The Unitarian Church in Sweden
The History:
The church was founded under the name The Free Church of Sweden (Fria Kyrkan i Sverige) in Malmö in 1974 by members of The Religion and Culture Society as an outpost connected to the Danish Unitarian church (Det Fri Kirkesamfund). In order to indicate its heritage from the original Unitarianism [in Transylvania] the church in 1999 changed its name to The Unitarian Church in Sweden. As first time in Scandinavia Ragnar Emilsen was ordaind according to the Transylvanian Unitarian tradition by Bishop Lajos Kovács (1909-1994) from the Unitarian Church in Romania. This ordination took place in Copenhagen during the meeting of International Association for Religious Freedom in 1987 – and Emilsen was appointed pastor for Sweden and Finland.
The Faith according to the church’s bylaws:
«We believe in one God that is the Life. We believe Jesus was the prophet of God. We believe in The Holy Ghost as the presence of God. We believe in everlasting life. The church is not bound by dogmas made after the time of Jesus. Our creed [Vår trosbekännelse] is the same as the one of Jesus: «Yahweh our God is the one» (Deuteronomy 6:4) and «love your neighbour as yourself» (Leviticus 19:18).»
By creating interest for and practise Jesus own gospel the church wants to work for a spiritual renewment.
The church wants to combine proof and religious experience, reason and emotion and mysticism. Openminded to the individual’s search for truth the church wants to serve all people.
The church base its exegesis on the Swedish Bible and the Hebrew as found in the Jewish texts and aramaic which was the language of Jesus. The church uses a modern version of Emanuel Linderholm’s The Swedish High Mass. With music by Oskar Lindberg and his rituals for baptism and Communion. Baptism is understood as an act of blessing and the Communion as ceremony of rememberance. Confession and personal conversations are vital.
To day the church is active mostly in Sweden. Two ministers are involved in a mission among the Romany people in Slovakia.
