to preserve, celebrate and share its multi-cultural identity. The difference is subtle but important: SFS is not about Finnish culture but the centre for Scottish-Finnish culture. Our members now also include second and third generation descendants of Finns who have not necessarily ever lived in Finland. Our membership has stayed steady standing at some 100 members, but our events and activities reach a far wider audience. We made a conscious decision ten years ago not to be an exclusive members’ club but to open all our activities to anyone and everyone in order to bring down perceived barriers and to reach out and collaborate with both the transient population such as students, and members of fellow Scandinavian societies and UK wide organisations such as Finn Guild. We have found this format very beneficial and that it has enabled us to celebrate our shared Nordic heritage in a very natural way. Come along to any one of our events, or take part in the discussions on-line to find out more!
The Danish Church is a meeting place for anybody with an interest in keeping in contact with anything Danish.
The society’s events calendar is available on our website www.scottish-finnish-society.org.uk. We co-administer the ‘Finns in Scotland – Skotlannin Suomalaiset’ group on Facebook.
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The Danish Church in London is based in the historic building of St Katharine’s, a 200 year-old neo-gothic church in the north-east corner of Regent’s Park. We are here for all Danes in London and England: an Evangelical Lutheran church conducting services, christenings, confirmations, weddings and funerals as in a Danish parish church. In 2012 we celebrated 60 years in St Katharine’s; however, there has been a Danish church in London since 1696. The first one was in Wellclose Square but by 1868 this was no longer in use. For many years services were held in one of the Royal Chapels, Marlborough House Chapel, which was partly due to the late Queen Alexandra being Danish born.