[The Church of Sweden]


"The Church of Sweden"

The Lutheran Journal, Vol. 62, #2, 1993

The year 1993 marked the quadricentennial of the so-called "Uppsala möte" in March !593 when the Church of Sweden adopted the unaltered Augsburg Confession or "Confessio Augustana". This article concentrates on the events that led to the Uppsala mote in 1593. The individual primarily responsible for bringing the Reformation to Sweden was Olavus Petri (The Lutheran Journal, Vol. 58, No. 2 and No. 3, 1989) and his brother, Laurentius Petri, who became Archbishop of Sweden. Petri’s work would not have been possible without Gustav Vasa, the king of Sweden. After the death of the king, there were turbulent times for the Church of Sweden, when the Swedish crown came under the influence of Catholicism.

Today, almost the entire population of Sweden belongs to the Lutheran Church, the State Church of Sweden. During the anniversary year I visited the several Lutheran churches in Sweden. Among them were the church in Hudiksvall seating 540 people and erected in 1672; the church in Idenor built in 1306, the new church in Ålnö constructed during the last half of the 19th century; the old church in Alnoe with its magnificent frescos dating back to 1180; and the fishermen’s chapel of Kuggören near Hudiksvall.

Erwin Weber

April, 1997