| Church of Sweden | |
|---|---|
| Svenska kyrkan | |
 Arms of the Church of Sweden with its centredcrown, representing both the victory ofChrist over death[1] and the crown ofErik the Holy,[2]Patron Saint ofSweden. | |
| Type | National church |
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Lutheran |
| Scripture | Protestant Bible |
| Theology | High church Lutheranism[3] |
| Polity | Episcopal |
| Governance | General Synod |
| Primate | Martin Modéus |
| Associations | |
| Full communion | |
| Region | Sweden |
| Headquarters | Uppsala,Sweden |
| Founder |
|
| Origin | 1014, establishment of the first Swedish diocese, theDiocese of Skara 1164, establishment of theArchdiocese of Uppsala 1536, separation fromRome through the abolition ofCanon Law |
| Separated from | Roman Catholic Church (1536) |
| Separations | Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (1809) The Mission Province (2003) |
| Congregations | 1,288 in Sweden, 31 abroad (2023)[5] |
| Members | 5,426,053 2024 (51,4 of the total population)[6][5] |
| Official website | svenskakyrkan.se |
| Logo |  |
TheChurch of Sweden (Swedish:Svenska kyrkan) is anEvangelical Lutherannational church inSweden.[7] A formerstate church, headquartered inUppsala, with around 5.4 million members at year end 2024, it is the largestChristian denomination in Sweden.
A member of thePorvoo Communion, the church professesLutheranism. It is composed of thirteendioceses, divided into parishes.[8] It is anational church which covers the whole nation. ThePrimate of the Church of Sweden, as well as theMetropolitan of all Sweden, is theArchbishop of Uppsala.
It isliturgically and theologically "high church", having retained priests,vestments, and theMass during theSwedish Reformation. In common with other Evangelical Lutheran churches (particularly in the Nordic and Baltic states), the Church of Sweden maintains thehistorical episcopate and claimsapostolic succession. Some Lutheran churches havecongregational polity or modifiedepiscopal polity without apostolic succession, but the historic episcopate was maintained in Sweden and some of the other Lutheran churches of the Porvoo Communion. The canons of the Church of Sweden states that the faith, confession and teachings of the Church of Sweden are understood as an expression of thecatholic Christian faith. It further states that this does not serve to create a new, confessionally peculiar interpretation, but concerns the apostolic faith as carried down through the traditions of the church,[9] as the Lutheran Reformation aimed at conserving the faith and traditions of the Church while removing what it saw as medieval innovations.[10][11]
Its membership of 5,426,205 people accounts for 51.4% (per the end of 2024) of the Swedish population.[12][5] Until 2000 it held the position of state church. The high membership numbers arise because, until 1996, all newborn children were made members, unless their parents had actively cancelled their membership.[13] Approximately 2% of the church's members are regular attenders.[14]
KingGustav Vasa instigated the Church of Sweden in 1536 during his reign asKing of Sweden. This act separated the church from theRoman Catholic Church and itscanon law. In 1571, theSwedish Church Ordinance became the first Swedish church order following theReformation.
The Church of Sweden becameLutheran at theUppsala Synod in 1593 when it adopted theAugsburg Confession to which most Lutherans adhere. At this synod, it was decided that the church would retain the three original Christiancreeds: theApostolic, theAthanasian, and theNicene.
In 1686, theRiksdag of the Estates adopted theBook of Concord, although only certain parts, labelledConfessio fidei, were considered binding, and the other texts merely explanatory.Confessio fidei included the three aforementioned Creeds, the Augsburg Confession and two Uppsala Synod decisions from 1572 and 1593.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, a variety of teachings were officially approved, mostly directed towardsecumenism:
In practice, however, Lutheran creed texts play a minor role, and parishes instead rely on Lutheran tradition in conjunction with influences from other Christian denominations and diverse ecclesial movements, such asLow Church,High Church,Pietism ("Old Church"), andLaestadianism, which locally might be strongly established, but have little nationwide influence.
During the 20th century, the Church of Sweden oriented itself strongly towardsliberal Christianity andhuman rights. In 1957, the General Synod rejected a proposal for theordination of women, but a revised Church Ordinance bill proposal from theRiksdag in the spring of 1958, along with the fact that, at the time, clergy of the Church of Sweden were legally considered government employees, put pressure on the General Synod and the College of Bishops to accept the proposal, which passed by a synod vote of 69 to 29 and a collegiate vote of 6 to 5 respectively in the autumn of 1958.[15] Since 1960, women have beenordained as priests, and in 1982, lawmakers removed a "conscience clause" allowing clergy members to refuse to cooperate with female colleagues.[16] A proposal to performsame-sex weddings was approved on 22 October 2009 by 176 of 249 voting members of the Church of SwedenSynod.[17] In response to the rise of theological liberalism in the denomination, traditionalist clergy and laity from the Church of Sweden established, in 2003, theMission Province of the Church of Sweden, a nonterritorialecclesiastical province that only ordains men to holy orders and does not perform same-sex marriages. The Mission Province (Missionsprovinsen) is a member of theInternational Lutheran Council, which representsConfessional Lutheran bodies around the globe.[18]
In 2000, the Church of Sweden ceased to be thestate church, but it maintains strong ties with communities, particularly in relation torites of passage. There are many infantsbaptized and teenagersconfirmed (currently 40% of all 14 year olds[19]) for families even without formal church membership.
| Year | Population | Church members | Percentage | % change (avg.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | 8,146,000 | 7,754,784 | 95.2% | |
| 1975 | 8,208,000 | 7,770,881 | 94.7% | 0.2% |
| 1980 | 8,278,000 | 7,690,636 | 92.9% | 0.3% |
| 1985 | 8,358,000 | 7,629,763 | 91.5% | 0.3% |
| 1990 | 8,573,000 | 7,630,350 | 89.0% | 0.5% |
| 1995 | 8,837,000 | 7,601,194 | 86.0% | 0.6% |
| 2000 | 8,880,000 | 7,360,825 | 82.9% | 0.6% |
| 2005 | 9,048,000 | 6,967,498 | 77.0% | 1.2% |
| 2010 | 9,415,570 | 6,589,769 | 70.0% | 1.4% |
| 2015 | 9,850,452 | 6,225,091 | 63.2% | 1.4% |
| 2020 | 10,379,295 | 5,728,746 | 55.2% | 1.6% |
| 2021 | 10,452,326 | 5,633,867 | 53.9% | 1.3% |
| 2022 | 10,536,649 | 5,563,351 | 52.8% | 1.1% |
| 2023 | 5 484 319 | 52.1% | 0.8% |
While some Swedish areas had Christian minorities in the 9th century, Sweden was, because of its geographical location in northernmostEurope, notChristianized until around AD 1000, around the same time as the otherNordic countries, when the Swedish KingOlof was baptized. This left only a modest gap between the Christianization of Scandinavia and theGreat Schism, however there are some Scandinavian/Swedish saints who are venerated eagerly by manyOrthodox Christians, such asSt. Olaf. However,Norse paganism and other pre-Christian religious systems survived in the territory of what is now Sweden later than that; for instance the important religious center known as theTemple at Uppsala atGamla Uppsala was evidently still in use in the late 11th century, while there was little effort to introduce theSámi ofLapland to Christianity until considerably after that.
The Christian church in Scandinavia was originally governed by thearchdiocese of Bremen. In 1104, an archbishop for all Scandinavia was installed inLund. Uppsala was madeSweden's archdiocese in 1164, and remains so today. The papal diplomatWilliam of Modena attended a church meeting inSkänninge in March 1248, where the ties to the Catholic Church were strengthened.
The most cherished national Catholicsaints were the 12th-century KingEric the Saint and the 14th-centuryvisionaryBridget, but other regional heroes also had a local cult following, includingSaint Botvid andSaint Eskil inSödermanland, SaintHelena of Skövde,[22] and SaintSigfrid inSmåland. In their names,miracles were performed and churches were named.
Shortly after seizing power in 1523,Gustav Vasa addressed thePope in Rome with a request for the confirmation ofJohannes Magnus asArchbishop of Sweden, in the place ofGustav Trolle who had been formally deposed and exiled by theRiksdag of the Estates.
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. King Gustav protested by promoting the Swedish reformers, the brothersOlaus andLaurentius Petri, andLaurentius Andreae. The king supported the printing of reformation texts, with the Petri brothers as the major instructors on the texts. In 1526, all Catholic printing presses were suppressed, and two-thirds of the Church'stithes were appropriated for the payment of the national debt. A final breach was made with the traditions of the old religion at theRiksdag called by the king atVästerås in 1544.[23]
Other changes of the Reformation included the abolition of some Catholic rituals. However, the changes were not as drastic as inGermany; as in Germany, Swedish churches kept not onlycrosses andcrucifixes, but also icons and the traditional liturgical vestments which in Germany were usually discarded in favor of the blackpreaching gown andstole used until recent times. Many holy days, based onsaints' 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 byJohn III, who had Catholicizing tendencies, and then by his more openly Catholic son,Sigismund, who was also ruler of CatholicPoland. The latter was eventually deposed from the Swedish throne by his uncle, who acceded to the throne asCharles IX, and used the Lutheran church as an instrument in his power struggle against his nephew. He is known to have hadCalvinist leanings.
The New Testament was translated into 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 byMartin Luther were translated. A semi-official hymnal appeared in the 1640s. Official hymnals of the Church of Sweden (Swedish:Den svenska psalmboken) were adopted in 1695,1819, 1937 and1986. The last of these isecumenical, and combines traditional hymns with songs from other Christian denominations, includingSeventh-day Adventist, Baptist, Catholic,Mission Covenant, Methodist, Pentecostal, and theSalvation Army. In October 2013, the Church of Sweden electedAntje Jackelén as Sweden's first female archbishop.[24]
In the 1800s–1900s, the Church of Sweden supported the Swedish government by opposing both emigration and preachers' efforts recommending sobriety (alcoholic beverages are sold in Sweden by a government monopoly). This escalated to a point where its ministers were even persecuted by the church for preaching sobriety, and the reactions of many congregation members to that contributed to the desire to leave the country (which, however, was against the law until 1840).[25]
The 19th century coat of arms is based on that of theArchdiocese of Uppsala. It is blazonedOr on a cross Gules an open crown of the field and thus features a gold/yellow field with a red cross on which there is a gold/yellow crown.[26] The crown is called the victory crown ofChrist, based on the royal crowns used inmedieval times and corresponds in form to the crowns in theSwedish coat of arms and to that resting on the head of Saint Eric in the coat of arms ofStockholm.
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 the General Synod (Swedish:Kyrkomötet, The Church Assembly), and the diocesan and parish (Swedish:Församling) assemblies (and in some cases, confederation of parishes (Swedish:kyrklig samfällighet, 'church association') assemblies and directly elected parish councils). The electoral system is the same as used in the Swedish parliamentary or municipal elections (seeElections in Sweden). To vote in the Church general elections, one must be member of the Church of Sweden, at minimum 16 years of age, andnationally registered as living in Sweden.
The groups that take part in the elections are callednominating groups (Swedish:nomineringsgrupper). In some cases the nationwidepolitical parties take part in the elections, such as theSocial Democrats and theCentre Party. After the formal separation of Church of Sweden from the State ofSweden, the growing tendency in the elections is towards independent parties forming for candidature, either based on a political conviction, for exampleFolkpartister i Svenska kyrkan founded byLiberal People's Party members, or a pure church party such as the political independents'Partipolitiskt obundna i Svenska kyrkan (POSK) andFrimodig kyrka.
The Church of Sweden maintains the historic threefold ministry ofbishops,priests, anddeacons, and has approximately 5,000 ordained clergy in total.[27]
It practices direct ordination, also called ordinationper saltum (literally, ordination by a leap), in which candidates are directly ordained to the specific order of ministry for which they have trained. This is an alternative approach to the sequential ordination of other historic churches (including the Anglican, Orthodox, and Catholic churches) in which candidates must be ordained in the strict sequence of deacon, then priest, then bishop. A Church of Sweden priest can be ordained directly to that office, without any previous ordination as a deacon. All deacons of the Church of Sweden are, therefore,permanent deacons. The order of bishop is not entered through direct ordination, however, and a Church of Sweden bishop is required to be a validly ordained priest prior to their consecration; if a deacon or lay person were to be selected for the position, they would first be ordained as a priest.[28]
After the Reformation, the Swedish Church seems to have practiced variously both direct ordination and sequential ordination. Although direct ordination was more widespread, and became normative, the practice of sequential ordination is attested in the seventeenth century Swedish Church. Bishop Johannes Rudbeckius (1619–1646) habitually ordained men to the diaconate in advance of ordaining them to the priesthood,[29] and this was said byArchbishop Johannes Lenaeus of Uppsala (in 1653) to be usual Church of Sweden practice.[30]
In the Evangelical Lutheran churches, including the Church of Sweden, ministerial function is indicated by the usual vestments of western tradition, including thestole, worn straight by bishops, crossed by priests (wearing the stole straight by priests is only permitted when in choir dress, i.e., a surplice rather than an alb, as no cincture is then used that would permit crossing the stole), and diagonally across the left shoulder by deacons. However, whereas in Roman Catholic or Anglican ordinations the candidates for priesthood will already be wearing the diagonal deacon's stole, in the Church of Sweden candidates for both diaconate and priesthood are unordained at the start of the service. Tiit Pädam of Uppsala University and a Swedish-based priest of theEstonian Evangelical Lutheran Church writes: "At the beginning of the [Evangelical Lutheran] ordination service, the candidates are dressed in white albs and no one wears a stole at the beginning of the rite. In this way the churches express a significant aspect of their understanding of ordination. The white alb, used both by the ordinands to the diaconate as well as to the priesthood, is a sign that the ordination is a new beginning, rooted in the priesthood of all the baptised."[31]
The Church of Sweden employs full-time deacons to staff its extensive outreach and social welfarediakonia programme. Whilst deacons have the traditional liturgical role (and vesture) in the Swedish Church, their principal focus of work is outside the parish community, working in welfare roles. Nonetheless, deacons are attached to local parishes to be connected with church communities, and with a parish priest.
The Church of Sweden is divided into thirteendioceses (Swedish:stift), each with a bishop andcathedral chapter (Swedish:domkapitel). A bishop is elected by priests,deacons, and somelaity in the diocese and is the chairman of the cathedral chapter. Priest and deacon members of a cathedral chapter are elected by priests and deacons in the diocese, while its lay members are selected by thestiftsfullmäktige, a body elected by church members.[32]
A diocese is divided into "contracts"kontrakt (deaneries), each with akontraktsprost (provost), as the leader. Deaneries with a diocesan cathedral are calleddomprosteri. Titular provosts can also sometimes be appointed, in Swedish calledprost ortitulärprost. The dean and head minister of a cathedral is calleddomprost, "cathedral dean" or "cathedral provost", and is a member of the cathedral chapter as its vice chairman.[32]
At theparish level, a parish is called aförsamling.[32] A more archaic term for a parish in Swedish issocken, which was used both in the registry and in the church administration. After the municipal reforms in 1862, the latter usage officially was replaced withförsamling, a term somewhat meaning 'congregation', originally and still used for the Lutheran territorial and nonterritorial congregations in cities and also for other religious congregations. One or several parishes are included in apastorat[32][33] with a head minister or vicar called akyrkoherde[32] (literally 'church shepherd') and sometimes other assistant priests calledkomminister (minister). At a cathedral an assistant minister is called adomkyrkosyssloman.
In addition to the 13 dioceses, the Church of Sweden Abroad (Swedish:Svenska kyrkan i utlandet – SKUT) maintains more than 40 overseas parishes. Originally a collection of overseas churches under the direction of a committee of theGeneral Synod, SKUT was reorganised on 1 January 2012 with a quasi-diocesan structure. Under this reorganisation it gained a governing council, constituent seats on the General Synod of the Church of Sweden (like the 13 mainland dioceses), and for the first time, full-time deacons to provide a programme of social welfare alongside the work of priests and lay workers.[34] However, SKUT does not have its own bishop, and is placed under the episcopal oversight of the Bishop ofVisby.
TheDiocese of Kalmar existed as asuperintendentia from 1603 to 1678 and as a diocese between 1678 and 1915, at which time it was merged with theDiocese of Växjö. Another diocese which no longer exists is theDiocese of Mariestad, which existed assuperintendentia between 1580 and 1646 and was replaced by theDiocese of Karlstad.
The dioceses of Uppsala, Strängnäs, Västerås, Skara, Linköping, Växjö, and the now-FinnishDiocese of Turku, are the original seven Swedish dioceses, dating from the Middle Ages. The rest have come into existence after that time and the Swedish reformation in the 16th century. The Diocese of Lund was founded in 1060, became an archdiocese in 1104, and lay in Denmark. TheProvince of Lund consisted of Denmark, Sweden, and Finland throughout the Middle Ages (originally also Norway and Iceland), although Uppsala had their own subordinateecclesiastical province and archbishop from 1164.
WhenEva Brunne was consecrated asBishop of Stockholm in 2009, she became the first openly lesbian bishop in the world.[35]
The Church of Sweden has several monastic communities.
The Church of Sweden is a founding member of theLutheran World Federation, formed inLund, Sweden in 1947.Anders Nygren, later theBishop of Lund, served as the first President of the Lutheran World Federation.[39]
Since 1994, the Church of Sweden has been part of thePorvoo Communion, bringing it into full Communion with theAnglican churches of theBritish Isles and theIberian Peninsula, together with the other Lutheran churches of the Nordic nations and the Baltic states. In 1995, full communion was achieved with thePhilippine Independent Church. Since 2015, the Church of Sweden has also been in full communion with theEpiscopal Church of the United States.[40]
In 2016, the Church of Sweden reached full communion with theOld Catholic churches within theUnion of Utrecht.[41]
In 2021, the Church of Sweden apologized for its abuse ofSámi over several centuries, including forcibleChristianization, the mistreatment of children inSámi schools, and collecting the remains of Sámi people for research on scientific racism and eugenics. The Church of Sweden described their "dark actions" against the Sámi as "colonial" and "legitimized repression".[42] Prior to apologizing, the Church of Sweden had produced a 1,100 page long document in 2019 compiling the church's history of oppressing Sámi people and erasing Sámi culture.[43]
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Luther's example and influence helped to ensure not only the place of vernacular hymns, but also the preservation of much traditional church music along with the new polyphony; wherever there were Latin schools, Luther desired that the traditional music should be maintained. Though Luther and his followers eliminated some elements of medieval liturgy for theological reasons—especially the canon of the Mass—Lutherans retained not only the structure and texts of the liturgy but also a great many of the associated hymns and music.
The Reformation of Martin Luther was not the inauguration of a new church. The chief aim of Luther and of those who joined his movement was to reform the only church they knew—the Roman Catholic church. Luther and Melanchton as well as all of the confessing fathers who built on their foundations saw themselves in accord with the consensus of the first five centuries, particularly as this was expressed in the creeds and councils of the ancient church. The abuses in the church were attacked as medieval innovations which stood condemned by the Word of God
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| Nominating groups |
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59°51′35″N17°37′50″E / 59.85972°N 17.63056°E /59.85972; 17.63056
