Rationale
Some of you might ask why we have this General Assembly.  This question is related to the reason why is there a Philippine Mission in Sweden. Well a little history might help explain.
Few years back, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Stockholm, Arborelius Anders, OCD, concerned about the increasing number of Filipinos in Sweden, requested the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ for Filipino Priests to work in Sweden to take care of the Spiritual needs of the Filipinos.

An arrangement was made later, and the first Filipino Passionist Priest, Fr. Gabriel Balldostamon, C.P.  was sent to Sweden and was stationed first in Vår Frälsares Församling in Malmö. Then another one, Fr. Roberto Wapano, CP joined Fr. Gabriel. In August 2008, the Bishop entrusted to our care the St. Nikolai Parish in Linköping where we are presently based.
Our main ministry is to care for the Filipinos in Sweden. Fr. Gabriel started contacting various Filipino Groups and visited them regularly, organizing them and celebrating mass with them. After a while, a number of Filipino Christian Communities had been identified and regularly visited. These are, Malmö, Helsingborg, Halmstad, Göteborg, Trollhättan, Stockholm, Täby and Linköping. Unfortunately,   the regular visitation to Halmstad is presently suspended.  Due to lack of personnel, we cannot expand yet our presence or visit to other Filipino communities. We know that there are still many other Filipinos in other parts of Sweden.

In our travels and visits, we have discovered that a lot of Filipinos, a majority who are catholic, have been cut off from the Church.  We also discovered that they are not only cut off from the life of the Church, they are also cut off from one another mostly in terms of individualistic groupings, so characteristic of Filipinos back home. There are so many Filipino Groups here in Sweden and mostly are not so welcoming towards one another. In some areas, there exists animosity between or among the groups. There are walls to be destroyed and there is a challenge to build bridges instead of walls so that we, Filipinos in Sweden, can be united.

This is the background why the Philippine Mission in Sweden thought of holding a General Assembly whereby the Filipinos can come together as one family united by one faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, enjoy each others presence, share talents, pray together, celebrate and share the Eucharist, sing and dance together, share food, eat together, play together, tell stories, establish contacts with others from other places and listen to Spiritual talks together. Isn’t this beautiful?

We hope that in this Assembly, the walls that we have established to separate us from one another oftentimes with unchristian attitude of personal hatred or dislikes, self-and group- centeredness, might be brought down by the force of our love and concern for one another which is inspired by our Love for God. And hopefully, this experience might become the rule, instead of as an exception, in our life here in Sweden as Filipino Christians.

So please come and be counted as one of God’s instruments in destroying the walls of separation and create a new way of being a believer in this secular country. In this way, together we can be effective living witnesses to our Faith, witnesses to the possibility of living as one, united under the headship of our Lord Jesus Christ, characterized by self-sacrificing love. Isn’t it nice to hear from non-believer commenting, “see how they love and enjoy one another!”

DATE AND VENUE

Date: August 20, 21, 22, 2010
Venue: Raus församling, Kielergatan 25, 252 70 RÅÅ                                                             Telefon expedition: 042-37 29 40

Since the Catholic Church in Helsingborg and its hall are not big enough for our group, we are going to rent a place for the assembly. And because this is OUR event as Filipinos, we are going to shoulder the expense. The hall rent is SK 2,200 per day. Since we will be using the place practically for two days, we need SK 4,400. Therefore, each adult participant is requested to share SK 50. All communities except Stockholm and Täby, are already informed about this arrangement and they are ok.

THE SLEEPING PLACE
Since we are not allowed to sleep in our rented hall, each community is responsible for looking for a place to stay/sleep. There are lodging houses in Helsingborg and stugor for rent. If you have some friends there, you can arrange to stay there also. You can also camp with your tent since the place is near the camping area. Some have already booked for a stuga, others for a vandrarhem room. Some have already planned to camp.

(See below for the list of lodging houses)

THE FOOD
The food arrangement will be the same as last year. Each community will bring its own food. For our dinner on Friday, August 20, each group will bring cooked food, ready for eating. For breakfast, each group will secure its own. There will be coffee and tea in the venue. For our lunch on Saturday, August 21, each group will bring marinated meat or anything for grilling during our “picnic ng bayan”. Supper will be served from the leftovers of the day’s picnic.

RICE, DRINKS AND UTENSILS
The host community will provide for these. So there is no need for the other communities to bring.

THE SCHEDULE

Day 1 (Friday, August 20, 2010)

All are expected to arrive and settle down in the afternoon of August 20.

18:00             Tagalog Mass (In-charge community: Malmö)

19:45             Dinner (with the cooked food from different communities)

20: 45            Welcome and presentation of delegates, and information for the next day’s activities

22:30   Retire (before klockan 23:00 all must leave the församlings hall because the alarm is set  by this time)

Day 2 (Saturday, August 21, 2010)

Breakfast time, as you like

09:00             Recollection

11:00             English Mass (In-charge community: Göteborg)

12:30             Lunch (picnic/barbecue at the Råå vallar / beach)
To be followed by games and other activities

18:00   Dinner (informal, served from the leftovers of the day),                                                     Fika c/o host community is served during the program.

19:00   Presentations of different groups (Each community is requested to prepare for a  sentation number)

Jamming with Live band, singing, dancing.

22:00 or 23:00 Community singing:

If we hold on together.   

Final Blessing

(Emcee for the program: Emmylou & Tony Minardi)

Day 3: (Sunday, August 22, 2010) Home sweet home for those who are still around.

LODGING

Telefon: 042-18 26 00‎ (http://www.nordiccamping.se)

Priser

Address:  Hantverkaregatan 2, 25200 Helsingborg
Telefon: 042-141565 / 076-7760460 (http://www.helsingborgsvandrarhem.com)
Ordinarie priser från 1/7 – 2010
Enkelrum 295:-                             2-bäddsrum 395:-/rum
3-bäddsrum 495:-/rum                 4-bäddsrum 595:-/rum
Hyra lakan 45:-/set Fritt kaffe / te
Stort välutrustat självhushållskök

Adress: Planteringsvägen 71 252 30 Helsingborg
Telefon: 042-13 11 30 (http://www.miatorp.nu)

Alla priser är per person
Barn 0-3år, som inte upptar egen säng, 0 kr.
Frukost kostar 60 kr per person. Barn 30 kr.
Beställes dagen innan.
Städning kostar 75 kr per rum. Enkelrum 50 kr.
Hyra av lakan + stor handduk 70 kr

Enkelrum 395:-      dubbelrum 495:-   3-bäddsrum 695:-  4-bäddsrum 895:-     

6-bäddsrum1195:-      8-bäddsrum 1495:-   Lakanset med handduk 55:-

Slutstädning75:-

*städning ingår i priset Priserna kan variera beroende på säsong och efterfrågan.
Aktuellt pris fås vid bokningstillfället* Med städning menas att Ni tar ner eventuellt hyrda lakan/sänglinne och handdukar till receptionen, samt att ni tömmer era saker i rummet. Vår städpersonal dammsugar, dammar, städar kylskåpen och torkar golvet.
Skulle ni önska slippa detta går det bra att köpa till slutstädning för 75:- / rum.

Address: Dag Hammarskjölds väg, Helsingborg, Skåne, Sweden  
Telefon: 042 - 38 06 60 (http://www.villathalassa.com/)

Priser

RADHUS: Rum med WC/dusch, TV och altan. Pentry.
2-bäddsrum  695 kr.
3-bäddsrum  895 kr.
 Familjerum 2 vuxna och 2 barn under 14 år: 895 kr  (barn från 14 år 100 kr extra/natt).
Alla priser är exkl. frukost och sänglinne.

LÄNGAN: Rum med WC, TV och altan. Självhushåll och dusch i samma byggnad.
Priser efter 16 april 2010:
2-bäddsrum  595 kr.
3-bäddsrum  795 kr.

BUNGALOW: Rum med handfat och altan. WC/dusch i korridoren.
2-bäddsrum  450 kr.                        4-bäddsrum  890 kr.5-bäddsrum.
3-bäddsrum  650 kr                         5-bäddsrum  1.050 kr.
6-bäddsrum  1.200 kr.

Familjerum 2 vuxna och 2 barn under 14 år 695 kr. (barn över 14 år 100 kr extra/natt)

Familjerum 2 vuxna och 4 barn under 14 år 890 kr. (Barn över 14 år 100 kr extra/natt).
Alla priser är exkl. frukost och sänglinne.

Filipino Christian Community – Helsingborg (email add: fcchbg@yahoo.com)

Steering committee:
Fr. RobertoTel. 0737049233
Nancy Andresson                                                                 
Joy Björk...................email add: joybb02@yahoo.com
Dwight Ramos...........email add: dramos47@hotmail.com
Riena ........................email add: h.espelund@tele2.se
Judith 

Raus församling, Kielergatan 25, 252 70 RÅÅ

http://www.kyrktorget.se/raus.forsamling

 Click on picture for directions!   

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