Church of Sweden

Encyclopedia : C : CH : CHU : Church of Sweden

The Church of Sweden (Swedish: ), is the national church of Sweden. Until 2000 it also had a position as state church. 78.3 % of Swedes belong to this church (2004 statistics).

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 head of the Swedish Church is the Archbishop of Uppsala.

Contents

1 History

1.1 Middle ages
1.2 Reformation
1.3 Lutheran Orthodoxy
1.4 19th century

2 Present
3 Coat of arms
4 Church politics
5 Administrative divisions

5.1 Dioceses, with seats, cathedrals and bishops

6 See also
7 References
8 External links

History

Middle ages

For details, see Early Swedish History.

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 heathen Temple at Uppsala had been demolished; while in the northern district Laplandia, little effort was made to introduce Christianity for another century.

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 Sudermannia, Saint Helena and Saint Sigfrid in Smalandia. In their names, miracles were performed and churches were named.

Sweden remained Catholic until the Protestant reformation in the 1530s.

Reformation

Lutheran ideas spread in the 1530s, led by King Gustav Vasa and the brothers Olaus Petri, and Laurentius Petri in Sweden, and later Mikael Agricola in Österland, today known as Finland. The Lutheran Church gradually established itself in 16th century, even though its exact forms were not defined in the Riksdag until 1591, and finally completed with the Uppsala Synod 1593.

Meanwhile Sweden had been 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 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.

An important part of the reformation was the transition from Latin to the vernacular language in church services, and in translation of the Bible. Because of the Bible translation, the reformers Olaus Petri and Agricola also had an instrumental importance for the development of Swedish and Finnish as written languages. 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 because of a strong resistance from the population.

Lutheran Orthodoxy

19th century

For details, see: Foundation of Modern Sweden

By the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in 1809, which followed the Finnish War, Sweden ceded Finland to the Russian Empire and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland became the successor to the Church of Sweden in Finland.

Present

Unlike most other Protestant churches — including most Lutheran churches — the Church of Sweden (along with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland) continues to maintain the historic episcopate. It is liturgically and theologically high church, having retained priests, vestments, and the Mass during the Reformation.

As a state church, and during the 20th century, bishops were nominated by a conclave of clerics and then formally appointed by the Government of Sweden, ultimately depending on legislation by the Parliament of Sweden. In 2000 when the Church was separated from the state, a new body, the Church Assembly, or Kyrkomötet, was created to fulfill the role previously held by the national parliament. Members of the Church Assembly as well as local Parish Councils are appointed in elections held every four years among church members.

Coat of arms

The origin of the coat of arms goes 600 years back to one found in Uppsala Cathedral. It features the colors red and yellow, and an open crown 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

Diocese	Seat	Cathedral	Bishops	Current bishop
Diocese of Uppsala	Uppsala	Uppsala Cathedral	List of Archbishops of Uppsala	Karl Gustav Hammar (retiring Archbishop of Uppsala), Anders Wejryd (archbishop electus, takes seat in Sep. 2006) 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 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	Christina Odenberg
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	Jonas Jonson
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	Anders Wejryd

References

B. Gustafsson, Svensk kyrkohistoria, 1983. In Swedish

External links

[Church of Sweden] - Official site

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.