The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden (Swedish: Svenska Missionskyrkan), founded in 1878, is a Swedish Reformed free church. It is the second-largest Christian denomination in the country, after the national church, the Church of Sweden. Prior to 2003 it was called Svenska Missionsförbundet (literally Swedish Mission Covenant, though the official English name already was Mission Covenant Church of Sweden at that time). The Swedish Salvation Army (Svenska Frälsningsarmén (SFA), which is a separate organisation from the international Salvation Army, which also operates in Sweden) is a non-territorial district of the Mission Covenant Church.
The Mission Covenant Church of Sweden has its origins in, and continues to share quite a close relationship with, the Lutheran Church of Sweden. As a movement they have roots in Pietism and the spiritual awakenings of the nineteenth century. The denomination is a member of the Swedish Free Church Council, the International Federation of Free Evangelical Churches, and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. When Swedish Covenanters emigrated to the United States and Canada in the last half of the nineteenth century they formed the Evangelical Covenant Church. The denominations are independent of each other but have maintained fraternal ties.
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This article contains content from the Owl Edition of Nordisk familjebok, a Swedish encyclopedia published between 1904 and 1926, now in the public domain.