Crisis of Faith: Sweden’s Liberal Church Faces Hundreds of Closures

Sweden, Vasterbotten County, Sorsele, Open gate of rustic church
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Chris Tomlinson

As fewer and fewer Swedes attend churches belonging to the Church of Sweden, it faces closing hundreds of churches in the coming years, with many likely being sold off.

The Church of Sweden faces having to sell hundreds of churches in the coming years and has already been forced to sell over a hundred due to a lack of income as the Swedish population participates less and less in its services.

In both Västra Götaland and the Diocese of Gothenburg churches have been sold simply to cover costs. Other churches may need to be amalgamated in order to bear the brunt of future costs, SVT reports.

Annika Malm, chair of the church council in Bollebygd’s pastorate, spoke out about the recent selling of a hundred-year-old church in Olsfors that had been built by the people of Olsfors themselves.

“We fully understand that this stirs up emotions, this is not something that anyone in the business wants to make a decision about,” Malm said, while local resident Margareta Nyström added: “People have given up, nobody cares about this church anymore, it’s been allowed to decay.”

The problems within the Church of Sweden are not new, as a report from 2019 detailed that since 2000 over a hundred churches had been closed permanently due to declining church attendance and individuals moving from rural parts of the country to larger cities and towns.

The future for the Church of Sweden looks increasingly bleak as another report from August of last year revealed that the number of children being baptised into the Church of Sweden had hit an all-time low.

The decline in church attendance and membership has coincided with the Church of Sweden becoming increasingly liberal and progressive, with one Swedish priest vowing not to perform marriage ceremonies for straight couples because other priests are allowed to refuse to carry out same-sex weddings.

The Church of Sweden has even described itself as “trans” in a letter written last year, stating: “The church is also made up of transgender people. Therefore, the Church could be described as trans.”

A top theologian in the Church of Sweden also claimed last year that Christians could see Mohammed as a prophet.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.

 

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