Church of Sweden

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Church of Sweden

Coat of arms of the Church of Sweden.
Classification Protestant
Orientation Mainline/High Church Lutheran
Polity Episcopal
Origin 1523
Separated from Roman Catholic Church
Separations Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland
Associations Lutheran World Federation
Geographical Area Sweden
Statistics
Members Approx. 6.9 million

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.

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.

Contents

[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 originally 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 strengthened.

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.

As Gustav Vasa triumphs 3 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
 Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.


The 19th century back to one found in Uppsala Cathedral. It is blazoned Or, on a cross Gules an open crown of the field and thus features a yellow field with a red cross on which there is an open red crown. The crown is 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.

[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

Diocese Seat Cathedral Bishops Current bishop
Diocese of Uppsala Uppsala Uppsala Cathedral List of Archbishops of Uppsala Anders Wejryd (Archbishop of Uppsala)
Ragnar Persenius (bishop)
Diocese of Gothenburg Gothenburg Gothenburg Cathedral List of bishops of Gothenburg Carl Axel Aurelius
Diocese of Härnösand Härnösand Härnösand Cathedral List of bishops of Härnösand Tony Guldbrandzén
Diocese of Kalmar Kalmar Kalmar Cathedral List of bishops of Kalmar Existed as superintendentia 1603–1678 and as diocese 1678–1915; merged with the Diocese of Växjö
Diocese of Karlstad Karlstad Karlstad Cathedral List of bishops of Karlstad Esbjörn Hagberg
Diocese of Linköping Linköping Linköping Cathedral List of bishops of Linköping Martin Lind
Diocese of Luleå Luleå Luleå Cathedral List of bishops of Luleå Hans Stiglund
Diocese of Lund Lund Lund Cathedral List of bishops of Lund Antje Jackelén
Diocese of Mariestad Mariestad Mariestad Cathedral List of superintendents of Mariestad Existed as superintendentia 1580–1646; replaced by Karlstad
Diocese of Skara Skara Skara Cathedral Diocese of Skara#Bishop list Erik Aurelius
Diocese of Stockholm Stockholm Stockholm Cathedral List of bishops of Stockholm Caroline Krook
Diocese of Strängnäs Strängnäs Strängnäs Cathedral List of bishops of Strängnäs Hans-Erik Nordin
Diocese of Visby Visby Visby Cathedral List of bishops of Visby Lennart Koskinen
Diocese of Västerås Västerås Västerås Cathedral List of bishops of Västerås Claes-Bertil Ytterberg
Diocese of Växjö Växjö Växjö Cathedral List of bishops of Växjö Sven Thidevall

[edit] See also


[edit] References

  1. ^ 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