Child Baptism at Church of Sweden Hit All-Time Low

Church stands empty and ready for wedding. The guests have not yet arrived at the church b
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Chris Tomlinson

The number of children being baptised into the Church of Sweden has hit an all-time low, with church members becoming concerned for its future.

The coronavirus pandemic and its restrictions have led to a rapid decline in child baptisms in the country’s state church, but the fall in child baptism has been on a downward trend for years before the pandemic began.

According to a report from the Swedish broadcaster SVT, just 28,429 children were baptised by the church in 2020, down from 42,267 the year before. So far this year to July, just 10,347 baptisms have taken place, indicating a possible new record low for 2021 if the trend continues.

Marika Markovits, dean of the Stockholm Cathedral Assembly, commented on the figures, saying: “For the Church of Sweden, a large drop of members means that we will not be able to be a church in the same way as we are today.”

SVT notes that in the last 20 years, the Church of Sweden had lost 1.6 million members, a huge number in a country that has a population of just over ten million people.

David Thurfjell, a Swedish religious historian, noted that the decline could be explained by the fact Sweden has become a more multi-religious country in recent decades.

The decline of the Church of Sweden has coincided with its embracing of woke progressive ideology in recent years.

In 2019, Stockholm openly gay Archbishop Eva Brunne stated that she felt she had more in common with Muslims than conservative Christians.

That same year, the St. Pauli church in Malmö placed a pro-LGBT painting depicting the Garden of Eden by its altar in which gay couples are represented.

While the painting garnered some controversy, it was not until LGBT activists became angered that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was depicted as transgender that the painting was actually removed.

The Church of Sweden has also clearly expressed pro-mass migration views in the past, but a female priest went even further in February 2020, smuggling an illegal migrant out of a deportation centre in a large suitcase.

A court later convicted her and another female accomplice, sentencing her to daily fines and probation.

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