Photo courtesy of Thomas Xavier Floyd
• Introducing Our Ministers •
The Rev. Göran R. Appelgren
A Christmas Gift for a Spiritual Quest
T
he Rev. Göran R. Appelgren is another of our General Church ministers
who was launched on a very different and successful career track but felt
pulled – or led – to a higher calling.
He is now pastor of the New Church society in Stockholm, Sweden, visiting
pastor in Copenhagen, Denmark and Oslo, Norway, and regional pastor for
Europe and India. Fortunately, he speaks several languages, including Swedish,
English, French and Russian.
Göran was born in Sweden in 1949. His father was a farmer and his mother
a teacher. They divorced when he was just four and he lived with his mother,
but he loved returning to his father’s farm several times a year. It was there,
with his father at age eight, that he had a deep religious experience during a
Christmas Day service. It stayed with him.
He had his early schooling close to Stockholm. In 1971-73 he had three
semesters of Russian at the Universities of Uppsala and Stockholm, Sweden,
and in 1974 earned his Masters of Science in Business and Economics at the
Stockholm School of Economics.
That year he began working for the Swedish International Development
Authority, dispensing Swedish foreign aid. In 1975 he was an assistant teacher
in economics and a research assistant in the Stockholm School of Economics.
He moved into international banking in Stockholm in 1975-77. From 1978 to
1984 he taught high school as well as Swedish to immigrants. He also worked
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