Finland became independent in 1917. In the following year a civil war broke out between “the reds” and “the whites,” and it ended with the victory of the “white” Finland. It was also a war of classes, and the clergy had taken sides with the whites. This guaranteed a strong position for the church in the 1920s and 1930s, but the connection with the working class remained cold. Information on the position of the church in the Soviet Union made the clergy even more suspicious.
A law dealing with religious freedom was promulgated in 1923, although it never caused the much feared mass exodus from the church; in 1923 less than 20,000 people left the church. Afterward the figure sank to a couple of thousand annually. Religious freedom thus secured the position of the church; it remained a people’s church, even though membership was voluntary.
The ecumenical movement reached Finland at the end of the nineteenth century through Christian student and youth movements. Finns were represented in the Life and Work Conference in Stockholm in 1925, but unofficially. Gustaf Johansson, the conservative archbishop of Turku until 1930, did not endorse the “worldly” movement, but after his retirement the situation changed. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland was one of the founding members of the LUTHERAN WORLD FEDERATION and the WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES and has carried on doctrinal dialogues with other churches, such as the Russian Orthodox Church. The dialogue with the Anglican Church was initiated in the 1930s, and the Porvoo Communion was agreed upon between 1989 and 1992.
The Winter War (1939–1940) against the Soviet Union united the Finnish people and healed the wounds of the civil war. The war—felt to be fought for “home, religion and fatherland”—strengthened the position of the church. Military chaplains saw that the soldiers were more religious than they had thought. On the other hand, the service activity of the church in a crisis removed old prejudices.
In the insecure post-World War II atmosphere the church came to be seen as protector of the national identity. In 1946 the Social Democratic party removed from its program the traditional goal of separating state and church and ending religious education in school. The church assumed new tasks such as family counseling. Social work expanded rapidly, as did youth work.
In the 1960s the Finnish church was branded undemocratic and conservative, but since the collapse of COMMUNISM at the end of the twentieth century a new interest in religion has been apparent. The old revival movements have become stronger. The interest of MASS MEDIA in religious life has increased. Churches still have their say in Finnish society. For example, when issues such as human dignity and HUMAN RIGHTS, the moral values of the nation, or development of the environment are discussed, the churches of Finland do participate vigorously with their own contributions and solutions.
At the beginning of the new millennium Finland was still de facto a country of one confession. Eightyfive percent of the population belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church. It is a state church, although the remaining bonds between state and church are very loose and the church would like to be called a people’s church rather than a state church. Church attendance is low as in other Scandinavian countries. Approximately 10 percent of church members attend a church service at least once a month. Ninety percent of babies are baptized, and 92 percent of the fifteen-year-old age group attend confirmation classes. Both numbers are higher than the membership figures of the church.
In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution and Finnish Independence (1917) the ties of the Finnish Orthodox Church with the patriarchate of Moscow were cut, and in 1923 the Finnish Orthodox Church received autonomous status under the patriarchate of Constantinople. During the Second World War some 70 percent of its members had to leave their homes. The period after the war was a period of vigorous rebuilding, with the state building churches, vicarages, and cemeteries. The Finnish Orthodox Church has about fifty thousand members.
The Roman Catholic diocese of Helsinki was established in 1955. It consists of seven parishes, with about eight thousand members, the majority of them living in Helsinki and the other major cities of southern Finland. The majority of priests and nuns come from the NETHERLANDS and POLAND.
Anglo-American Christianity spread to Finland during the nineteenth century, and Baptists, Methodists, the SALVATION ARMY, and SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST churches were established in the country. Their membership remains less than 1 percent of the total population. Pentecostal communities have approximately fifty thousand members.
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