Church of Sweden

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The Church of Sweden (Swedish: Svenska kyrkan, Northern Sami: Ruoŧa girkui) is the largest church in Sweden. The Church of Sweden professes the Lutheran branch of Christianity, and is a member of the Porvoo Communion. With almost 6.9 million members, It is the largest Lutheran church in the World. Until 2000 it held the position of state church. As of 2006 75.6% of the Swedes were members of the church. However, only approximately 2% of the church's members regularly attend Sunday services [1]. The reason for the large number of inactive members is that until 1996, all children automatically became members at birth, if at least one of their parents was a member. Since 1996, all children who are baptized become members.

The Church describes itself in the following manner:

• The Church of Sweden is an Evangelical Lutheran community of faith manifested in parishes and dioceses. The Church of Sweden also has a national organisation.
• The Church of Sweden is an open national church, which, working with a democratic organisation and through the ministry of the church, covers the whole nation.

The Primate of the Church of Sweden is the Archbishop of Uppsala, currently Anders Wejryd.

[edit] History

[edit] Middle Ages

For details, see Early Swedish History.

While some Swedish areas had Christian minorities in the 9th century, Sweden was, because of its geographical location in northernmost Europe, not Christianized until around AD 1000, around the same time as the other Nordic countries, when the Swedish King Olof was baptized. However, because of the unclear national borders, it can not be said that the whole of Sweden was fully Christianized until the 12th century, after the Temple at Uppsala had been demolished; while in the northern district Laplandia, little effort was made to introduce Christianity for another century.

The Christian church in Scandinavia was orginially governed by the archdiocese of Bremen. In 1104 an archbishop for all Scandinavia was installed in Lund. Uppsala was made Sweden's archdiocese in 1164, and remains so today. The papal diplomat William of Modena attended a church meeting in Skänninge in March 1248, where the ties to the Roman Catholic Church were strenghtened.

The most cherished national Catholic saints were the Swedish King Eric the Saint in the 12th century and the visionary Saint Birgitta in the 14th century, but other regional heroes also had a local cult following, including Saint Botvid and Saint Eskil in Södermanland, Saint Helena and Saint Sigfrid in Småland. In their names, miracles were performed and churches were named.

Sweden remained Catholic until the Protestant reformation in the 1530s.

[edit] Reformation

Shortly after seizing power in 1523, Gustav Vasa addressed the Pope in Rome with a request for the confirmation of Johannes Magnus as Archbishop of Sweden, in the place of Gustav Trolle who had been formally deposed by the Riksdag of the Estates and was actually an outlawed exile.

Gustav promised to be an obedient son of the Church, if the pope would confirm the elections of his bishops. But the pope requested Trolle to be re-instated. Gustav protested by promoting the Swedish reformers Olaus, Laurentius Petri, and Laurentius Andreae. He supported the printing of reformation texts, with the Petri as their main teachers. In 1526 all Catholic printing-presses were suppressed, and two-thirds of the Church's tithes were appropriated for the payment of the national debt.

On February 18, 1527 two bishops, the first martyrs of Catholicism in Sweden, were gibbeted at Stockholm. This act of violence was effectual, for at the subsequent Riksdag of Västerås in June, 1527, the bishops dared not even present a protest which they had privately prepared, and the assembly itself was bullied into an absolute submission to the royal will. The result was the Recess of Västerås, which transferred all ecclesiastical property to the Crown. By the subsequent Västerås Ordinance, the Church of Sweden was absolutely severed from Rome. ^[1]

However, the statement of faith for the Church of Sweden was left open. Even at the Synod of Örebro, summoned in February 1529, "for the better regulation of church ceremonies and discipline according to God’s Word," there was no formal protest against Rome; and the old ritual was retained for two years longer, though it was to be explained as symbolical. Henceforth the work of the Reformation continued uninterruptedly.^[1]

Matters were complicated by the absolutist tendencies of Gustav Vasa. From 1539 onwards there was a breach between him and his own prelates in consequence of his arbitrary appropriation of the Church’s share of the tithes, in direct violation of the Västerås Recess.^{[citation needed]} Then Gustav so curtailed the power of the bishops, by the ordinances of 1539 and 1540, that they had little of the dignity left but the name, and even that he was disposed to abolish, for after 1543 the prelates appointed by him, without any pretence of previous election by the cathedral chapters, were called ordinaries, or superintendents. Finally, at the Riksdag of Västerås in 1544, though no definite confession of faith was formulated, a final breach was made with the traditions of the old religion.^[1]

Other changes of the reformation included the abolition of some Catholic rituals. However, the changes were not as drastic as in Germany; in many Swedish churches there still today remain artifacts from Catholic times, such as crosses, crucifixes and icons. And many holy days, based on Saints days, were not removed from the calendar until the late 18th century due to strong resistance from the population.

After the death of Gustav Vasa, Sweden was ruled by a king with Catholicizing tendencies, John III, and another openly Catholic one, John's son Sigismund, who was also ruler of Catholic Poland but eventually deposed from the Swedish throne by his uncle. The latter, who acceded to the throne as Charles IX used the Lutheran church as an instrument in his power struggle against his nephew, but is known to have had Calvinist leanings.

The New Testament was translated to Swedish in 1526 and the entire Bible in 1541. Revised translations were published in 1618 and 1703. New official translations were adopted in 1917 and 2000. Many hymns were written by Swedish church reformers and several by Martin Luther were translated. A semi-official hymnal appeared in the 1640s. Official hymnals of the Church of Sweden (Den svenska psalmboken) were adopted in 1695, 1819, 1937 and 1986. The latter one is ecumenical and combines traditional hymns with songs from other Christian denominations, including Seventh-Day Adventist, Baptist, Catholic, Mission Covenant, Methodist, Pentecostalist, and Salvation Army.

[edit] Lutheran Orthodoxy

Main article: Lutheran Orthodoxy

[edit] 19th century

By the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in 1809, which followed the Finnish War, Sweden ceded Finland to the Russian Empire and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland became the successor to the Church of Sweden in Finland.

A Swedish law (konventikelplakatet) from 1726 against private sermons (pietism) was lifted in 1858, enabling "free churches" to operate in parallel with the official Church of Sweden.

[edit] 20th century

In the 1920s, archbishop Nathan Söderblom took a leading role in world ecumenism. Full freedom of religion was introduced in Sweden in 1952.

In 1958 the Swedish parliament passed legislation to allow women to be employed as clergy, effective from January 1959, implying the ordination of women. The first women were ordained in April 1960.

[edit] Present

Unlike most other Protestant churches — including some Lutheran churches — the Church of Sweden (along with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland) continues to maintain the historical episcopate. It is liturgically and theologically high church, having retained priests, vestments, and the Mass during the Reformation [2].

As a state church, and during the 20th century, bishops were nominated by a conclave of clerics and then formally appointed by the Government of Sweden, ultimately depending on legislation by the Parliament of Sweden. In 2000 when the Church was separated from the state, a new body, the Church Assembly, or Kyrkomötet, was created to fulfill the role previously held by the national parliament. Members of the Church Assembly as well as local Parish Councils are appointed in elections held every four years among church members.

In 2006, the Church began to allow the blessing of same-sex unions and to welcome partnered gay and lesbian clergy.

[edit] Coat of arms

The origin of the coat of arms goes 600 years back to one found in Uppsala Cathedral. It features the colours red and yellow, and an open crown called the victory crown of Christ, based on the medieval tradition.

[edit] Church politics

The Church adopted, at the time that it was still a state church, an administrative structure largely modelled after the state. Direct elections are held to Church, Diocese, Community (Samfällighet) and Parish (Församling) assemblies. The electoral system is the same as used in the parliamentary or municipal elections. The groups that take part in the elections are called nominating groups (nomineringsgrupper). In some cases the nationwide political parties take part in the elections, such as the Social Democrats, the Moderates and the Centre Party. In other cases individual members of political parties form separate associations to launch candidatures in the church elections. A growing phenomenon is various 'non-partisan' groups putting up candidatures.

• See also: Elections to the Church Assembly, 2005

[edit] Administrative divisions

The Church of Sweden is divided into thirteen dioceses (stift). A diocese is divided into "contracts" (kontrakt), which are then divided into parishes (församlingar). One or several parishes may together form a larger parish (pastorat).

[edit] Dioceses, with seats, cathedrals and bishops

[edit] See also

• Church of Sweden Parishes
• Church of Sweden Abroad
• List of cathedrals
• Archbishop of Uppsala
• Swedish churches in London

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, article Sweden

• Berndt Gustafsson (1983). Svensk kyrkohistoria, 6th ed. (in Swedish), Helsingborg: Plus Ultra. ISBN 91-970355-7-2. 

[edit] External links

• Church of Sweden - Official siteda:Svenska kyrkan

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