Equmeniakyrkan
Equmeniakyrkan (in German about "the ecumenical church") is a church in Sweden that was created in 2011 through a merger of three classic free churches . With more than 100,000 members, it is by the Lutheran Church of Sweden and ahead of the Catholic Roman Church in Sweden 's second largest religious community in the country. According to its own information, it has around 65,000 members, plus roughly the same number of unbaptized family members or those involved in local community activities. It first gave itself the provisional name Gemensam Framtid ("Common Future") and only set its current name in 2013. In English it calls itself the Uniting Church in Sweden (UCS).
history
After initial approaches in the years 1969–1971, the Swedish Mission Church , the Union of Swedish Baptists and the Swedish Annual Conference of the Evangelical Methodist Church began in 2004 with talks aimed at unification. In 2007 the youth organizations of the three churches merged to form an association called Equmenia . On June 8th, 2008, the responsible bodies passed a “declaration of intent” to “form a new common church” by 2012. After a constitution had been drawn up, the unification took place on June 4, 2011.
The three predecessor churches have their roots in the free church revival movement of the 19th century. The first Baptist congregations arose from 1848 and were persecuted by the state and the state church. Methodist churches began to form in 1868 after the effectiveness of the British revival minister George Scott had not resulted in church planting 30 years earlier. The largest of the three churches was the mission church that emerged from a split from the state church in 1878 ( Svenska Missionsförbundet until 2003 ), which was congregational and evangelical . Their common opposition to the state church, which had dominated for a long time, and their commitment to mission and evangelism as well as to social participation made it easier for the three partners to plan a common path. The decisive motive, however, was the desire to take a step towards the unity of the church in order to correspond to the high priestly prayer of Jesus ( Jn 17.20f LUT ). Difficulties arose primarily from the pronounced congregationalism of two of the three partners (the Methodists, however, were episcopal ) and from differences in the understanding and practice of baptism . The church accommodates congregations that practice exclusively believing baptism, even though the majority of congregations practice both infant and believer baptism. It is expected, however, that there will be no acts that could be construed as “ rebaptisms ” of people baptized in other churches.
| Equmeniakyrkan: membership numbers from 2012 to 2017 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| year | Members | |||
| 2012 | 134.391 | |||
| 2013 | 129,626 | |||
| 2014 | 127.378 | |||
| 2015 | 125,610 | |||
| 2016 | 123,747 | |||
| 2017 | 117.508 | |||
| Data source: Statistics om trossamfund - Myndigheten för stöd till trossamfund. In: myndighetensst.se. Retrieved September 15, 2019 (Swedish). | ||||
Organization and fields of work
The highest decision- making body is the synod ( kyrkokonferens ), which is composed of representatives from all parishes and meets annually. It elects the president ( kyrkoledare ; since 2012 Lasse Svensson ) and his two deputies (since 2012 Sofia Camnerin and Olle Alkholm) as well as the church leadership ( kyrkostyrelse ). The 720 municipalities are divided into seven regions, for each of which there is also a regional kyrkoledare chosen by the kyrkokonferens .
Equmeniakyrkan has five adult education centers as well as a theological college ( Teologiska Högskolan Stockholm ), which, like the church administration, is located in Bromma . The diaconal umbrella organization Diakonia is run jointly with the Svenska Alliansmissions .
Ecumenism
Equmeniakyrkan is a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Conference of European Churches and Sveriges kristna råd . Due to the connections of its former member churches , it also belongs to the World Fellowship of Reformed Churches (WRK), the International Federation of Free Evangelical Congregations (IFFEC), the World Baptist Federation (BWA) and the World Council of Methodist Churches (WMC). The traditional missionary work in Africa and Asia has led to numerous church partnerships.
literature
- Martin Friedrich : On the way to an ecumenical sensation? A planned church union in Sweden . In: Material service of the denominational institute in Bensheim . No. 59 , 2008, p. 127-129 .
- Martin Friedrich: Equmeniakyrkan - A Union Church in Sweden. In: Johannes Ehmann (Ed.): The churches of the Union. History - Theology - Perspectives. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2019, pp. 249–254.
- Sune Fahlgren: Equmeniakyrkans ecklesiologiska aventyr. Kyrkovetenskapliga reflectors kring nyckelord vid bildande av ny kyrka . In: Svensk teologisk kvartalsskrift . tape 90 , no. 3 , 2014, p. 133–148 (Swedish, lu.se [PDF; 271 kB ]).
Web links
- Equmeniakyrkan website (Swedish, partly English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gemensam Framtids kyrkokonferens 2013. (PDF; 224.73 kB) Minutes of the church conference of 2013. In: equmeniakyrkan.se. June 26, 2013, p. 22 , accessed September 15, 2019 (Swedish).
- ↑ Uniting Church, Sweden. Equmeniakyrkan website in English. In: equmeniakyrkan.se. Retrieved September 15, 2019 .
- ^ Documented in the material service of the Konfessionskundlichen Institut in Bensheim 59, 2008, issue 5, p. 131; see. also archived copy ( memento of the original dated August 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Stadgar för Equmeniakyrkan - Equmeniakyrkan. In: equmeniakyrkan.se. Retrieved September 15, 2019 (Swedish).
- ↑ Ekumenik - Equmeniakyrkan. In: equmeniakyrkan.se. Retrieved September 15, 2019 (Swedish).
