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. Since 1996, all cnorthern 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.

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.

Lutheran Orthodoxy

Main article: Lutheran Orthodoxy

This section requires 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.

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

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).

Dioceses, with seats, cathedrals and bishops

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. 

External links

• Church of Sweden - Official site