The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (; ) is a national church of Finland and belongs to the Lutheran branch of Christianity. The church enjoys the legal position of a national church in the country, along with the Orthodox Church of Finland.
The church is a member of the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches. It is also a member of the Porvoo Communion and is actively involved in ecumenical relations.
With 3.4 million members , the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is one of the largest Lutheran churches in the world. It is Finland's largest religious community with 61.2% of the Finnish population being members of the church, . The church is led by a primate who holds the title of Archbishop of Turku and Finland; the office's and current occupant being Tapio Luoma, who succeeded Kari Mäkinen on 3 June 2018.
History Catholic bishopric The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland traces its lineage to the medieval Diocese of Turku, which was established in 1156 and is geographically coterminous with present-day Finland. Christianity was introduced to Finland slowly: the first signs of the Christian faith being found in burial sites dated to the 9th century.
Based on etymological evidence, it seems that its very first influences came to present-day Finland from the Eastern Christian tradition. Archaeological evidence shows that by the middle 12th century, Christianity was dominant in the region around present-day Turku. One legend recounts a crusade dated around 1054, but no contemporary or archaeological evidence backs the story. Another legend is that the martyr-bishop St. Henry founded the Finnish Church, but that is also most likely fictional.
The introduction of Christianity was mostly a peaceful, slow process contemporaneous with the gradual integration with Sweden, although a series of Swedish-led crusades were fought during this era.
The first bishop, whose name was Thomas, lived in the first half of the 13th century. Thomas was granted resignation by Pope Innocent IV on 21 February 1245. According to the pope, Thomas had admitted committing several felonies, such as torturing a man to death, and forging a papal letter.
The ecclesiastical hierarchy was completely established during the Second Swedish Crusade.
During the Middle Ages, the Diocese of Turku was under the primacy of the Archbishop of Uppsala, mirroring the country's Swedish political rule. The diocese had a school, making it capable of educating its own priests, but several Finns also studied abroad in the universities of Germany and Paris.
Before the Reformation, the most important monastic orders active in the bishopric were those of the Franciscans, the Dominicans, and the Bridgettines. The liturgy of the diocese followed the Dominican model.
Part of the Church of Sweden
The Swedish Reformation began during the reign of King Gustav Vasa (1527) and reached its conclusion in 1560. Sweden, like other Nordic countries, adopted the Lutheran form of Protestantism. Catholic monastic estates adopted the new faith during this period as well, becoming Lutheran monasteries and Lutheran convents.
The first Lutheran Bishop of Turku was Martinus Johannis Skytte, former vicar general of the Dominican Province of Dacia. He retained most of the old Catholic forms within the Diocese, which was part of the now-independent Church of Sweden. The doctrinal reformation of the Finnish Church took place during the episcopacy of Mikael Agricola, who had studied at the University of Wittenberg under Martin Luther.
Agricola translated the whole New Testament and large portions of the Old Testament into Finnish. In addition, he authored a large number of Finnish liturgical texts in the spirit of The Reformation, while preserving a number of decidedly Catholic customs such as the retention of many holy days including the Visitation of Mary and Feast of the Cross as well as the wearing of the bishop's mitre. While images and sculptures of saints were retained in the churches, they were no longer venerated. Agricola was also the first Bishop of Turku who was married.
By the end of the 16th century, the Swedish Reformation was finally complete, and the following century was known as the period of Lutheran orthodoxy. Membership in the church was obligatory, as was attendance at Divine Service.
In newly conquered Finnish Karelia, the Lutheran Church suppressed the Eastern Orthodoxy of the local population, which drove a large number to Russia.
At this time, the Church started to lay the foundations for comprehensive education, in which every person was required to know the basic tenets of the Christian faith. Parish vergers were given the duty of instructing children in reading and in the Catechism. The education of priests was improved, the Royal Academy of Turku was founded, and the educational system was codified in the Church Act of 1686.
In the early 18th century, Finland was occupied by Russia for a decade during the Great Northern War. A large portion of Finland was annexed by Russia, where the Lutheran church remained active despite being under Russian rule. The two branches of Finnish Lutheranism that were thereby divided were reunited in the early 19th century.
In both Russia and Sweden, Lutheranism was greatly affected by the theology of Enlightenment, which had the effect of secularizing the Church. This, and the lavish lifestyle of parish vicars, caused public resentment which became visible in popular local revival movements.
An independent state church
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is a successor to the Church of Sweden, of which it was a part until 1809, when the Grand Duchy of Finland was established as a part of the Russian Empire and consequently shared established status with the Orthodox Church of Finland.
In 1869, a new Church Act was passed by the Finnish Lantdag. The Act separated church and the state, giving the church its own legislative body, known as the central Synod.
Changes in ecclesiastical form could be made only by the central Synod, which had the sole right to propose changes to the Church Act. These changes could subsequently either be passed or vetoed by the Lantdag and the Russian Emperor. A year earlier, Lutheran parishes had been differentiated from the secular municipalities, with both being given their own finances and administrative bodies.
The Church's general responsibility for comprehensive education and for the care of the poor was transferred to the secular municipalities. The Church accepted separation from the state, because the head of state was the Orthodox Russian Emperor, it regarded complete integration with the state as problematic.
In 1889, an act was passed allowing other Christian denominations to act freely in the country, and members of the Lutheran Church were given the right to leave the church to join other Christian communities. Since 1923, it has been possible to leave the state church without having to join another religious congregation.
During the early 19th century several revivalist movements were formed, four of which were particularly prominent, namely: (those who kneel to pray, or pray frequently), founded by peasant girl Liisa Erkintytär, and later by the priest Abraham Achrenius; mostly active in Western Finland. The Awakening (also called Pietists), founded by the peasant Paavo Ruotsalainen. (connected to Neo-Lutheranism), founded by the priest Fredrik Gabriel Hedberg. Laestadianism, founded by Lars Levi Laestadius.
The revivalists met strong opposition from the bishops and the educated part of the population but drew large followings in the countryside. In modern Finnish historiography, the revivalist movements have been considered to be a part of the social upheaval caused by the modernization of society.
In the late 19th century, the Church started to face opposition from liberalism, the position of the Church being particularly questioned by the emerging labor movement. The Church was also challenged by the Baptist faith and the Methodist faith, which became the first two private religious communities in Finland.
The Church reacted by allowing its own revivalist movements more freedom and by starting new youth activities such as Sunday schools and Christian youth associations, but the main current of Finnish nationalism was affected by Lutheranism. For example, the most important philosopher of Finnish nationalism, Johan Vilhelm Snellman, considered Lutheranism an important factor of the Finnish identity, although he was critical of the Church as an organization.
Disestablished national church In the early 20th century, the old Landtag, based on the four estates of the realm, was changed into a unicameral parliament (Eduskunta) selected by equal vote.
In 1908, an amendment of the Church Act freed church members from the legal duty to receive the Eucharist at least once a year. After this, church attendance dropped and has since become an indicator of personal religious opinion. (See also kyrkogångsplikt, the previous requirement to attend church services.)
Finnish independence, in 1917, was immediately followed by the Finnish Civil War, with the church associating itself with the White (nationalist) side, while the Red Guards embraced anti-clericalism to the point of murdering priests.
In the Constitution of 1919, the new republic was deemed to be non-confessional and freedom of worship was enshrined as a right.
In 1923, this right was further implemented through the Freedom of Religion Act. Although the act gave the right for every adult Finn to leave the Church (and consequently be free from the duty of paying Church tax), the vast majority of the people remained members, regardless of their political leanings. In the early part of the 20th century, a number of Eastern Orthodox Finns became Evangelical Lutheran, choosing to have their children baptised as Evangelical Lutherans.
During World War II, the church was an important factor in Finnish nationalism. The common nationalist cry during the war was For the home, the religion and the Fatherland (, ). In addition, during the war, the church participated actively in social work, thereby coming closer to the labour movement.
Military chaplains, who shared the life of the common soldiers for several years, also grew closer to the life of the working class. At the war's end, these so-called brother-in-arms priests () continued their work among factory workers. Elsewhere in society, liturgical, family, and youth works emerged as new forms of church activity, and the position of laity within the Church was strengthened. The so-called fifth revivalist movement also began as a result of revivals experienced during the war. Martti Simojoki and Mikko Juva were two former military chaplains who became Finnish archbishops, their time in the office covering two decades.
In the 1960s, the church faced strong opposition from the radical left, who considered it an old-fashioned fortress of reaction and criticized the rudiments of the church's position within the state.
The 1966 blasphemy trial of novelist Hannu Salama became a cause célèbre for the antiestablishmentarian position. Salama was sentenced to three months in prison but placed on probation, before subsequently being pardoned by President Urho Kekkonen.
Another widely criticized aspect of the Finnish Church-State relationship was the prohibition of public dances and movie theaters on Saturdays preceding certain Sundays, a ban that remained in effect until 1968.
The Church responded to its unpopular situation by a program of modernization.