It took a long time for Sweden to become christianized, partly due to the fact that the country was divided into provinces, each headed by an independent monarch or chieftain.
About 1000, Olof Skötkonung, king of both the Götar and the Svear, became the first monarch to be baptized. The selection of Uppsala as the seat of the archbishop in 1164 provided a decisive breakthrough for Christianity in Sweden.
The monarch of the Svear had played a central role at the pagan sacrifices held in Uppsala three times a year. The Christian monarch was also considered sacred, divinely ordained through the act of coronation. The first Swedish monarch was crowned in 1210, in a ritual which marked the union of Church and State, bishop and monarch. This bond did not guarantee the monarch the support of the Church, however, as may be seen in the case of Birgitta of Vadstena (Saint Bridget). She was the daughter of a lawman (lagman) in Uppland, and herself married to a lawman and councillor of the realm. She was outspoken in her criticism of both the decadence of the papacy and royal abuse of power. Birgitta was canonized in 1391.
Birgitta founded an order, Ordo Sanctissimi Salvatoris (the Order of the Most Blessed Saviour), and secured the approval of the Pope. The Bridgettine convent in Vadstena was dissolved in 1595. The order of St Bridget returned to Sweden in the 1960s.
The Reformation
At the end of the 14th century the Nordic countries were united in a confederation. In 1520, the union king, Christian II of Denmark, contrived to have two bishops in Stockholm deposed. This became the signal for a movement of national liberation, both from the union and from the Pope. The leader of the insurrection, Gustav Vasa, was crowned King of Sweden in 1523. The monarch received ideological support for his break with the Pope and for the creation of a national Swedish Church from two brothers, Olavus and Laurentius Petri, who had been inspired by Martin Luther and other reformers on the Continent. The Swedish reformers were cautious: much of the old order was retained unless perceived as superstition or false belief. At the parliamentary assembly in Västerås in 1544, Sweden was proclaimed an evangelical (Lutheran) kingdom. Before that, in 1531, Laurentius Petri had been consecrated the first Swedish evangelical archbishop in Uppsala.
The Reformation brought with it many new books and practices. The first service to be conducted in the vernacular was held in Stockholm in 1530. The first Bible to be published entirely in Swedish appeared in 1541, and in 1549 a Swedish hymnal appeared. A church ordinance was ratified in 1571.
A convocation at Uppsala in 1593 established that the Church of Sweden is founded on the Bible, the Apostolic, Nicean and Athanasian creeds, the Confession of Augsburg of 1530 and the Order of Service of 1571.
Church law and freedom of religion
A church law was formulated in 1686. Fundamental to it was the fact that Sweden was an evangelical nation and that the Swedes should confess the evangelical faith.
During the Enlightenment, toward the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, freedom of religion increased in Sweden, but it was not until 1951 that full freedom of religion was legally guaranteed. Today, everyone has the right to belong or not to belong to a church or religious body, whether of Christian or non-Christian denomination. Only the monarch and the minister responsible for ecclesiastical affairs are required to belong to the Church of Sweden.
In 1994 the General Synod approved new membership regulations for the Church of Sweden which were implemented on January 1, 1996. No one will be born into the Church of Sweden any more. Instead, baptism will be the normal way to join the Church. It is also possible to become a member by filing a special application.
A new Ecclesiastical Law, replacing the law of 1686, was adopted in 1992. It can be regarded as a framework law and deals with Church of Sweden membership, organization, staff and property. The inner life of the church is regulated by canonical regulations (Svenska kyrkans författningssamling), approved by the General Synod.
The previous prohibition against religious orders has now been lifted and monastic communities are to be found even within the Church of Sweden.
Church customs
About 87% of the population or 7.6 million people belong to the Church of Sweden. Around 10% of the population go to church regularly, with almost half of these attending Sunday morning service. About 78% of all infants are baptized and, of those eligible, slightly more than 50% are confirmed. About 62% of all marriages take place within the Church of Sweden, 5% within another religious denomination, and 32% in civil ceremonies (cohabitation is very common in Sweden). Some 90% are buried within the Church of Sweden, 5% within another denomination and 2% according to civil rites.
Church customs vary considerably in different parts of the country. Church-going is relatively high in those parts of the country that came under the influence of different kinds of 19th century revival movements.
Many Swedes have a personal kind of faith that does not fit neatly within any established religious community or acknowledged denomination. A poll published in l988 indicated that 9% considered themselves professing Christians, 64% described themselves as Christian in their own way, 26% did not consider themselves Christian, and 2% refused to answer.
New books for worship
In l986 the General Synod of the Church of Sweden adopted a new order of worship and a new hymnal. The new Book of Worship, which replaced that of l942, is characterized by more active congregational participation, greater freedom of choice in the shaping of the service, more praise and a richer eucharistic liturgy. The new hymnal replaces that of l937 and consists of 700 hymns. Of these, 325 are shared with other Swedish denominations.
Organization
The bond between the State and Church of Sweden is being revised. In December 1995 Parliament approved the principles behind this change in Church-State relations. The main effects of the decision are that a new law on the Church of Sweden will remain in charge of cemeteries, and the State will help the Church collect its membership fee. Both the State and the Church have begun extensive research on the details of their new arrangement, which is expected to take effect around the year 2000.
According to the Swedish constitution, Parliament alone makes laws. This applies equally to the laws which govern the Church of Sweden. When it comes to questions of church membership, the General Synod (kyrkomötet) has to give its approval. In other laws concerning the Church of Sweden, the General Synod has the right to make recommendations which are non-binding. Following a 1982 agreement between the four largest political parties represented in the Parliament, the discretion of the Church of Sweden in matters of ecclesiastical concern has increased considerably in recent years.
Thus, the highest decision-making body of the Church of Sweden is the Synod. It consists of 251 members and meets annually. General Synod decisions are executed by the Central Board of the Church (centralstyrelsen) with the archbishop presiding ex officio. Parliament has delegated to the General Synod right to decide on questions relating to doctrine, the Swedish hymnal, order of worship, clerical offices, the sacraments and liturgy of the Church, collections, coordination of evangelism, missionary activity, work abroad and issues concerning the diaconate.
A special foundation, the Church of Sweden Foundation for Church Work (Svenska kyrkans stiftelse för rikskyrklig verksamhet), has been instituted to govern this activity. Its highest decision-making body, the Representative Synod (ombudsmötet), consists of the same delegates as the General Synod and convenes at the same time. The decisions of the Representative Synod are executed by the Board of the foundation, which is made up of the same persons as the Central Board.
The Representative Synod appoints one commission on congregational life and one on educational training and recruting and three commissions for foreign work: the Church of Sweden Mission, the Church of Sweden Abroad and the Church of Sweden Aid/Lutherhjälpen.
Diocesan organization
The Church of Sweden is divided into thirteen dioceses, each headed by a bishop. The archbishop, who is also the bishop of the Diocese of Uppsala, is considered primus inter pares among the bishops, and as from 1990 is assisted by an auxiliary archbishop. The bishops are appointed by the government, which may choose between three candidates selected after a vote by the clergy and laity of the diocese. The Bishops' Conference is an unofficial body where the bishops confer on issues of mutual concern.
The Church of Sweden today consists of 2,545 local parishes, which make up 1,101 pastorates. The official district of a pastor is referred to as a pastorate and may consist of one or more parishes. Each local parish is governed by a vestry whose decisions are drafted and executed by the parish council and various other bodies. The pastor serves on the parish council ex officio. Elections to the vestry are held every three years. In these, as in the case of elections to the General Synod, the various political parties often function as election corporations supporting their own candidates. However, there are also groups with no political affiliation.
According to the diocesan organization effective from 1989, all parishes in a diocese must belong to the Diocesan Association. The Diocesan Board, headed by the bishop, is the executive arm of the Diocesan Association. Every diocese must also, as before, contain a cathedral chapter headed by the bishop.
Each diocese must have a property board charged with the administration of church-owned land and forests. The tradition of church-owned land and forest goes back to the Middle Ages. In order for a parish to be assigned a priest, it had to be able to build a church and a parsonage, and provide for the upkeep of these as well as the salary of the clergy. As a result, the Church of Sweden still manages forestland, buildings and other property worth several billion Swedish crowns. Most of the buildings are protected, however, and may not be sold.
Church employees
The Church of Sweden has about 28,000 employees. A large proportion of these are cemetery employees and those responsible for maintaining population records. The Church has been in charge of civil records since the 17th century; however, as the result of a parliamentary decision effective from July 1, 1991, all population records will be handled by two governmental agencies: the local tax authorities and the social insurance service.
There are about 5,000 priests in the Church of Sweden, of whom 3,300 are active in parishes and 1,500 are retired. The rest are serving as missionaries, in churches abroad, in schools, in the central church bodies or in certain organizations and institutions.
Women became eligible for ordination in 1958, with the first women being admitted to the priesthood in 1960. About 900 woman priests are now employed in the 13 dioceses. About 26% of all priests serving in parishes are women.
Most of the employees of the Church of Sweden belong to a trade union such as the Union of Church Personnel which oversees matters relating to salaries, working hours, work environment etc. in negotiations with the employer. All employees, including the clergy, have regulated working hours. The Church of Sweden's Association of Parishes is an employer's association representing the interests of parishes and ecclesiastical districts.
During the first half of the 19th century a number of diaconate institutions were founded in Sweden, patterned on the German model. The diaconesses were tied through vows to the mother house, and lived a life of celibacy and poverty. A male equivalent was later added. In the 1960s the character of the diaconate changed, from a community-oriented ideal to a professional one. The requirement of celibacy and ties to a mother house was dropped.
Religious education
There are faculties of theology at the universities of Uppsala and Lund. After graduating, future pastors receive their clerical training at the Pastoral Institute of the Church of Sweden in Uppsala or Lund. Some free churches offer government-approved theological and pastoral training in denominational colleges.
The goal of religious education within the Swedish school system is that pupils will be given an objective view of the world's various religions.
Free Churches
Sweden has a relatively large number of Free Churches compared to the other Nordic countries. Several, such as the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden and the Swedish Alliance Mission, are the offshoot of 19th century national revival movements. Others, such as the Baptist Union of Sweden and the Methodist Church, trace their roots to various English and American revival movements.
Membership in most of the traditional Free Churches has declined during the last few decades, but this is not the case with, e.g. the Roman Catholic Church and most of the Orthodox and Eastern churches, primarily due to increased immigration.
In addition to the Church of Sweden, the largest Christian churches represented in Sweden are the following (rounded figures): the Roman Catholic Church (155,000), the Orthodox and Eastern Churches (97,000), the Pentecostal Movement (93,000), the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden (72,000), Jehova's Witnesses (23,000), the Salvation Army (23,000), the Örebro Mission Society (22,000), the Swedish Evangelical Missionary Society (21,000), the Baptists (20,000), the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (l3,000), the Swedish Alliance Mission (13,000), the Methodist Church (5,000).
Other religions
There are today about 16,000 Jews in Sweden, of whom 8,500 are members of a congregation.
The number of Muslims has grown rapidly after World War II, and now amounts to more than 200,000, of whom some 68,000 are members of a congregation. Most are immigrants from Turkey, the Middle East and lately from ex-Yogoslavia.
There are around 3,000 Buddhists in Sweden and about the same number of Hindus.
Ecumenism
The Christian Council of Sweden (Sveriges Kristna Råd) was founded in 1992 and will function as the major joint ecumenical body of Christian churches in Sweden.
The Christian Council has 23 member churches, representing four church traditions: the Lutheran, the Free Church, the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox/Oriental Churches.
The Christian Council is organized through a General Secretariat subdivided into four separate units: (1) Mission, Evangelism and Development assistance (Svenska Missionsrådet); this unit is equivalent to the office of the Swedish Mission Council; (2) Theology and Local/Regional Ecumenism; (3) Church and Society; (4) Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation.
The Commission for State Grants to Religious Communities (SST) is a government organization. Its members are selected by those churches and religious denominations which are entitled to state support. Denominations counting more than 3,000 members receive government support.
Beginning with Nathan Söderblomwho as archbishop of Uppsala took the initiative for the 1925 International Ecumenical Conference on Life and Work in Stockholmthe churches have been very active within the peace movement. The Life and Peace Institute in Uppsala was founded in 1985, following the ecumenical Life and Peace Conference in Uppsala in 1983 with about 160 participants representing Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican and Protestant Churches from all parts of the world. It is to act as a center for peace efforts and peace research conducted by churches in different parts of the world.
This fact sheet is part of SIs information service. It can be used as background information on condition that the source is acknowledged.
February 1996
Classification: FS 78 o C
ISSN 1101-6124
