The early 20th century saw the Church of Sweden (Svenska kyrkan) come under threat from the modernization of the Swedish society. As a reaction to this and a way to secure the survival of the church a number theologians came up with a theological framework for the folk church (folkkyrkotanken).The parish of Masthugget was one of the poorest in the entire diocese of Gothenburg in the beginning of the 20th century. This is where Gottfrid Klingner came to serve first as a pastor and later as the vicar for more than 30 years. In which way did his view on the church affect life for the inhabitants in his parish and how were his actions affected by the framework for the folk church? This paper shows that the practice of Klingner in Masthugget can be linked to many of the ideas associated to the folk church concept..

This study deals with the compulsory reading of the public announcements in churches during the eighteens century. The focus is on the diocese of Skara. The ambition to make a comparison between the parish of Skara and the parish of Gårdstånga, earlier investigated by Elisabeth Reuterswärd, failed due to few archives from the parish of Skara. My study takes a broader perspective of the signification of the announcements to the reverends and to the churchgoers. It was an obligation to the reverend to read, collect and save the announcements and the churchgoers were by law obligated to go to church every Sunday.

This report presents a thesis project at the School of Engineering, Jo?nko?pingUniversity, where the task has been to develop a proposal for a parish communitycentre for the Swedish church?s parish community in Bankeryd.Background1 st of November in 2004 the parish in Bankeryd appointed a special commissionof inquiry called Framtidsgruppen (Future Group), to analyse the parishcommunity?s different activities during the past 5 years and analyse the futureactivities and needs for the upcoming 5-10 years. This analysis would underlie theneeds of building a new centre for the parish community.Implementation, results and conclusionThe main focal points which this report is concentrated on has been to develop abuilding that is well suited for the activities, well adjusted for disabled persons andthe building shall be appealing in an architectural point of view.Based on the information provided from the parish community, studies ofliterature, reference objects and discussions with the contact person at the parishcommunity and the instructor of this project, the programming has beendeveloped. The building?s programming has been the source for the continuedwork with floor plans and the building design..

My aim was to get a deeper insight about the parish clerk and how this profession has changed over time in Sweden from the Middle Ages up to the eighteenth century. Who was the parish clerk? Is it possible to find out in what way his duties changed over time? The information mainly derives from written historical sources, such aslaws. It seems like the parish clerk in the countryside often was a layman whom had to be approved by the parish, the parish priest or the bishop. His position in the early Middle Ages seems to have taken the form of assistant to the priest, participating in the liturgy.

This study deals with the compulsory reading of the public announcements in churches during the eighteens century. The focus is on the diocese of Skara. The ambition to make a comparison between the parish of Skara and the parish of Gårdstånga, earlier investigated by Elisabeth Reuterswärd, failed due to few archives from the parish of Skara. My study takes a broader perspective of the signification of the announcements to the reverends and to the churchgoers. It was an obligation to the reverend to read, collect and save the announcements and the churchgoers were by law obligated to go to church every Sunday.

?Life on a delicate thread?Baptism and godparenting in Bottnaryd and Ulricehamn 1781-1783The aim of this study is to discover if there were differences between the baptism traditions maintained in a typical rural parish and in an urban town parish in the period 1781-1783 and to suggest possible reasons for any differences found. Baptism records from rural Bottnaryd parish and the town of Ulricehamn were studied and compared. In both communities, parents were anxious to have their child christened on the day of birth or the day after. They did not want to wait until the following Sunday, as church law prescribed. Infant mortality was high and if the child died before it was christened, it would not go to heaven.

The Church of Sweden had barely 6.5 million members in 2012. Just over 1% of the members visit a church service regularly every Sunday. The number of visitors in worship services has diminished continuously for a very long time. From 1990 to 2010, the annual number of visitors at the main worship services has decreased by 50% from 9 million to about 4.5 million. The service activities can still be maintained at the current level because the many passive members still pays their membership fee.

AbstractThe aim of this study is to examine how individuals, part of a rural Christian parish,express their religiosity and beliefs in a Swedish context. Furthermore this study seeksto understand these religious expressions through different views on social construction,secularization and the privatization perspective, such as lived religion, in particular. Byusing qualitative interviews with 8 individuals analyzed with the theories mentionedabove my results show that secularization has provided many individuals with aChristian identity, however, not necessarily a Christian faith. Instead several of theparticipants show a self-developed religious expression not automatically connectedwith Christian religious practices. One of the participants has, despite a Christiansocialization, developed a non-religious identity.

In 2010 the Church of Sweden initiated a project to elaborate a new handbook for church services and church documents. This handbook draft was ready to be tested in 2012. The first Sunday of Advent 2012 the church launched an extensive trial for the draft for the new handbook; this handbook draft will now be tested in a selected variety of Swedish parishes until Judgment Sunday 2013. Upon which the Church of Sweden will evaluate and respond to the comments and reactions from the Swedish congregations in terms of the handbooks proposal. My main goal with this paper is that I?m hoping to be able to examine where the need for a new handbook for church services originates.

This is a chronological comparative study about opinions expressed in the Church of Sweden when the parishes want to change the inside of a church building. Certain concepts in the study are church, holy and holiness.Architecture plays an important role in the design of a church building. Some traditionaltheological terms that should be considered essential are Via sacra, Domus Dei, DomusEcclesiae. My focus is churches from the 19th century. Today the buildings change in a lotof ways; theologically, practically, economically etc.During the 20th century the churches have got a lot of new objects to use in the services andin the church building.

This thesis examines the regional part of the Church of Sweden. Existing as a Lutheran evangelical church since the declaration in Uppsala in 1593, the Church of Sweden became completely separate from the state in the year 2000. Apart from a small piece of legislation by the Swedish parliament, the now former state controlled church were to act on their own. This development can be seen as a result of several decades of discussions. The author is raising the question about the roll and function of bishops and dioceses in the Church of Sweden.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how Irish people on a rural location practice their faith in everyday life. The intention is also to find out what strategies my interviewees use to negotiate the abuse scandal and what their thoughts on the Catholic Church are. The material mainly consists of interviews with seven people part of a rural parish in Ireland. My research also entails smaller observations and conversations in the homes of the participants.The results indicate that they all consider themselves religious, however not all Catholic. All of the participants integrate their religion in everyday life.

The Christianisation of Sweden is not much about religion. Instead, there is much to be gained by looking at it as a colonial situation with changing social identities and power structures. This is evident by the prevalence of hybridisations in the archaeological material.Some of the material categories that show the clearest example of changes are the burials from the 9th century up until about AD 1200. This is exemplified by two different Iron Age burial sites in Stockholm county, Uppland, Sweden: RAÄ 59, Valsta, in Norrsunda parish and RAÄ 40, Lilla Ullevi, in Bro parish; They both show hybridisation by involving older elements with newer ones during a time period when the church was not quite established in the region yet.The Christianisation of Sweden is a colonial situation, but the research tradition has often also used a colonial lens from the 19th and early 20th century in its approach to the period. This means that the same questions, interpretations and conclusions, often based on written sources, have been continuously reused for a long time, which has had consequences for the archaeology in Sweden..

Industrialisation, modernisation and urbanisation are common words used to describe an evolving community. General patterns are often linked to the meaning of the above words but can these patterns be applied to individual parishes on the agricultural countryside?The purpose of this study is to seek moving patterns and how they change during the 19th century in the parish of Västra Eneby, municipal of Kinda, Östergötland. The main thesis is that the study will show an increasing intensity of translocations over the parish border towards the end of the 19th century.The study is based on material from Västra Eneby?s church archives to establish statistical data beginning with 1809 and with a sample rate of 10 years, ending with 1909.

There is a legend about a church on the island of Orust in the small village of Tegneby. The legend tells a story about a hidden church bell in the mysterious hole in the creek.?During a war long time ago, people were afraid that the King Gustav Vasa would take their church bell to use as material for cannons. So the people in Tegneby hid their beloved church bell in a hole in the creek below the church and there it remained for seven years?  (main legend)The aim of this paper was to find out if this legend still is alive in the area of Tegneby.