Church for Nordic Sailors Lives On as a Cultural Oasis

Some churches are known for bells. But in San Pedro, a Nordic house of worship is renowned for rooftop loudspeakers, the big booming kind. Whenever a Norwegian, Danish or Swedish ship sails into port, the appropriate national anthem blares across the main channel.

The stereophonic velkommen for mariners comes from the Norwegian Seamen’s Church, one of the last remaining centers of Scandinavian culture on the local waterfront.

At Den Norske Sjomannskirke, founded 60 years ago, they answer the telephone in Norwegian. A corner of the church’s main recreation room is stocked with Nordic preserves, caviar, cheese, herring and crackers with names like Mors Flatbrot and Vestlands Lefsa.

Every day at noon, the kitchen begins serving platters of heart-shaped waffles and pots of strong coffee for visitors. Above the entrance to the sanctuary is the Norwegian word velkommen, or “welcome.”

“We are really a social center for Scandinavians. They meet and make contacts here,” said Pastor Morten Gravdal, who has been at the church for six years. “I don’t know what they would do without us. Many are surprised to find a Norwegian oasis here.”

Hans Steensaes established the church on Mesa Street in 1941 as a home away from home for sailors. Ten years later, it moved to its current location at 1035 S. Beacon St., which has a commanding view of the port.

The plain stucco building, which was constructed by volunteers, contains a chapel, a social hall, a reading room and basement with a pool table. Outside, there is a

swimming pool, a basketball court, a small playground and a patio.

The church, which is Lutheran, provides seafarers and its members with tours of area attractions, transportation, counseling, recreation and contact with Scandinavian culture through newspapers, magazines, art, music, lectures and cuisine.

Because of changes in world shipping, the majority of visitors and church members today are no longer Scandinavian seafarers, but Nordic tourists, people on business trips, immigrants, exchange students and those interested in Scandinavian culture. There are members from about 2,000 households.

“We offer what we call the three tables: the altar, the coffee table and the pool table,” said Gravdal, a husky man with a thatch of brown hair and a thick mustache. “You could say we serve the physical, cultural and spiritual needs of the people.”

He stressed that the church has become more important in preserving what remains of Scandinavian culture in the Harbor area. An influx of Latino immigrants has replaced many second- and third-generation Scandinavians who have moved away.

The ethnic change was signaled several years ago when Norwegian Imports and Bakery closed. The store had been a cornerstone of Nordic social life in San Pedro.

As visitors approach the church, they first see a row of American, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish flags mounted outside the beige building. Inside, the walls are covered with hand-woven tapestries and photographs of tankers, freighters and ocean liners.

Detailed ship models ride in plastic display cases. There is a huge brick fireplace and there is Scandinavian furniture with ample cushions. Visitors can be overheard talking in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.

“I feel at peace here,” said Douglas Dahlberg, 55, of Garden Grove, who frequents the church. His grandparents are Norwegian and Swedish. “I am trying to get in touch with the culture and find out about where my relatives came from.”

Julie Hansen, 75, of Rancho Palos Verdes and her husband, Birger, 89, a retired marine engineer, consider the church their second home. They have attended services and participated in activities since 1954.

“We help out the church, so we can keep it,” said Hansen, who heads the women’s group.

For her and Birger, one of the main attractions is the fragrant heart-shaped waffles served daily to visitors. The vafler are a tradition at the 20 Norwegian Seamen’s Churches throughout the world, six of them in the United States.

Hundreds are prepared every day and served at room temperature, along with strawberry or raspberry preserves. They are laced with cardamom seed, a spice introduced to Norway more than 1,000 years ago by seafarers returning from the Middle East.

The church’s role of caring for sailors is an ancient tradition in Norway, which has 15,000 miles of coastline and a sea-based economy that depends heavily on oil extracted from the ocean floor. At one time, almost every family in Norway had someone serving on a ship.

About $120,000 of the church’s $320,000 annual budget comes from the Norwegian Seamen’s Mission, which was established in Norway in 1864. The balance comes from private donations, despite changes in the shipping industry that have drastically reduced the number of visiting mariners.

Foreign ship registries that offer owners generous tax breaks and cheap labor have drastically reduced the number of Norwegian-owned ships, just as they have the merchant fleets of other industrialized countries.

Technological advances, such as computers and the shipping of cargo in containers, have also reduced crew size and cut stays in port from several days to a matter of hours.

There are still Scandinavian seafarers--many of them captains and officers--but with so little time in port today, they often can’t make it to the church to socialize. So if seafarers can’t get to the church, the church goes to their ships. The emissary is usually Yngvar Heimdal.

“We get all kinds of requests--parts for motorcycles, cactus seeds, blue jeans, T-shirts, books and Norwegian newspapers. We will even get their watches fixed,” said Heimdal, who is an assistant at the church.

Last week, he visited Jarle Antonsen, the captain of the Dominica, a 500-foot refrigerator ship that had arrived in Long Beach with a load of bananas from Guatemala. Antonsen is the only Norwegian aboard.

Although he is not a particularly religious man, the captain likes to visit the church and relies on its services when in port, which is once every two weeks. On this day, he was too busy to go ashore, and Heimdal offered to take him a copy of Aftenposten--the largest newspaper in Oslo--and two National Geographic magazines.

In the conference room off the ship’s office, Heimdal and Antonsen drank coffee and talked for almost an hour. The conversation, in English and Norwegian, ranged from the decline of Norwegian shipping to American politics, particularly the presidential election.

“The church is a great influence and a great institution,” Antonsen said. “You are welcomed whether you are religious or not. It is a refuge, so to speak, for everyone.”